Yesterday was delight - today was a dud. It started with high ambitions to do the Wakefield Triangle - a rite-of-passage for any ski season - i.e., the ski season hasn't really begun until you've done the WT. Gary and Jo-Ann had a blast doing an extended WT a week ago.

To start with I missed the turnoff for P17 and rather driving 3 km before I could turn around I did an immediate change of plan and headed for P19. The new plan was to do the Taylor Lake loop and then to go up to Lusk Lake.

None of the trails, in the Lac Philippe area, have been trackset - conditions are old firm tracksetting covered with 2 cm of cold, high-humidity new snow. The tracks were skied in but were quite slow - in the open areas the tracks were wind-blown. Going around the #55 loop there had been one skier ahead of me. By the time I got to #54 to Lusk Lake I felt that I had been slogging rather than skiing so I gave up on Lusk Lake and headed back to P19. There is a good base on the long hill on #55 (no rocks showing); however, the underlying tracksetting has a single track, for the total length of the hill, which constricts the space for downhill control.

There were a few skaters; however, they did not seem to be having much joy.

Other than the over-nighters, there were very skiers out. On #55 I was alone until I got to Renaud.

If you're heading for P17 be quite careful, it's easy to miss. It's about 100 m past the new position of the traffic circle but it's hard to see. It's hidden by a tangle of construction equipment, dirt piles, and high snowbanks with a very narrow entrance - also there's not much in the way of signage.