What Good is A Golf Course In Winter?

Well, for one thing, there are no golfers cluttering up the place.
And those carefully-mowed fairways are great for skiing with a covering of as little as two or three inches of snow.
I've skiied on Edmonton's golf courses -- Victoria, Riverside, Rundle, Mill Woods and the Edmonton Golf and Country Club for more than 30 years.
Of course, I'd rather be out in the mountains. But when they're a five-hour drive away, you have to find alternatives.
The photo above shows my daughter, Sarah, and her "special dog" Maligne at the Golf and Country Club last January when snow conditions were great.
Riverside and Victoria are used by a lot of skiers but Victoria is by far the busiest with tracks set by Edmonton Parks and Recreation staff. Racers from the university are there every day when snow conditions are good.
I prefer to set my own track.
Machine-set tracks are too wide and too uniform for my liking. And the track setters generally show little imagination as far as choosing a route that maximizes the terrain to make the views and 'climbs' and glides interesting.
My routes go past and through clumps of trees, especially evergreens, to give a kind of 'wilderness' illusion. They take in any sidehills, bumps, berms or depressions I can find. And they're never straight, always tracing long, sensuous curves so that the view always changes.
I was one of the founding members of the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club back around 1971 when we promoted moonlight ski trips at Victoria to pique people's curiosity.
With all the city lights reflecting off clouds, there's no problem seeing where to go. And when there's a full moon, it's fantastic.
The cold is no problem when you have a good, wind-resistant anorak over a pile jacket. Cross country skiers generate a lot of heat. The faster you go, the warmer you get.
Victoria has a couple of side hills where you can crank out half a dozen telemark turns. Mill Woods has a great tele slope facing north toward Whitemud Drive.
But my favorite course is the Edmonton Golf and Country Club which borders a high bank of the North Saskatchewan River with wonderful views out over the river and Terwillegar Park.
Oddly enough, it has very little use, although in my opinion it provides the best skiing within a 50 km radius of the city. That includes the Blackfoot Grazing Reserve and Elk Island National Park.
It's bisected by a deep ravine with a suspension bridge for golf carts.
The eastern half has some wonderful terrain extending out from the club house between the access road and the river valley. If you're really energetic, you can ski down to a big, flat flood plain below the golf course and opposite Terwillegar Park.
The west half has a fantastic overlook to Terwillegar Park and some very good up and down terrain that includes another deep ravine.
There are a lot of deer, rabbits and birds. Occasionally, I see coyotes. One day I saw what I'm convinced was a wolf.
Unfortunately, as I write this on New Year's Day, 2006, we're in the clutches of a mild, snow-less winter with no end in sight. I haven't been able to go out once so far this winter.
The organizers of the big "Birkiebeiner" cross country competition in mid-February at the Blackfoot must be tearing their hair out...