My wife, Francine, and I decided to head up to the Black Mountain area this Canada Day, lured by a free pancake breakfast and free chairlift rides. The latter saved us climbing the 1 mile rocky road to the top of the Black Chair. From the top of the Black Chair, we ran out to Eagle Bluff and back, followed by a nice downhill dash back to the parking lot.
The good news is that this will not be a repeat of KneeKnacker '99 - the year of the snow. The bad news is that there will probably be more snow remaining than in an average year, with a lot of mud and fallen trees where the snow has just recently melted.
Coming back from Eagle Bluff, the trail was clear of snow for about 1/2 a mile, till just after the side trail to Do-Nut Rock. The next 1/2 mile was pretty well under snow. Although up to 2 feet has melted from last week, there are some spots where it is still up to 4 feet deep. Expect a fair amount of snow in this section still on race day.
The signpost at the Black Mountain Loop turn-off is visible this year. Turn left here - the sign says "Cabin Lake", which is actually after the Black Mountain south summit. Last year we went right on race day and missed the summit. The switchbacks up to the summit are clear of snow, as is the summit itself and most of the trail leading back from the summit to Cabin Lake.
Still a fair bit of snow in the 1/4 mile from Cabin Lake to the top of the Black Chair. This will probably be patchy by race day. From the top of the chair, there is only a couple of hundred feet of snow left at the top of the 1-mile rocky dirt road leading down to the first major aid station at the Cypress Bowl Downhill parking lot. This will be all rocks by race day!
Stayed tuned for more updates in a couple of days, as we will be marking the Cypress to Hollyburn section on Monday.
Enzo Federico
E-mail: webmaster@kneeknacker.com