Official Cataract Creek Snowmobile Area Thread for 2018/19 season

[tucker_98]

We made it to the bottom of raspberry where it meets cataract and said fawk this. Buddy on the yellow wrapped sled lost a bolt out his A arm. Tried to ride the road back to Ether but kept getting heat codes. I grab a ride back with a couple guys that stopped for us on the road.

worst day ever

Jesus. Sorry to hear that. Definitely not a good day on sleds out there today but I think you take the cake.

 

[Sledderglen]

Guess the pictures from last weekend would be a good clue on snow conditions. Way up and back most of the time OK BUT you still have to get there.
Thanks for the snow report and condition report.
Club is still working on their OH&S plan to be approved before we can access area. We are working on the plan.
Guess we need to be doing some snow dancing

 

[Sledderglen]

Rode the NW section with Calgarysledguy today, spent most of our time clearing trees. Area needs at least 20cm more snow, most areas are bare or close to with some exceptions. Snow is much lower than previous seasons at opening time. Tighter trails with tree coverage were mostly ok.

Left from Etherington and tried getting back to Fording without success, no snow and no traction as the hills get steeper (rocks are slippery). Lots of trees on the way were cleaned up, hopefully there aren't too many more past where we gave up.

Lots of BIG trees were down on Etherington Trail forcing people to turn around. This is now clear and was the best snow we found all day (8-10" of coverage on average).

Screenshot below yellow areas were pretty good, red was really bad. Green we didn't make it to. It sure scratched an itch but definitely won't be going back until we get a few more good dumps.

Anyone leave from Cataract and head south?//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181202/45e06125efc4860ff47460ae4bd41c59.jpg

You guys gave it a good try. Thanks for the excellent report complete with outlined map. Best condition report for the season yet.
Thank

 

[matforwhat8]

Yeah wasnt good as expected for sure... Im one of the dude in the white Ram that gave U a lift ... pray for snow!!!

 

[JZ1]

Yeah wasnt good as expected for sure... Im one of the dude in the white Ram that gave U a lift ... pray for snow!!!

Thx again for the ride. Would have taken the rest of the day to get back with the over heating from lack of snow

 

[Kaz Dog]

Some weather information, from Alberta Agriculture station at their Lost Creek Station - some snow came in the last 7 days, but is it enough to get going better?

 

[Kaz Dog]

This is for Highwood House weather station, at the junction of the 940 & 541 roads, where you turn south to Cataract - looks pretty bleak

 

[Kaz Dog]

The above information is found here: http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/alberta-weather-data-viewer.jsp

All stations I am looking at between Cataract and to Crownest Pass show snow mainly falling on Dec. 1, with some of the stations showing a bit more on the 2nd, and 3rd.

Looks to be way more snow south of Corbin, B.C.

 

[calgarysledguy]

Maybe 3 inches totally since December 1 when we were out there. (According to Agriculture station ) I would not waste any time or gas going out there. Twice as much snow in Calgary then out there on December 1st at 5pm

I wore 60% off a set of skag's in 21miles

 

[Billy Boy]

Okay here goes my snow report; If you go by the 90 day fog theory we should be starting with snow the week of the 10th through to the end of the month. Now where did I put my aluminum hat!!!

 

[Beezer]

Hey gents, great posts and thanks to the entrepid explorers who checked things out so we can have first hand info! I’m new to the thread and live in Fort McMurray, we are faring a little better on our trail system though not by much, trails are pretty rough but are at least snow covered for the most part! Anyhow, heading down your way for Christmas and really looking to do some sledding while I’m down there. Anyone with any info on anywhere rideable would be much appreciated. Thanks again for the solid posts boys!

pray for snow!

Beezer

 

[Kaz Dog]

Snow level still looks bad currently, as we head into the weekend. Highwood House weather station (6 kms. north of Etherington) has recorded 0 snow in the last 10 days, and the graph below is for Lost Creek station, south of the very south of the trails/Snow Vehicle P.L.U.Z. (very low total accumulation, not even showing what has evaporated). Snow still looks best south of Corbin, B.C., and if the snow came today, maybe even Golden, B.C. is the place for a visit.

 

[Salmo]

A tip from someone that deals with water/precipitation data all year long, the snow pillow stations are more informative than the standard precip charts for a few reasons.

The snow pillow stations report the amount of snow water equivalent (how much water would result if all the snow suddenly melted) and thus a better indication of what is actually on the ground. The 75th and 25th quartile lines represent the 25 and 75% bounds for the period of record (i.e. the line where 25% of the data would be below, low snow years, in the case of the 25th quartile). Last year's data presents a reference that can be related to clearly.

All that being said the snow cover sucks so far this year, we had double the amount of snow on the ground at this time last year but there has been a little bump in the last week. I am dying to break in my new sled, but don't want to break anything doing it.

PS - These stations datasets are an excellent way to impress at parties come spring when the inevitable flood discussions come up.

 

[Sledderglen]

The report from the trapper that is out there. Rod talked to Scott and told him snow is still skimpy on the south end of system. I have been watch the agricultural site and the East side has received a bit of snow and the West side better a day ago.
The club is still locked out till we get the next batch of info into the government. WE are working on it and will get it done. Until then we are out as a club doing trail work including grooming. I know it is not a good year for us either but the snow will come.

 

[tucker_98]

The report from the trapper that is out there. Rod talked to Scott and told him snow is still skimpy on the south end of system. I have been watch the agricultural site and the East side has received a bit of snow and the West side better a day ago.
The club is still locked out till we get the next batch of info into the government. WE are working on it and will get it done. Until then we are out as a club doing trail work including grooming. I know it is not a good year for us either but the snow will come.

Snow still skimpy on the south end - is that indicating that things are now OK on the north/west end? Or they just had info on the south?

Getting itchy but don't want to lose the other half of my skags finding out! Lol.

 

[Ronaha]

Anyone have a snow conditions report?

 

[Dmas88]

Took a quick ride out today. Pretty thin still at cataract staging for a couple km out. Got into trees and it was mostly pretty good. Still need a bunch of snow to start playing more. Okotoks definitely got more snow than out there. We went south, not too sure about baril, but I'm guessing pretty thin.

 

[Snow67]

Well went to take loo today and we went for ride and was better then I thought it was going to be but still needs more snow down low the trails to the south were better for sure lots more snow in the south still lots of rocks and and stuff to be found but all in all had worse days out there

 

[cmas]

Thanks for the update . How was the staging area and the initial start out of Cataract? THinking of giving it a try but a little worried about the pain before the gain.

 

[Snow67]

4-6" out of parking lot if we are lucky all way to the big bridge on lost creek road lets hope its gets some tonight or friday night