Icefields Mystery Trails

BoingBoing readers may help me identify what made the trails in the photo below, taken from Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. I took the photo from the road when I noticed what looked liked ski trails. Except I don't believe they are ski trails; they were in a remote area where it would not be safe to ski.

The above picture is a blow-up from this photo, which might provide more context. I should also add that I'm not a skier nor a snowboarder.

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MarkM

People of boingboing comment area:

Didn’t you even read the poster’s prefacing comments:
a) he didn’t believe they are ski trails;
b) they were in a remote area;
c) it would not be safe to ski that area.

Instead of just glibly reciting “those are ski
trails”, let’s actually consider his comments
and think about what might have really created
the ski-trail-looking trails.

[moment of reflection.]

FFS OF COURSE THEY’RE SKI TRAILS. OMG, WHAT ARE YOU ON? CRACK? “MYSTERY TRAILS”? HOW DID THIS EVEN GET IN BB.NET?

Sorry, lost it for a second there. I’m feeling better now.
Cool Products

Helicopter Skiing FTW.
seyo

Star Trek transporter skiing.
Skirunner

Here in Aspen this post has become its own little viral sensation. If you have people read the intro first and then reveal the picture it always leads to a good guttural belly laugh.

Aaaah, sigh. Thanks for the good times.
afo

oblig. http://spaceballsfoundnothin.ytmnd.com/
Anonymous

ok, anyone who thinks the tracks are from a snow machine, come on. if you have ever skied powder, that is exactly what it looks like when you’re done and looking back up, going, wow that was awesome, with a huge smile on your face. and as for hiking/skinning up that slope, i can tell you that i have hiked up the same type of slope for what seemed like an hour, but was probably more like 30 minutes, just to get those 15 turns and 5 minutes of sweeeet powder. I’m so pumped for this season!!! Alberta and BC skiing rules!!!!
Kawentzmann

They were just slaloming, right? Who would risk his life for such repetive action? I havenâ€™t tried snowboarding yet, but in skateboarding slaloming becames stale pretty fast and you look for new movements.
Rax50

I don’t see any entrance or exit trails from the “tracks”. Tracks are not continuous and the over cutting is inconsistent. This leads me to conclude, IMHO, that it is just snow that has slumped several times.
jeepercreepers

Giant snow otters!
thaddeusmt

omg this is one of the funniest/craziest things I have seen on the intertubes in a while. I’m glad to see everyone got this confusion all straightened out, though! ;)

as a passionate skier who gets about 50 days in the resorts and 25 days in the backcountry each winter, you really lose sight of how weird/risky this sport might seem to others.

here’s a few links about this wonderful and fulfilling – if strange – sport of backcountry skiing/boarding:

http://www.backcountrymagazine.com
http://www.wildsnow.com
http://www.tetonat.com

And I document a lot of my own BC ski adventures on my blog: http://www.oronaut.com
onemanstrash

loch ness snow monster
ThreeFJeff

Kawentzmann, it seems you haven’t found the right hill. That hill is Claremont Ave starting from up in the Berkeley hills. It is dope–less than 2 miles and about 1000 feet of vertical. It’s a reasonable ride from my front door, and it is just as insane on a roadbike.

Skiing can be like that. Skiing is also done on much steeper slopes than that, often with fields of car sized bumps. It’s far from boring and repetitive.
consideredopinion

Probably heliskiing (with snowboards possible)
mikewarren

That is a very popular backcountry skiing area. It is definitely some combination of skiers, snowboards (split boards) or telemarkers. They will all make approximately the same tracks in powerder. Those all look like ski tracks; snowboarders tend to make bigger-diameter turns.

That is called “bow summit”. The uptrack will be on the ridge behind and most people will ski into the trees a little before skinning back up.

Behind this mountain is the Wapta icefields; there are four huts on the icefield and it is a very popular background skiing area.

As per your other post, there’s actually a gas station half way from lake louise to jasper at sasketchewan crossing.

