We're certainly being blessed with great, late season snow. After yesterdays rain - which must have turned to snow early last night - the condition were near perfect again today in the park. Skied a loop out of P7 sampling bit of everything. Up Ridge and then out 17 and 11 before cutting over to Shilly Shally and taking 12 up to Burma. Then back to Fortune valley on 32 and home on trail 4 and Ridge road. About 10 or 15cm of snow was down on top of a crusty base that had probably seen alot of rain and then started to freeze up. Saw a couple of spots in low areas were water had likely pooled during yesterdays rain that had then frozen solid (like where 30 and 8 meet halfway up from P7). They were easy to ski around as long as you knew they were there on your way down. My grip seemed a little warm for the -6C weather but not too bad and the glide was excellent.

On the backcountry trails I found poling a bit of a chore. Poles would sink through the fluff and then periodically break through the crust below and sink 10 or 12 inches without much warning. Made it difficult to use the poles for propulsion but the steeper climbs seemed to be better compacted below the powder so only a bit of a problem poling on the flats and slight inclines. A little slush hidden below the powder on Bourgeois Lake but was able to follow someone elses tracks and dodge around it.

Ridge and Burma were in great shape. Fresh gooming had been done today. While maybe Burma was a little soft for skating the classic was great. Parkways were also in excellent shape for both skate and classic. The classic tracks seemed to have periodic bits of icy corduroy in the bottom of the track. Might be aggressive on the grip wax in the long term but I wasn't on them too long to have a problem and it didn't seem to affect my grip.

Met a family of snowshoers on the Lake trail as I headed into the Fortune valley. They had "broken trail" out from Camp Fortune. While I'd perfer if they didn't walk on the ski trails I imagine its hard to stop people and where I met them it didn't seem to make much difference - at least not on this day and these conditions. Skied past the race trails at Fortune and they looked to all have been groomed though I didn't ski on them for any distance. Should be good week of skiing ahead.