Black Prince - season's first visit

Yesterday, we cross-country skied at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (PLPP)- specifically from Boulton Bridge, up Wiskeyjack, over Tywritt, Elk Pass, and out on Fox and Boulton Creek (new trail). What a beautiful day!! Blue skies, no wind, great snow, and about -1C.  It's about an hour and a quarter to PLPP from Canmore, and worth the drive. Conditions were better than anytime last year.

Today, three of us headed into Black Prince in Kananaskis (an hour from Canmore), for some alpine touring. There was supposed to be a pretty good snowfall, but I the storm is either coming tonight, or it's not coming in any big way. First thing we encountered in the parking lot is the car wash bull moose - loves that salt on your car! Next was the stream crossing - no bridge yet! Choice is between a picnic table dropped into the middle of the creek (worked OK on the way back), or a dubious crossing over thin logs dropped in place (not really recommended). After that we cruised the usual route to the BP trees. However, conditions were fairly stiff due to sun, wind and warm temps (yesterday).

Instead we toured looker's left through a few gullies, towards the route to Purple Knob. The light was not optimal, and we ended up skiing the big gully below the col to Purple Knob, and then another run up the big slide path towards Mt Warspite. Great temps and no wind all day. Snow was so-so, but great for November!