Miner's Gulley, aka Town Gulley, aka Canmore Coulior, is calling! That is, as long as Avy conditions remain below considerable, or else a group devised Plan-B could be in order.
This is an easy, friendly paced ascent up to near Ha Ling Peak and then over and down to explore and ski Miner's Gully.
Trail head is the Goat's Head Creek trail-head above Canmore, where we park our cars. Total travel in is about 3 km with 750 v-m elevation gain. Some of the well traveled trail up to the run may be by boot-packing, depending upon conditions. This leads to an awesome 1000 v-m run right down to the Highline Trail and then down into the Canmore dog park.
A video gives some perspective:
https://vimeo.com/168150107
You must be able to ski black runs confidently, it may not need to be pretty or fast, but there are some steep sections. No real "no fall" danger zones to worry about though.
With no long skin-in or skin-out, it might be a relatively short day, allowing a celebratory brew and late lunch on a pub deck in Canmore, where we just might to be able to admire our ski lines from. ;-)
We either have two cars, one down at the dog park and one at the trail-head, or we grab a taxi cab up to bring down our car from the trail-head.
I've never done this tour; it will be exploratory. Perhaps someone who has skied it will join us. It shouldn't be hard to find, though. We may just need to be extra wary of any new storm slab or wind slab near ridge top. If its a go, ski one at a time from safety spot to safety spot.
Apparently, near the bottom of the run, one can ski skier right through trees to miss the small 2 to 3 m high or so high cliffs which may have a rope to climb down. There should be enough snow to ski around them little cliffs.
If Avy conditions do not cooperate, there are plenty of Plan-B's that we can consider as a group.
Required Items to Bring:
The usual Avy safety gear (shovel, probe & 3-antennae beacon, etc), skis or split boards, skins, warm clothes, sunscreen, sunshades, water and lunch, etc
Recommended Items to Bring:
Your big smile.
How to Get There:
Event Directions:
Trail-head is the Goat's Head Creek trail head parking lot above Canmore.
Carpool Departure Time:
06:10 AM
Carpool Location:
West Valley Carpool Parking Lot
Carpool Directions:
See the link: https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0878218,-114.239188,17z
(On Hwy#1 west, pass Stoney trail and then take the Valley Ridge Blvd underpass under Hwy#1; once on the south side of Hwy#1, head east past the New Victory Church, and continue east about another 150 m to the West Valley Carpool Parking Lot).
Notes:
Please send a brief ski resume where I will share the basic into with the party so that our party can know our level of experience and safety training (unless you already have it posted in the online membership network). AST-1 as a minimum is recommended.
Any comments are appreciated!
Regarding the descent(s), it is assumed that you can competently ski black diamond runs at the resort; don't worry, I doesn't have to be pretty and we wont be doing much downhill racing anyhow. ;-)
Hopefully, we can get a party with good experience together to enjoy the day. Thank you.
Cheers,
Wayne G//
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Registration for this event closed on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 07:00 PM.