DRXC Groomed Trails

Fabulous skiing

2012-02-02T21:51:00.000-05:00

By all accounts, the skiing today was excellent, to some the best in many years, on all DRXC trails. The predicted high of zero C tomorrow (Friday) may result in a hard track for the weekend, but skiing should still be very good for several days.

UGH -- wet

2012-02-01T09:13:00.000-05:00

Short message: no grooming in wet snow today, Wed., Feb. 1. It is much better for the trails if no one skis on the wet snow either.

Tomorrow, we will attempt to groom all the trails, so the track will be wiped out for some hours everywhere.

Long message: ditto.

An excellent trend?

2012-01-28T18:04:00.000-05:00

The weathermen (w-persons?) have underestimated snowfall amounts in Deep River exactly three times in the past 40 years, once in 2011 and twice this year. I am hopeful that they are starting a grand, new tradition, even if it leads to groomer's blogs like the previous one that are a bit off the mark.

The groomers have laboured mightily on our 8-to-10 cm snowfall today and there are now many happy skiers. The skiing on all of the groomed trails is just about as good as it gets. With just a little effort, you can pretend that you do not feel that nasty crust under there as you ski.

It was a near thing. The PNFI trails got only about 25% of the snowfall that we did and there is a frozen-rain crust just under the new snow. Our sub-Arctic climate rating may be hard on plants, but it is great for skiing!

Skin deep

2012-01-27T09:16:00.000-05:00

Beauty is skin deep, but ugly is to the bone. (Murphy)

What you see on the ski trails this morning looks pretty good, but it is only skin deep. Underneath the nice, soft snow is very ugly ice and we have "groomed" it as much as is possible. We are now basically where we were at the start of the season, with the additional benefit that the trails are now smoother.

We now need at least 20 cm of new snow in order to be able to set a track again. (20 cm compacts to between 3 and 5 cm, which is the depth of the track setter.)

All trails are presently harsh ice and all downhills remain fast and hazardous.

Got crust, no promises.

2012-01-25T13:53:00.000-05:00

The trails are very crusty today. In the main, people were smart enough to stay off the wet snow, so there is something for the groomers to work with. However, please be advised that no one on earth can turn ice back into snow.

The set tracks are much harder than the skate track and, at best, will require many, many passes to break the ice granules apart. The existing classic grooves are solid ice and will remain ungroomable until they melt. It may be prudent for us to wait until Thursday and milder temperatures to even attempt to resurrect a classic track somewhere beside the existing grooves. As the title says, there are no promises

Downhills will be very fast and dangerous, even the little ones.

Pros and cons

2012-01-20T20:20:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, the decision on how to groom the trails is complicated. This is one of those times. Here are the considerations.
The thick, cold powder snow that fell this week did not consolidate in spite of several passes by the groomers.
It has been extremely demanding physically to drive the machines in the deep, soft snow and the grooming staff are close to exhaustion.
The air temperature today was quite cold with the slight breeze; an accident on the trail would present significant risk from the cold.
The entire trail system is groomed now for the first time in at least three years.
Skiers coming off the hilly loops today were still very happy with the skiing and the classic track looks to be in very good condition near the chalet.
This morning's weather forecast for Monday indicated +7C and rain. January rain falling on compacted snow and then freezing usually produces ungroomable ice; the more compaction that has occurred, the worse the ice will be.

Two questions have pretty clear answers. First, can I make the skiing better? No, not significantly. Second, do my customers want me to be able to groom after a thaw and rain? I certainly expect so; they always have before! This is as close to a no-brainer as it gets.

Well then, go out and enjoy that lovely powdery snow while you can. Meanwhile, hope that the forecasters are being silly again.

Hope you like skiing in porridge!

2012-01-19T19:17:00.000-05:00

Our fine, dry snow has now been groomed several times and it is still very much like porridge. In the mid-80s at a Canadian Nordic Ski Championship in Whitehorse, the same thing happened for six days. They groomed day and night before the fine, dry snow stopped being porridge. This is known as an iron-clad precedent.
The air needs more humidity to make the snow firm up and even a head groomer with all the right connections has a little trouble making this happen on demand.
All the trails have now received the full grooming treatment, and will get more before the weekend.
Go forth and ski, with great joy!