The crowfoot glacier used to actually look like a crow’s foot until warming/melting caused most of the “foot” to collapse.

cheers,
mike
Anonymous

Dan from Salt Lake City here. The shape of those turns makes them ski tracks, not board tracks. There is no way those are from heli-skiing. (No one would get a heli to get to the top of a tiny hill like that.) Probably backcountry skiers with skins to help them get to the top. There is nothing “not safe” to be seen in that picture. There are plenty of trees, which mean it’s not an avalanche area. Looks like fun. Peace of cake to get to.
Oceanconcepts

Telemark skiers leave trails that look like one long ski- and the rhythm of telemarking will produce regular, swooping turns like these. In deep powder you would not see two tracks with telemarking skiers. The tracks leading across flatter terrain at the bottom make me doubt snowboards- looks like skiers on their way out. It’s tough to walk on a snowboard, but skiers can travel quite freely up and down. And there are a lot more free-heel skiers once you get away from downhill areas and lifts. But it would be hard to tell the difference from tracks at this distance, and it could always be a mix.
Do not unnecessarily posit helicopters- this is nowhere near the kind of terrain or length of slope that a heli-skier would go for. They pay for miles of uninterrupted runs. Looks like a fun spot to climb up and down for a few runs, and not particularly dangerous unless there is something alarming upslope.
mikewarren

p.s. all you people who think it’s heli- or cat- skiing: there’s no motorized transportation allowed in the Parks (this is in Jasper National Park) so no heli or cat skiing. Or snowmobiling.
jonathanpeterson

When did boingboing become a “directory of things I’m to lazy to bother figuring out myself”?
Evil Jim

It’s marketing for this year’s winter blockbuster, Snakes on a Mountain!
Anonymous

Street lamp tracks?

(p.s. one of the captcha words I had to type to enter this was Burton. I think the internets are trying to tell me something.)
davidmaguire

Those are the tracks of the elusive ‘powdawg’ who’s only goal in life is the search of freshies.

Freshies and bluebirds, can’t wait for winter on the west coast.
Mojave

Hardly a mystery…
snowboarders.
Anonymous

It’s either skiers or snowboarders maybe a snowmobile. there probably not that afraid of avalanches
BadKittyM

#60
As an avid skier, I am quite embarrassed by your comments. Hate to have people think all skiers share the same ridiculous (and non-factual) prejudice. I find no difference whatsoever between hack skiers and hack ‘boarders. If you do not wish to be surrounded by folks learning to ski OR board, improve your own techniques so you can leave the green and blue slopes behind. Works like a charm.
;-)
amapolalola

snow snakes
fALk

Clearly snowboarders having fun in fresh puffy powder crisscrossing each other – no mystery here. If you ever been backcountry snowboarding you know that any slope will do no matter how shallow – espeically if the power is fresh. And the canyon like slope makes it even more fun as you can gain speed on the sides – especially if the slope is not soo steep overall – god I wish I would have been them :) Then again we just had a blizzard in Berlin with more snow dropping over the weekend – maybe I can take my snowboard out to the 10 meter mountain behind the house sometimes tomorrow…
technogeek

“Where it would not be safe to ski” doesn’t stop everyone. I agree that the single track suggests snowboard or something like it.
mabajada

grizzly bear toboggan runs
they frequently do this just before hibernating
Anonymous

Backcountry telemarking FTW!

Though the slope is hard to judge from the photo, from the trees it seems to be not very avalanche prone. And with a decent set of skins that is not inaccessible by backcountry skiing standards. (Heck, if you can see it from the road, it hardly counts as backcountry!)
wrybread

Snowboarders are the new bigfoot.
Gill Avila

It’s a tire track from God’s ATV, sillies.
Fumbata

The S-shaped trails are indeed ski tracks. And as far as it not being safe; you’d be surprised at the lengths a skier or snowboarder will go to in order to glide through untouched powder…
Scuba SM

Swamp Gas.

…or…

Weather Balloon.
Anonymous

They are ski trails from telemark or alpine touring skiiers who slogged up the slope so they could lay down tracks on sweet, virgin powder.
Spherical Time

MarkM @ 42: FFS OF COURSE THEY’RE SKI TRAILS. OMG, WHAT ARE YOU ON? CRACK? “MYSTERY TRAILS”? HOW DID THIS EVEN GET IN BB.NET?

I’m guessing you missed the “Hey, there’s this light in the sky by my house. Anyone know what it is?” “It’s a TRAFFIC LIGHT” thread over on Fark.

Good times, that.

Even smart people can occasionally say or do dumb things.
NeonCat

You were lucky to escape with your life, getting that close to where the fearsome and little seen Saskatoon snowsnakes thrive. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of men, seeking gold in the Yukon, succumbed to these deadly creatures, even though most zoologists will say they are mythical.
wkiernan

I’ve been there! There’s another slope about three miles South covered with what look like little “T”s; it’s hard to see from the road, because there’s a stand of trees in the way but there are a couple of spots where you can get a glimpse without hiking. In the other direction four or five miles North there’s another area patterned in little “R”s, and so on.
yajab

Not that it matters much, but I’d vote skiers. Boarders do looser turns. Looks like it was nice snow. I’m jealous…
NeonCat

