Outdoor Video Magazine

There is some excellent skiing to be had right within the city limits, and some amazing skiing to be had a short drive outside. Trail reports for in and around Edmonton can be found here.

In the City
Goldbar
Location: Off 101st Ave, 0.5km east of 50th Street.
Goldbar is the best place to go in Edmonton in my opinion. It has a good network of 12km of trails, ranging from easy to hard. There are some long, steep climbs and some gentle climbs and some flat. All trails are skating and classical.

Hawrelak Park & River Valley
Location: By Groat Road over the river.
There are two loops within the park itself, the perimeter loop (2.6km) and the inner loop (2km). Both are easy, the outer is classic only and the interior is both skate and classic. From Hawrelak Park is possible to take some nice groomed classic trails along the river valley. You can go 1.5km east to Emily Murphy Park (nice and easy). Or you can go 3.5km along a harder, more interesting trail to Whitemud, where it is possible to take another trail along Whitemud Creek right to Snow Valley ski hill. This trail has some steep hills in the section along the river valley section.

Kinsmen
Location Kinsmen Sports Centre underneath highlevel bridge on 109th Street.
This area is more for training than recreational skiing as there is just a 2km intermediate loop (classic) and a 1.5km beginner loop (skating and classic).

Terwillegar Park
Location: Riverbend at the base of Rabbit Hill Road.
There is a 4.6km beginner loop for classic and skating along with a more difficult area of hill trails in the southern end of the park that are for classical only.

This page has more information along with maps for some of the areas mentioned above.

Outside the City

Elk Island National Park
Location: 35km East of Edmonton on the Yellowhead.
Hayburger, Simmons, Shirley Lake, Moss Lake, Beaver Pond, Tawayik, and Wood Bison trails may be groomed for Cross-country skiing. Although in my experience this doesn’t happen often. The trails are suitable for ungroomed skiing though. The terrain is similar to Blackfoot with nice rolling hills, aspen forests and lakes. Look out for the bison though. Moose are also more common here than Blackfoot, and cougars have apparently recently moved into the park.

Strathcona Wilderness Centre
Location: About 25km East of Edmonton on the Yellowhead, then take Range Road 212 south.
If you are a beginner skier, then SWC may be a good choice for a place to go outside of Edmonton. However, for anyone else driving the distance you would be better driving an extra 10-15mins and going to Elk Island or Blackfoot instead. SWC is a little bit too plain and is not quite in the same wilderness setting. There are 12km of groomed cross-country ski trails. Rentals also available.

Blackfoot/Cooking Lake
Location: 40km east of Edmonton. Head 30km east of Sherwood Park on Highway 16 then go south on Range Rd 210 where 3 access points are signed.
Trail report: 922-4676 (tape)
This is by far the best cross-country skiing area within easy driving of Edmonton. Many people consider it’s skiing to be among the best in CANADA in terms of terrain. The scenery does not compare to the Rockies in my mind, and I would prefer lower-quality skiing and better views personally. Having said that, Blackfoot it still very pretty, with rolling Aspen hills and many small lakes. The trails themselves are perfect. A huge network of trails makes for seemingly infinite possibilities of loops of any length without backtracking. The undulating terrain means no long, herringbone ascents (nothing longer than a minute) but also no flat, monotonous areas. There are 65km of groomed cross-country trails including 32km of skating along with 35km of backcountry trails. Be warned, the access roads are never plowed so can be pretty nasty after a dump of snow. Take a shovel and some strong friends to push you out.

Length: 18km
Time: 6-7 hrs
Book: David Thompson Highway - A Hiking Guide
Elevation: 1365m-2515m
Date done: June 3rd 2006
Effort: High
Rating: 7/10
Map: 83 C/1 Whiterabbit Creek

This is a nice hike up to a high-level ridge with some good views in the Nordegg/Lake Abraham area. Park at Two O’Clock Creek campground on Highway #11 22km East of the Banff Park Boundary. Its a nice easy (well not physically easy, but technically easy) to get up really high in some nice alpine terrain.

