Just one more good day...

Volunteers took the rollers around the skate loops Thursday evening (March 21).  No track setting was done then or since.  The result on Friday was about 30 mm, just a little over an inch, of semi-firm snow on top of that terrible smooth, hard ice.  I trust that this provided one more good day of skate skiing as hoped for.

With the present forecast of several days of yo-yo temperatures, all the snow on the ground will be progressively transformed into ice.  Conditions will change from sun to shade, from hour to hour and from day to day.  Every day, you will need to look up a different few from the dozens of Inuit words for snow to describe what is on the same ground.  No grooming will be possible without a lot of new snow and cold.

With any luck, we may even get a general strong crust and be able to ski easily absolutely everywhere.  It has been many years since this miracle has happened here.

Hard and fast

Hard and fast skiing, that is.  All the trails have been groomed, but driving heavy machines on icy snow has revealed the true nature of ice.  Don't say you haven't been warned.

For even more fun, you may wish to experience the pre-grooming conditions by skiing off the trail -- at slow speed only.