There was not a lot of snow in K-Country on November 9, 2024 but we found some at Burstall Pass. It was a long skin up to the pass area but the snow was nice and we got a couple of goods laps. We didn’t go too high up because of the foggy conditions which made it tough to see up the slopes.
Our route is the red line recorded on the map below using GaiaGPS. We started at the upper right side and skinned up the trail about 7 km and ended up climbng at total of 460 meters.
Trip Report
We arrived at the Burstall Pass trail head as the sun was rising across the valley.
Dan set off up the trail. There wasn’t a lot of snow but we were happy to be able to skin right from the parking lot.
On the drive down from Canmore, there was little snow along the side of the road and we were worried about having to hike the start of the trail.
The first part of the trail, above the creek, was fairly well covered. The trail here is wide and easy to skin.
Further along, on the flats just before the open marsh, the snow thinned.
Crossing the flat marshy area, looking up the valley on the right at Robertson Glacier.
After the flat marshy section, the trail climbs more steeply.
Above the steep climb, the quality and quantity of the snow improved a lot. It was heavy and wet but provided good coverage.
We were excited, anticipating some good early-season turns.
Dan set a nice uptrack on the slopes.
He dug a pit to assess the stability of the snow. It looked good and we skied a couple of laps on mellow slopes.
It was a long way in but ended up being worth the slog. Nice turns so early in the season are gold! Great start to season.
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Have you skied Burstall Pass? What did you think?
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