@ amapolalola

Damn, you beat me to it.
TheMostHorrible

Frost Giant pubes. Check the Monster Manual.
Sijay

Slidewinders.
jameslgrant

Having analyzed these pics: S-curves left by skiers, since all snowboarders are pansies who stick to commercial lifts. There are also no ass-prints from retarded teens sitting on their butts in the snow getting high on Mexican dirtweed and waiting for their turn at jumping off a single mogul and talking about how much the Beastie Boys rule. These tracks were obviously left by persons interested in flying through some deep marshmallow fluff and enjoying the beauty of a winter hill.
scothampton

snowboarders…and the best type of snowboarding?? taking your snowmobile into the backcountry to carve fresh tracks like the ones above.
CanGuy

yeah – those are Ski or snowboard tracks.
in the Rockies (or any mountains around the globe for that matter), some hard-core folk take helicopters or snowcats (those big snow groomer machines – but without the groomer bits) up to the top of remote mountains.
its costly – but super fun.
Wally B

Pfft, WryBread! Anyone who like the backcountry powpow knows that Bigfoot carves tele.
vib

Maybe you should ski there to find what the trails are about?
Sleepy

I’d say those are snowboard and not ski tracks. Especially the ones on the right – you can see the wide curve with snow spray on the side. Dale – if you look around, you’ll probably spot where they hiked up.
ErikO23

i don’t see how somebody could look at that and NOT see snowboarder tracks. i mean really.
Anonymous

I ski, I board, I’ve been on snowmobiles. Definite telemark tracks.
Anonymous

Looks like ski tracks to me. In nice, deep powder. Nothing dangerous about skiing there, either. It’s not very steep, and the snow looks divine.

add me to the jealous crowd!
Anonymous

dammit you’re not helping my cravings.
snowraver1

As someone who lives close (Calgary) I can say for sure, that they are ski tracks. As other commenters have mentioned, they are likely tele-mark ski tracks.

They are not snowboard tracks. – Snowboard tracks don’t have turns like that. Snowboarders tend to go all over the place, while skiiers do those tight, even turns.

They hiked to the top – Others have mentioned that this is a national park, and in Canada, all motorized vehicles are banned except for cars on the roads.

This is NOT risky – It is early season. You can see the tops of smaller trees still. Snow has not had a chance to get many layers yet, and the snow isn’t really deep. (there, the snow is probably about 40-70 cms) and it’s not that steep.
truckeetown

Dude,
Some look like board tracks, some like telemark tracks… It also looks pretty safe to me as a backcountry skiier IMHO. Gotta have your probe, shovel, and beacon, but it looks AWESOME. We are semi-patiently awaiting our big dumps here in Tahoe so we can get out there and bag some pow ourselves!

Free you heel and your mind will follow…
Anonymous

for sure its back country telemark. big S curves in remote area is a dead give away.
snowraver1

@#60 – You obvoiusly have never boarded. I have been boarding for 15 years now when I go down, it’s like I’m making love to the mountain. You notice every curve, every imperfection.

When you are flying down a hill, you are literally on a knife edge. The smooth flow as you carve down is supremely satisfying.

I know what you are trying to say though, and it’s true that a lot of snowboarders stick to the park and line up to hit a single jump. I haven’t been into a park in years now, I stick to the natural terrain.
jody

It is quite dangerous, especially when you aren’t assessing that danger properly. But powder skiing and boarding in the backcountry is among the most sublime of experiences to be had through sport.
Dale Dougherty

OK. I appreciate learning about it. Thanks.
JFlex

“they were in a remote area where it would not be safe to ski. ”

That’s adorable.
Angus S

I have another icefields mystery involving some tracks, a tent cut from the inside, unexplained radiation, and orange/brown corpses that has been unsolved for 50 years that I would love to get the BoingBoing thinktank on: the nine dead skiers in the Dyatlov Pass Incident. http://tinyurl.com/5uqnf8
stupidnickname

“they were in a remote area where it would not be safe to ski. ”

Bwa-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

See, for some people, your description of that area is *exactly* what they’re looking for. In fact, “remote area where it would not be safe to ski” basically describes the goal all of my winters from 1987-1995.

Ah, good times.
adralien

Those slopes have be seriously mined by powder-fiends… looks like some good gnar pow, but it’s all shralped out now… (OK, enough random lingo)

Hopefully I’ll be making some turns this weekend, snow level just came down a bit and it’s time to hike for it! Nothing like hiking 3Km of approach mud in tele boots to early season turns.