A grooming day

2012-01-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

Got a GOOD snowfall at last. Up and at'em early. A very kind neighbour blew out my driveway last evening, but the wind blew a lot back in again. Time out for 40 minutes of scooping snow, then organize clothing with extra mitts, hand-warmers, etc., etc., and dress: 13 garments + heavy socks. Proper daylight by now.
Commute to the chalet, wade in through the snow and start up Yammy Red. Warm-up lap is a challenge in the deep snow -- the big machine steers like a battleship named "straight-ahead-Fred".
Hook up the old track-setter and add one 65-lb weight. Off we go to the classic loops, R, X, C and D. No particular problems -- Yammy did not fall off the track, nor hit anything very hard. One very large White Pine bough to remove, but remarkably little else. There is still a huge tonnage of snow hung up in the trees everywhere.
The track is not great by the time we return to the chalet -- the Yammy exhaust which vents underneath the machine has coated one of the track formers with lumpy ice. No real solution for this since the fine, new snow mixes heavily with the hot exhaust and gets deposited under the machine as slush. Clean off the ice & set the track-setter where the sun may get rid of the tiny bits.
Pull out a roller and hook it up. Drive around the buildings a bit, so I can steer later after the snow sets up, then off we go to the skate-ski loops. We barely make it all the way to The Top with the roller -- it is pushing a huge wave of fine snow in front of it. Plan B: leave the roller at The Top and drive H, S and B twice with no drag. Got stuck once -- the battleship drove into the rhubarb on the last leg up (backwards) to The Top. A lesser event -- no shovelling required. Hook up the roller again and drive all the way back to the chalet, so snow in the outback can set up for an hour. Got stuck again on the high end of the K, waste 15-20 minuttes getting everything going again. It does not help that my leggings are impregnated with fine snow and I have trouble staying put on the vinyl seat of the Yammy. Return and roll S and H. Still have multo trouble with traction on the uphills, so no way can I roll B until the soft snow sets up for several hours. Plan C: drive Yammy alone on B twice more, so there will be less of a bow-wave under the roller. Hook up the roller again and finish the second pass on M.
It is now about 1:30 and I think it's lunch time.
D, R, X and C have a set track.
M, H and S have a very soft and rolling skate track with no classic track. B has only a mess left by four passes with the snowmobile.
There are probably no serious rocks hiding anywhere, but there are certainly small branches in the snow.

Got snow?

2012-01-13T19:44:00.005-05:00

Yes, definitely got snow!
The highway-side trails were groomed late Jan. 13 and the river side early Jan. 14. The highway side suffered from wind-blown snow overnight.
Here are the trail conditions at noon Jan. 14:
M is as good as it can be on a cold, windy day. The skating snow is wide, reasonably firm and no obstacles are poking through the snow. There are still bumps because of the limited snow depth.
D has a set classic track and is well covered.
H and S have a classic track with a few unavoidable gaps and a skating track with bumps and unpredictable soft spots. H/S (see the previous post) is similar to M.
B is in progress, with a narrow compacted surface and no classic track. We broke shear pins on the groomers twice, so there are obviously very thin spots as well as bumps and soft spots.
R, X, C and K have gorgeous set tracks with blemishes. R-loop is right down on the corduroy, X-loop is still thin and C-loop is, predictably, an exercise in rock bashing.
Enjoy!

A double skiffle!

2012-01-06T21:30:00.003-05:00

A friend suggested that last night's snowfall was "lots of snow". Sorry, just a double skiffle. I do like that there was more snow than forecast, but the implements and snowmobile skis still hit ground on all trails. Good skis may suffer out there.

D, R, X, M, S/H and K were groomed during Friday morning. (S/H means up S from Cox's Corner to The Top, then down H to the link back to S.) If it was not skied too much too soon, the classic track should be decent for the weekend.

The skating track will likely have unpredictabe soft spots, particularly on S/H which was rolled for the first time.

C is still very poorly covered and remains ungroomed. S, H and B require a well-rested team of two drivers to begin to open them, perhaps later in the weekend and definitely after the snow has dried out. With the new snow, the rough terrain may be even more hazardous than it was.

Still too thin

2012-01-04T14:43:00.004-05:00

We tested the snow cover by setting a classic track on D, R, X and "Little M" and K. We left the tenderizer behind with a broken shear pin four times, so the test says the snow is still too thin to groom. We need at least fifteen cm of additional snow before we go out again.

