The route this year was different from previous years - we used to have to ski up and over a big hill on days 2 and 3 of the old route, and lots of people didn't like that - cross-country skis have no edges, which makes going downhill a little difficult and generally leads to a lot of crashing! This year, we followed this big loop around the other side of the park...
Click on it to see a close up - we started at the yellow circle on the right, crossed Lac Munroe, then went North to the Liteau hut - the one in the blue circle at the top... a mere 13km for the first day (about 3 hours including a quick lunch stop), mostly because we didn't get to the park till 11am (it takes 3 hours to drive there), and weren't on the trail till almost 1pm (hey, you try getting a group of 17 to do anything quickly - its a proven fact that inertia increases along with group size!). The next day was about 17km to the next hut, followed by 22km on Sunday to get back to the cars, and more importantly, the hot showers at the visitors' centre! :)The trip was great - my balance on the skis was a little off due to lack of practice (the group usually goes skiing every Thursday night, which I've had to miss out on), but not so much so that I couldn't maintain a decent pace... I was also a little hampered by the blisters that were forming on my heels, underneath the second pair of socks and the supposedly-preventative duct tape and blister plasters that we'd stuck on my heels. stupid rental boots! But at least the slower pace gave me more time to stop and take photos!
this was on the first day - the coldest of the three, with a temperature of about -15 or so, plus windchill from the icy winds that were blowing. Normally I don't ski with a scarf on, but I was happy to have it on Friday, especially during the downhill sections!We had fondue for dinner the first night...
Here's Duncan conjuring back the flames to reheat the hardening cheese!
On some of these trips you get lucky and can save a few kilometres by leaving the trail and trekking across a lake instead...
Here's the cabin at the other side of this lake
stand on the balcony, and this is your view (pretend its a panorama shot, moving right to left)
some other shots from the trail...
mikey carrying most of our stuff, since he was trying to limit my blisters by taking as much weight as possible out of my pack...this is Rivière Caché, living up to its name beneath all that snow and ice
one of the lakes we skied past...
lunch stop on the last day... it was so warm we could've been suntanning!
and finally, a group photo from Sunday morning, slightly exposed thanks to all that fab sun!
1 comment:
Beautiful scenery. It's looking like winter is over here already. Enjoy the rest of your trip. x
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