Megan and I just got back from a pretty enjoyable trip to the Haig glacier for the last 6 days. As you can see from our pictures, it is a pretty spectacular place. We were also lucky to have great weather for most of the week.
For those of you that don't know, the ski training facilities at the glacier are operated by the Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA), an organization which uses funds generated by the 1988 Olympics for athlete development.
Athletes who ski at the glacier enjoy both moon-like scenery where the camp buildings are located, as well as skiing in all kinds of condtions on the glacier itself, which is about a 45 minute hike uphill from the camp.
As I mentioned, we had good weather for skiing most of the time, but it certainly changed quickly more than once. On the day that we hiked in it was about 20C and sunny. For two days we did mostly crust skiing with temperatures hovering around zero. The next day there was hail mixed with rain. The day after that it was snowing so hard that we couldn't see more than five metres ahead of us on the hike up to ski, and we ended up having to turn around because it was unsafe for grooming (it can be relatively easy to drive a groomer or to ski into a crevasse when you can't see where you are going!). Finally, on the last day, we were treated to fresh powder skiing conditions in sunshine and -2C. Needless to say, this kept things entertaining. It also kept us constantly changing our clothes.
Thanks to Team Jaques of Rocky Mountain Ski Racers for letting us join them for the camp, and also to Mary Waddell for being a fantastic volounteer cook.
"Sustaining People in Motion"