Dec 6th: The substantial snowfall of early October, which had been snowmobile packed in many places, has left a thin but sturdy base on much of the higher elevation trails, enabling some grooming and tracksetting to occur. Lower elevation trails have an extremely thin base, often 5cm's or less of dry snow and some bare ground in places. Many early season natural hazards exist throughout the trail system (generally many more at lower elevations and further north), including thin spots, exposed dirt and rocks, bumps and uneven surfaces, exposed brush, and possible open water or ice. Use extra caution when skiing.

All trails groomed on Dec 3rd have some early season natural hazards throughout, and these trails are not fully trackset. Elk Pass has a very thin base at the parking lot, improving with elevation- thin spots and some rocks exist, mainly within the first 2 km's of trail; watch for the many rollers (from Elk Pass being constructed in to the summer High Rockies Trail) on the big hill south of Blueberry junction- these will get flattened out as snow allows. The lowest km was not trackset. Blueberry Hill has a reasonable base but contains some brush and uneven surfaces- the top 150m is thin with rock just below the snow and was groomed only. Tyrwhitt is very rough in places with all manner of early season hazards throughout, and was not trackset. Pocaterra generally has an ok base above Packers but is extremely thin in most places north of Packers. Hydroline contains some brush and the trackset is poorly formed in places. Patterson has lots of exposed brush. Whiskey Jack was groomed from Pocaterra to just above the top of the steepest hill on Nov 17th (and fully snowmobile rolled on Dec 6th) but the hill below the snowcat grooming is quite rocky and the base generally thins towards the bottom. The southernmost 500m of Lookout was groomed on Nov 17th from Hydroline to just above the creek, which was capped but is likely again open water; the remainder of Lookout has some areas with a thin base with rocks and gravel, and was not groomed. Some of the middle trails have been snowmobile packed (and Wheeler has been snowmobile rolled), but as noted above the base is extremely thin with bare ground in places. Note: Fat biking is not permitted on this trail system.

- Comment last updated: Dec-06 5PM