For those who want to see what plushness and awesome skiing is available in Canadian parks, check this link out… this was early this year.
http://www.leelau.net/2008/kokanee2008/day3/
jameslgrant

#62:
I grew up in a ski resort community and have tried boarding a grand total of twice now. I really wanted to like it, truly, for I have also surfed and skated and enjoy both.
Alas, it was not to be, since snowboarding is the Down’s Syndrome sibling of skiing. It’s slow, clumsy and has all the finesse of a blind cow with palsy falling down a cliff when compared to skiing.

That said, I fully support more of you boarders getting out into the forest and doing your thing in solitude, away from the parks, humanity, and me. In my support of this, I twice voted at my hometown’s resort to ban all boarders from the local slopes. This was to encourage you kids to check out off-trail runs, of course, and not a blatant attempt to wipe your loathsome “sport” off the map. No, I just wanted you folks to experience NATURE!
If we’re really lucky, maybe you’ll all get eaten by bears.
JacobZ

I’m actually really enjoying Dale’s posts, I grew up just north of Jasper so this stuff is all old news for me, but it’s always fascinating to read an outsider’s impressions of things that you take for granted…
Anonymous

Nice to see so many tele skiers also read boingboing!!!
Clemoh

My vote is for Heli-skiers or heli-boarders. You hire a helicopter to give you a lift up to the top of a mountain that no one can get to, and then carve where no man (or woman) has carved before. They pick you up at the bottom.
Anonymous

No, THIS is a remote area where it would not be safe to ski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd8AJdcnw4A
phillamb168

Holy cow, this comment thread is crazy! Not in a bad way, mind you… But I’ve never been skiing in my life, and wow there’s some crazy lingo you guys talk.
Tirjasdyn

“Except I don’t believe they are ski trails; they were in a remote area where it would not be safe to ski. ”

Then you don’t know skiers or snowborders…

Safety won’t stop us.
snowraver1

#62:
“It’s slow, clumsy and has all the finesse of a blind cow with palsy falling down a cliff when compared to skiing.”

It’s a poor workman who blames the tool. Maybe you are slow and clumsy with the finesse of a cow.

You don’t learn snowboarding in two days. It takes years of practice to be able to make it down a hill with confidence.
MollyMaguire

The ‘ski touring’ page at Wikipedia is sufficient.
refreeze

All this attention! We Canadian backcountry skiers don’t understand what all the fuss is about.
The telemark tracks in the photos are at Bow summit on the Banff-Jasper Highway. I’ve been skiing those lines for 30 years.
The snowpack is pretty thin this time of year, but the Avalanche hazard is low.
Next time you come bring your planks and we’ll show you a good time.
Anonymous

you fools – those are the winter version of crop circles. the yeti’s make them by sliding down the hills on plastic cafeteria trays…
SamSam

I’m thinking snow worms. You’d probably be able to call them with a thumper.
Matthew Mastracci

Probably Heli-snowboarding, as mentioned above. Lots of places where they drop you off in the middle of nowhere to get the fresh powder.

Never done it myself, but known others who have.
Kyle Armbruster

@ #60: Yeah, that’s pretty much why I never took to skiing. Stupid elitists pretending they aren’t just doing the same thing as me: strapping something to their feet and sliding down a fucking hill.

Get off it.
Anonymous

It’s a secrete Alien code! Look! There are 2 different frecuencies in the variation of the curves! It’s like digital alien FM! Wait! Let me write down the 1′s and 0′s…
Oh! God! They’re ASCII characters encoded with RLZ! It says:
….”Obama for MARS-president”…
Yay
Anonymous

its a skier, the bottom right corner shows some sharp turns a boarder couldn’t make.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t Bigfoot skiing!
peterkempt

One thing’s for sure: Sonny Bono didn’t leave those tracks.
moodygirl

Heliskiing is less likely in the national parks — but there is a very large contingent of telemark skiers in the Banff/Yoho/Jasper/Kootenay Parks. It’s cross-country skiing with sturdier equipment — the boots are more like a cross between downhill and hiking boots, the skis wider than x-country and they have metal edges. You use ‘skins’ over your skis to help you grip the snow on the uphill approach (no helicopters or snowcats!), then you clip your boot heel into the binding and enjoy the trip down. Truly one of the most amazing activities in the mountains. Just make sure your group has avalanche gear, beacons, etc.
Anonymous

all previous answers are wrong. It’s yetis on snowboards. Look at the depth of the tracks and the tightness of the outer curve. If you had stuck around you probably would have seem them.
Anonymous

Hey ThreeFJeff (#77), that video is from Claremont CA, not Claremont Ave in the Berkeley Hills… I’ve never been to the city of Claremont, but I’ve ridden my motorcycle on every twisty road connecting to Grizzly Peak, and that ain’t one of ‘em!
Anonymous

