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Cross-country Ski - Amabilis Mountain

Excellent up/down Amabilis trip. Good conditions, good weather, good leader, good group.

Bill Coady Bill Coady
March 20, 2021
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • We were fortunate in that the trail had been groomed that morning from the bottom up to the Y (about 1/2 way to the top) and the previous day from the Y to the top.  A light overnight snowfall made the trail from Y to top difficult for skaters but not an issue for classic.  The ski down was a breeze.  The trail wasn't icy when we started at about 9:30 and wasn't too slushy as we came down about 1:00 PM. 

This was a Friday trip later in March so the parking lot and trail wasn't extremely busy.  If it had been a Saturday a few weeks earlier I suspect the parking lot would have been packed.

As stated above we had perfect weather and trail grooming.  This trip would have been a lot more challenging and far less fun if it had been in drizzle and without the benefit of the recent grooming.

My Garmin GPS showed 11.5 total miles from parking lot-to-parking lot.  We did both the loops at Picketts View. Without those loops and calculated from the actual start of the Amabilis trail the trip is  closer to 10 miles.  

We traveled at a relaxed pace both up and down with fairly frequent stops to enjoy the surroundings.  Took about 3 hours on the ascent, 1/2 hour or so at the top for lunch, and about 1-1/2 hours on the descent.  I'm sure we could have done it much quicker but our goal was the experience not a race....and I'm no longer 25 years old!