We’ve received close to a foot of new snow over the last week, which has been a bit of grooming challenge.  Yesterday we received about 4 more inches. 

Wind has also been a factor for the past few days.  Quinn groomed a lake trail  and said that as he looked behind him, he watched his newly groomed trail disappear.  Right now it might be wise to choose ski trail routes without major lake crossings.

Bearskin groomers have been out since 5:30 AM and should have the trails finished before noon.  North-South link continues to have an ungroomed section because of a problem on the steep hill down to Aspen Lake. Skiers have made a path down the hill, but we haven’t been able to get equipment down the hill without getting stuck.  Choosing an alternative, more sheltered route will be more pleasant right now anyway.

Dan’s Golden Eagle ski report this morning says, “We were out grooming late last night and finished Red Pines, Cross Fox, Deer Mouse, Moose Ridge, Wolf Point, the Logging Camp on the North and West side of Flour Lake, Ridge Run, Moose Pasture, the Upper part of the Beaver Dam and the North South Link from Golden Eagle Lodge to Aspen Lake.  Bearskin was out this morning and all trails on their side will be done this morning.  Temperature at 9:00 am was -3 F with very little wind.”

Ted Young reports that the Lace Lake/Tall Pines Trail will hopefully be groomed today and the Banadad is scheduled to be groomed tomorrow.

Dan’s current measurements: 

New Snow Last 24 hours:  3.25 inches

New Snow Last 7 days:  10.85 inches

Trail Base: Snowcat packed: 9-1/2 to 9-3/4 inches

Snow in Woods: 22-25 inches

Surface Conditions: Powder, packed powder

Trails Open: 70 km

Total snowfall since November 1:  54.10 inches

Oxcart Ski Trail 1.15.11

The trails were groomed today (again) and it didn’t snow immediately afterwards.  That’s a first for a while.

It’s beautiful out there.  Not warm, but certainly gorgeous.

A trail to be avoided at the moment is the North-South Link.  From the East Bearskin side, it is groomed to the point where the hill dramatically descends–and then the grooming stops.  Long story, but at the moment we have been unable to get down the steep hill to the lake.  It’s just as well, because with the wind we had today, a trail across the lake would have just disappeared.  Choose another alternative if you want to head towards Flour Lake for now.

Groomed Oxcart, Poplar Creek, Summer Home and Campground this morning.  The trails were groomed beautifully … for about an hour.  A number of trails on the Flour Lake side of the system were also groomed today.

We always appreciate fresh snow, but this is the third time this week that a nice grooming job ended with a snowstorm.  Talk about an exercise in futility!

It’s snowing hard now, nice big flakes resulting in a significant accumulation.  We’ll groom all our trails for the long 3 day weekend,  but we’re hoping to wait until it stops snowing!

We continue to get our daily dose of snow, a little bit at a time.    It keeps our snow looking fresh and new, but is a grooming challenge.  Yesterday Quinn was grooming in a snow downpour for awhile, which feels a bit futile!  The snow is clinging to the trees beautifully — it couldn’t be more photogenic out there.

The entire system was groomed 1/8.  Since then groomers on both sides have been out periodically to touch up some trails.  There was fresh powder in many tracks, but numerous skiers reported that the snow was enough to give them more control on hills but not so much as to be a problem.  

Quinn noted on one of his grooming runs yesterday through the Campground Trail that winter campers had dragged sleds over the freshly groomed trails.  Campers don’t all seem to realize that pulling sleds over a groomed ski trails means that the whole thing needs to be redone, wasting fuel and time.  We are happy to let campers go out on our packed down dog sledding trail, which is much easier and doesn’t destroy any grooming efforts.

 This morning, after an inch of snow fell yesterday afternoon,  both sides of the system are being regroomed.  Dan reports that he is  “out with the  snowcat today and plans to groom everything on the north side of Flour Lake as well as the North South Link, Wolf Point, the West End Logging Camp, Ridge Run, Moose Pasture and the upper part of the Beaver Dam.  There is a nice solid base for freestyle and good tracks for classic skiing.”

Quinn is out in the Pisten Bully and is working on completing the East Bearskin side of the system.  He is into grooming perfectionism, so it take him awhile to finish.   At this point mid-day Bear Cub, Oxcart, Poplar Creek, Summer Home and Campground are done.  We’ll update this later when he’s done for the day.

We have been lucky so far this winter that trails on lakes weren’t forming slush, but yesterday Quinn started to note some of the first serious slush pockets on our lake trail.   It might be wise to avoid that trail until the slush freezes up again.

More snow is in the forecast for the next few days.

Dan’s measurements:

New Snow Last 24 hours:  1.0 inch
New Snow Last 7 days:  2.25 inches
Trail Base: Snowcat packed: 8 - 9-1/2 inches
Snow in Woods: 16 -18 inches 
Surface Conditions: Powder, packed powder
Snowshoe trail:  Open

Total snowfall since November 1:  44.25 inches  Conditions:  Good to Excellent

Summer Home, Campground, Lower Beaver Dam, and Bear Cub were regroomed today, after a little bit of snow fell overnight.  Oxcart was also freshly groomed. 

Skiers report that the colder temps helped the tracks firm up very nicely.