Occam’s razor, young man!
Anonymous

Those are for sure ski trails. They fly you in on a helicopter and drop you off. You see those all the time on random slopes here in Utah. It looks pretty safe to me. you’d be surprised as to where people are willing to ski at…and you wonder why search and rescue costs are so high. I am currently training my dog for search and rescue. I have been on helicopters going to some pretty remote places to pull some of these idiots out of avalanches they caused…even after the avalanche reports says to avoid these areas as they are unsafe. So trust me…there is no place some of these people call unsafe.
ThreeFJeff

James L Grant! Represent!

Of course, most of the skiers I see up on the slopes are skidding down the hill like they’re riding a La-Z-Boy and about to fall over. In the skiers defense, they get up and get going right away when they fall, and they don’t blast Pennywise at full volume in the parking lot.

Dale, as other’s have state already, that slope is totally tame. It would be an easy hike (so, no helicopters). It does have a lot of fat powder, though, so, y’know, I’d hit it.
highlyevolved

Getting gnar gnar in the pow pow.
mateosf

Most definitely not heli-skiing, given that the photo was taken from the road. Heli-skiers pay a lot of money for the experience and would scream bloody murder (at least, I would) if they dropped me off within site of the highway.

These are most likely telemark or alpine touring skiers using skins to climb up from the road and ski down. This is also obviously a low-angle slope, so the danger is quite minimal.

In general if there is a mountain with snow on it, a skier can ski it; doesn’t matter how remote or steep, as long as the slope holds snow, it can be skied.

If you want to see remote, dangerous backcountry skiing nearby, head over to Roger’s Pass. Now there’s avalanche danger for you.
broheiz

Snow board tracks. C’mon.
spammelongtime

im sure that was made by a 1993 honda civic.
Anonymous

LOL! “Except I don’t believe they are ski trails; they were in a remote area where it would not be safe to ski.”

Here in Whistler, BC we must save a dozen “out of bounds” skiers a week all winter long! Thanks to extreme skiers and their films (thanks Warren Miller!) there is no shortage of invincible-feeling young men and women willing to risk life and limb for some virgin powder…
Jerril

Regarding the saftey issue – yea, verrily, you don’t get out enough. Downhill skiiers are already crazy enough to go hurtling down the side of a wooded mountain tied to a couple of sticks – we’re obviously not very good at risk assessment.

That said, those look like nice, wide open areas. I find the straight rows of trees along side bowl-shaped cleared areas suspicious – was this a ski hill at some point, since abandoned (and thus the little trees springing up in the cleared trackways)?

If you think that’s dangerous-looking, check out glade skiing- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glade_skiing …
NuclearMoose

Look at the trees and imagine them laying down along the tracks in the powder. Some of the turns are as far apart as the height of some of the tall trees. On such a gentle slope, that wouldn’t be made by a skier. Also look at the depth of the tracks as well. They are too deep to be from the weight of one person.

I’m convinced that they are made from snowmobiles. Sleds are very common and powerful and they are always looking for fresh powder. Also, because the tracks are relatively short, I really can’t see a boarder or skier climbing up such a crappy little slope to ski when there are countless places to get in some real skiing and boarding. This location being close to the road makes it easy to offload a sled and burn up the powder and then load up and move on to look for fresh powder.
Anonymous

government testing secret weapons
iain010100

Do you have other photos, or higher res? If they were skis wouldn’t there be places where the tracks separated? And pole marks? Wouldn’t there be footprints at the bottom of the slope if they were snowboard tracks? What places where skiers stop at the top of a plateau? The scale is hard to judge, but the tracks seem rather thick.
Anonymous

Well I say it’s ALIENS!!!!! (on snowboards)
Takuan

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/01/08/bc-avalanchedeathtollhits23.html
justi121883

@37

The semi-straight rows of trees aren’t necessarily all that suspicious. Trees do funny things near the treeline, where the margin between thriving and dying is particularly thin. Tiny variations in environment–exposure to sunlight, exposure to wind–make some spots much more favorable than others. I bet the decreased sunlight alone could account for the sparse, stunted growth in those gullies.
freshyill

Totally snowboard, definitely not skis.
jimh

I really thought this post was a joke, I knew immediately what I was looking at in the photos. And no way do you need a motorized anything to get you up to the top of THAT. Still, it looks like a pretty sweet shot.

And wow, jameslgrant, hateful much? Why don’t you go ski off some of that anger buddy?
coldspell

Meteorites.