'Au naturel' skiing

All of the regular groomers have been away for the past three days. No matter, since all advice and experience dictates that driving machines and groomers on wet snow only makes the skiing worse. Usually much worse.

Hence, the trails are "au naturel" until such time as the snow dries out during several hours of freezing temperatures and we can try to improve things.

Rock 'n Roll, Baby

A few days after the grooming, I am glad to report that skiing is still the best since the very early season. All trails are skiable and the bumpy hills on the skating trails are now softened enough to be much safer at high speeds. Unfortunately, the bottom of the classic track everywhere is right down on the old, old, old ice which just keeps getting harder.

If rock 'n roll is your thing, have we got the ski trails for you! R, X and C are rockin' & rollin', a legacy of the ice and the snowmobiles. They are certainly more "interesting" than usual. A most kind, diplomatic skier told me today that these trails are "good". Comparatively, I guess.

By way of trail etiquette that seems to get lost, all skiers should snow-plow OFF the set track as much as possible. In addition, someone, fortunately only one or two people, snow-plowed down the S hill in the wrong direction towards Cox's Corner. It is totally unacceptable for anyone to scrape off the up-hill sections in these very marginal conditions. If there is a good reason to ski backwards, like maybe a broken ski, walking at the side of the trail is a good option. The rest of us would like to be able to ski tomorrow, thank you very much.

That's a switch!

It's like someone turned a switch -- the skiers have gone away from the DRXC trails. Mostly. All the news I have indicates that our conditions are typical, or even better than average, but I guess enough is enough.

A little-used grooming implement called a "Snow Grabber" was used with some success on R, X and C loops during the week. This exercise served to reduce the OPP search damage considerably, but the track is still irregular, shallow and hard. D-loop has not been groomed again and cannot be improved significantly until there is more snow.

The remaining deep ruts in S and H have been flattened, but some still remain under large trees. The skating loops S, H and B are now all approximately the same, but there are grooming ruts and unpleasant ice cubes everywhere. I will attempt to address this after some personal rest days.

The 84-inch-wide "Ginzu-Groomer" has had its maiden voyage on M-loop and the powerline -- lucky Jackrabbits! I hit ground once beside the swamp on M, no damage done and only a bit of dirty ice left behind. This was with the shallowest possible cutting depth, but feedback indicates that the skate-skiing was better after than before. The powerline, on the other hand, was absolutely gorgeous first thing this morning -- the best skate-ski surface I have ever seen in Deep River.

The set-track on the highway-side of the road is getting harder and harder. Even with all 280 lb. of our track-set weights in use, the track came out shallow. The bottom of the track is now incredibly hard, about hardness 100 on a scale of 1-to-10.

Silver Spoon Weekend

Here is the current "prepared" trail status:
D
remains track-set (Jan 28) with a little fresh snow on top.
R & X
were treated with a "snow-grab" and track set Feb 3. The results are mixed, but reportedly a big improvement.
C
remains icy and deeply rutted and the only fix is a large snowfall.
M
has a good skating track with a poor classic track along the edge, Feb 4
S
to The Top is as M.
H
the downhill from The Top directly back to S is as M.
B
had 4 smoothing passes Jan 28, one more Feb 2 and a poor classic track Feb. 4.
H
the second leg is as B, but without the extra smoothing.
S
the second leg had one smoothing pass Feb 3 and a poor classic track Feb 4 (See WARNING below)

CAUTION: The second leg of S, including "the big hill" down from The Top, is VERY HAZARDOUS because of the deep ruts.

ALSO, the classic track set Feb 4 is not deep enough to control ski direction. Skiers should be prepared for either ski to come out of the track at any time.

Square one

We were able to loosen up the top very few centimetres of M-loop, plus S to The Top, followed by the first H downhill and then directly over to the end of S. A track was also set, but it suffers from the lack of snow -- it is not well formed and may not last very well. I talked to Brian Mottershead at PAXC and he reminded me that we have had only one significant snowfall so far this winter. I am still hitting rocks, particularly right near The Top on the way down B.

NOTE: there is a high-school race on Thursday, Feb. 4, approx. 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the course mentioned above. The classic track will be removed for this event.

Further work on the skating trails will be slow because there is other work underway and because we have to drive about 10 km for each km of trail. The river side and D-loop are better skiing if we leave the skiffles of new snow alone until we get more than 15 cm accumulation. R-loop is reported to be enjoyable, but X and C are still rough. A few people have mentioned that the P(erimeter) trail is also enjoyable.

At the open house on Sunday, someone asked me what the main problem is with the trails, translation: Why is there so little grooming? There are a few "main" problems, e.g. lack of snow, very rough trails and perhaps most important, the fact that we cannot preserve the snow by closing the trails when the snow is wet.

The ruts left by the OPP snowmobiles are not insignificant in the big picture, but the new snow has helped us to fill them in. Grooming is very hard on people and equipment at present. It is tough not to lose control of the new 800-lb snowmobiles when they drive over some of the frozen ruts. Even when the trail looks smooth, the hard ruts filled with relatively soft snow make steering a challenge.