Maybe today was my last ski to the Fire Tower, but that's what I thought after March 30. Inspired by the XC Ottawa reports and the clearing today at noon I headed up to P12.
Driving through Old Chelsea and past Fortune-Skyline there was no snow on even the north-facing hillsides. Same thing along Meech Lake and at P12. But experience has taught me that even if you have to walk up to 24 there might be good skiing. Even so I was surprised to be switching from shoes to ski boots only 700 metres up the trail, and the skiis only came off once from there to the Fire Tower.
It was pretty slow (classic, waxless) but the sun was great, the temperature was great. There were three times as many short bare sections on the way back and several new places where it made sense to remove skiis. No sign of other skiers, but it looked like a big group of hikers had arranged to do a Wolf Trail, Ridge Road, Luskville Falls traverse earlier in the day. I'm not sure that you could reasonably ski it tomorrow afternoon, everything was melting so fast. Not much chance of skiing on the weekend.
Some pics...
Good snow 700m up from P12.
Great snow heading to 40.
Pretty good coverage along Ridge near Wolf Trail.
Lots of snow past McKinstry...and hiker tracks.
Pretty good approaching the Fire Tower.
At the Fire Tower the snow fizzles.
"Vauhti Waxes. . . the conditions are always right!"