Prairie Mountain Loop in Winter

Prairie Mountain is one of our closest hills. At well under 8,000 ft, it's not really much of a mountain at all - but the treeline is below the summit, so that's that. It's a good steep hike that can be done at pretty much any time of year. What is not done so often is the loop that goes off the back of the mountain - in fact, I've yet to see a reference to this in any guide or web log. We did it in February - that's a good time to do it since you are well off trail, and in thick forest for some of the descent, so it was nice not to be worrying about bears.







Full Photo Set & Hike Info

Return to the hand breaker: West Bragg Creek ski trails

On April 25th last year I went Nordic skiing on a hot day (over 20C) at West Bragg Creek. The trail was beyond my abilities, and about 2 km from the end, I hit a patch of gravel exposed by the rapidly melting snow. Pitching headlong down the slope, I punched through the snowbase to a perfectly-positioned cobble. Result: spiral fracture of 3rd metacarpal, right at the start of the climbing and cycling season.

Nine months later Lou and I returned to the scene of the accident and skiied a couple of loops at West Bragg Creek. On our second day back, I tried the same hill again.....and in the elation of making it to the bottom unscathed, I hit a bump and fell. This time, fortunately, there was no lurking rock under the snow.

West Bragg Creek is a nice place to head to from Calgary for some free skiing, thanks to the efforts of the local track setting group. You can download a trail map here, and see trail conditions here. Also, I took some pics of our return visit.

Kananaskis Interpretive Canyon

This little ice climbing venue doesn't get much exposure: it is not featured in the existing guide, but it does get discussed occasionally online.

I put together a sketch of the available lines (left), before I had climbed much Rockies ice - it's overgraded to be honest; the line marked WI4- is a short and simple WI3 at most. It's a nice place for a quiet half-day, although it's quite the drive if you live in the southern regions of Calgary.

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