Estin to Gates not possible in deep snow Mar 23, 2016
Estin to Gates not possible in deep snow Mar 23, 2016
We skiied up to Estin from Sylvan Lake on Mar 22 over icy crusted snow and were delighted to see the snow begin that evening. However, the 12+ inches we got through the night proved to be too much for our group of 3 to reach Gates the next day. We reached the intersection with the road back to Sylvan Lake and assessed our current rate of travel, the next 6 miles to Gates, the continuing snow, and the 10 miles planned for Thursday back to Sylvan Lake. We decided not to press on to Gates since "success" would only give us a longer slog the next day, through increasingly deeper snow, and not all members of the group could maintain the needed pace. In the event, it took 4 hours to ski back down to Sylvan Lake taking turns breaking trail, which wasn't surprising given the conditions. We hope to reach Gates on a future trip...