The first part of the hike is stiff climb up through forest along side a nice creek that deepens to a bit of a gorge. This steep path eventually brings you out onto the crest of a ridge above the treeline. There are awesome views of the North Saskatchewan river and the surrounding rocky peaks. The path then becomes a slightly less steep climb along the ridge to the high point marked by a cairn. The views here are spectacular and you really feel high up compared to everything else around.

To follow the route, you must now retrace your steps back to the campground.

If you are very fit and get here early enough, a superb option would be to carry on along the ridge, descending to a saddle, and then follow the line of the ridge up the steep shoulder of the mountain in front of you. I think it would take around an hour and a half more to reach this summit, but it would be an excellent side-trip.

An alternative route back is possible, if like me you hate retracing your steps. From the summit of the ridge where the cairn is, instead of descending the ridge you came up, start making your way down into the grassy valley on the west side, aiming for the ridge parallel to the one you came up. This is a gorgeous area with many alpine flowers. Once on the ridge stick to the East side and look for an avalanche shoot that appears just at the start of the treeline. It is possible to descend here fairly easily through some rough scree to the creek below. From here follow the creek all the way along to where you originally crossed it on your hike up, and follow the path back to the campground. The creek is fine to hike along in low water levels, if you don’t mind numerous crossings and some wet feet and some stumbling. I had fun taking some good falls down the creek and ending up jumping in thigh deep in freezing cold water brrrrrrr. My girlfriend at the time found this hilarious. This is rough terrain because it is not a path. Don’t attempt in high water.

Book Links

David Thompson Highway - A Hiking Guide

As a member of the ACC (Alpine Club Canada), you get free access to some good talks. As part of the Edmonton section of the club, last night I went to a talk by British photographer/wilderness explorer John Dunn. It was awesome. John specializes in arctic expeditions and his done over 7500km with a sled on his back. Not bad, John.

This particular lecture series, John was talking about three trips that he’s done round Devon Island in Northern Canada. The trips were particularly interesting in that they were trying to go round the coast using the foot ice that is left when the sea ice breaks up. This make for a fantastically interesting journey skiing so close to the sea, but can make travel interesting because you’re never quite sure if there is going to be foot ice right the way around. They got round this by having a sled that could be converted into a kayak if need be.

Later on in the expedition, most of the snow had gone from land and they were left with a big heavy sled, some skis and a lot of rocks to get over. They were prepared for this too, and had inflatable wheels for the sled so they could tow it like a trailer over the tundra. Don’t worry, they chose special wheels that would not harm the fragile soil. They also made use of the strong winds whenever possible using a sail for their sled on two of the expeditions before switching to a kite on their third.

If you have a chance to see John Dunn talk, then go, he’s awesome and his photographs will inspire you. If not then check out his website www.arcticlight.com.

During Christmas of 2006/07 I joined the University of Alberta’s Outdoor Club’s trip to Joshua Tree, California. What an awesome place. However, be warned…I would only recommend making the trip there from a LONG way away if you’re a climber. The climbing there is absolutely amazing. The hiking is GOOD but there’s not much of it and it tends to get repetitive after a few days. Go to Yosemite instead! Desert hiking is not generally renowned for it’s hugely varying scenery.

Where to Stay
Hidden Valley is one of the largest and most central campsites, with good access to many, many climbing routes and bouldering, both IN the actual campground, and nearby. Ryan Campground is another good option. Be warned neither have running water. Cottonwood at the south end of the park has some nice hiking (Lost Palms Oasis), and is generally a lot quieter and has running water. However, don’t go here if you are coming to J-Tree for the climbing. We were originally staying here, and quickly relocated to somewhere closer to the action. Why drive 45mins to climb when you can stay somewhere else and have 15 routes in 5mins walk?! Check out this site for campground details.

Climbing
Joshua Tree is world renowned for it’s climbing, and it is certainly one of the best locations in America for it. The park’s natural features of many weird rock formations with their sharp edges, many cracks and high friction surface combine with excellent weather (especially in winter) to make it a must visit place for any climber. There are over 4,500 established routes concentrated in a fairly small area…and all of them are very accessible, meaning maximum climbing and minimum hiking with gear. There are many sport routes, but also some excellent trad routes, and a host of excellent bouldering problems. Check out some more information at this site.

Hiking
Probably the three most popular trails are Lost Palms Oasis, the Boy Scout Trail, and Ryan Mountain.

The Lost Palms Oasis (11.2km round-trip to entrance of oasis) is an awesome hike. Maybe I’m biased because it was the first one I did in J-Tree…but it is a nice length (not short…but not so long scenery gets repetitive). However, you do have to back track a lot of the way. The ‘oasis’ itself is pretty cool. Not spectacular…but cool. Its a narrowish rocky canyon filled with gorgeous palms. Its a nice place to hangout and have some lunch. I would recommend walking a fair way into the canyon, the rock/palm formations make it a worth while trip. It is a good idea to fit in a visit to Masterdon Peak either on the way there or back. It’s not much longer at all…and it has some cool rocks on the way up and on the top. Plus some nice views.

Ryan Mountain is a very short hike…it took us just 45mins of average speed walking to get to the top. The views are pretty awesome…looking down on the huge piles of rocks in the middle of the flat desert is pretty amazing. There are also some nice cacti and desert plants on the way. It’s good for photos to have them with a backdrop rather than at desert level like always. We extended the hike by hooking up with some other trails in the area. It’s nice terrain for picking a bee-line in pretty much any direction you want, and we ended up making a nice 12km loop by going off trail and then meeting up with two other trails.

The Boy Scout trail (25.8km) links Indian Cove Campground with the main road through the park near Hidden Valley Campground. Therefore it is possible to do it as a one-way 13km hike using a car shuttle. The trail skirts the edge of the Wonderland of Rocks…an area of crazy, weird boulders and piles of rocks. It is very easy to get lost and disorientated in the Wonderland of rocks, be warned!

When to go
For climbing, winter is the best time. The park remains pleasantly warm during the day (if slightly windy) and it is often shorts and t-shirt weather. Nights can be a little chilly though, so bring some warm clothes. Winter is generally considered the busiest time for climbing, however I still did not find it unpleasantly crowded during New Year. In summer, the park becomes very dry and very hot. Often beating away all but the hardcore climbers, which can be a bonus if you want to escape the crowds. Weather is also excellent in spring and autumn (it’s desert after all) meaning Joshua Tree is a year-round destination.

Books

Rock Climbing Joshua Tree

Rock Climbing Joshua Tree West

The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree Bouldering

Rock Climbs of Indian Cove

Joshua Tree Sport Climbing

So this is the first post on Outdoorvm.com, and I guess I should tell you a little bit about the idea behind this site.

We at Outdoor VM want this to become an entertaining, useful, readable resource for pretty much EVERY outdoor activity. If you’re planning a trip to a particularly area or a trying to choose a trail to hike/bike/ski…we want you to be able to check out tips, reviews, photos or video on outdoorvm.com first so you can get the most from your trip. Or you can just browse the site looking for ideas. It will take a while for the site to grow, so be patient, but know that our team of writers are hard at work messing around outdoors doing what they love JUST so you can read this. Honest. That’s the only reason we do it.

As the name implies, there is going to be a focus on  video content for this site. But as you imagine, video takes a while to produce and edit and a lot of space to post. So although we can’t guarantee video for every post, there is still going to be a lot of awesome-cool video content.

Also, many outdoor sites on the internet cater for tours and guided walks. Urgh. That is so not what we’re about. We’re about it do-it-yourself outdoor fun…so if you like to follow someone with a pink umbrella so you don’t get lost…leave this site now. Sorry.