If you are interested in the technicalities of grooming, read the grooming policy newly posted on the DRXC website.

Conditions:
D, R, X and "Little M" have a new track which will degrade a lot today. There are nasty things hidden just under the surface on both loops and extensive icy spots on R. The icy spots will become wet in milder weather.

X is just too rough to relax on and the wooden ends of both bridges are exposed and hazardous. The creek ice has recently collapsed as the water level dropped and you should count on slush and thin ice -- don't misjudge your bridge approach!!

M has a well-trodden but not icy skating surface from Dec. 28 and a skier-set classic track.

C is reportedly very sketchy, read thin, ungroomed and pretty unpleasant. S, H and B must be similar but rougher.

The rough downhills on S, H and B should be considered extremely hazardous by all skiers. This means likelyhood of severe sprains, dislocations, broken bones, concussion, ....

It's white, but .....

2012-01-02T20:26:00.003-05:00

M-loop, which now has the smoothest terrain in the DRXC system, was lightly groomed on Dec 28 in scant snow cover, mainly for base preparation. The depth of snow is still insufficient to attempt general grooming.

Two experienced skiers reported that S and B are not enjoyable. This means that novices should consider these loops to be extremely hazardous because of very rough terrain. Two large trees are reported down on H, with a promise of removal Jan. 3.

Is it over?

2011-03-19T08:50:00.002-04:00

My tongue is permanently bitten as usual at this season. Many people assume everyone is happy to see the snow melting. I long to say, "You obviously do not go outside all winter anyway, why would you care?" There, now you can say it for me.

There follow some truths about grooming ski trails.

The DRXC snowmobiles rely on loose snow for engine cooling -- the moving drive track has to throw snow up onto a cooling panel in the top of the track box. The snowmobiles also rely on loose snow to lubricate the "sliders", two tough plastic (?) bars that carry most of the weight of the machine on the track under them. If you think of the track as a roadway that is laid down as the machine moves along, the sliders perform exactly like the runners on a snow sled.

As for the "snow", at -8 degrees this morning, the surface of the trails is glassy but rough. Grooming this stuff is like driving in broken glass. It is an extremely tough pull, which makes the machines use a lot of gas, which leads to a lot of waste heat and a lot of down force on the sliders. You can see where this is leading if I point out that icy snow does not fly about under the machine basically at all.

All of this applies to skate skiing. If you want grooves for classic skiing, you can't get there from here. As they reputedly say in New York, "fuggedaboudit". (Look it up on Google.)

As for the skiing, the crunched-up snow is not fun to ski on until the sun softens it and it gets water in it. So, as the sun goes down and the skiers leave (mostly!), lots of ruts are left to freeze overnight, and it all has to be repeated the next day, presuming the motors are not seized from over heating.

I think maybe the trails are toast for another year.

Some of us enjoy finding a large expanse of crust somewhere and skiing on that. Crust skiing, especially skating, can be exhilarating, but my crust testing says that the crust is still weak, especially in the sun. If it is not obvious, be warned that it smarts if you break through the crust at speed.

Happy spring, everyone.

Great snow, poor timing.

2011-03-06T18:57:00.003-05:00

After 12.5 man-hours of hard slogging, the new snow is groomed on D, R, X, C, M, S (to The Top), H and K. One 450kg snowmobile fell off the edge of the track into the deep snow three times and there were many large boughs across the river loops, mainly on C. For comparison, it takes about 3 man-hours to groom these trails in "normal" conditions.

The intention was to salvage as much of the weekend skiing as possible given that we could not groom yesterday. The afternoon skiers were the happy beneficiaries.

We had significant traction problems on H and decided not to attempt the steep hills on S and B for now. Hopefully soon.

It snowed again -- just in time for winter.

2011-03-05T10:34:00.003-05:00

A large snowfall. It has been so many years, I thought Nature had forgotten how.

Wet snow is not groomable, so we have to wait until the temperature drops for a few hours, which probably means tomorrow morning.

Later....

It snowed again -- sort of.

2011-02-28T23:01:00.002-05:00

We ran the track setter around all of our trails this evening. This is a first for this season! There is only about half-enough new snow to make a good track, but we did not turn up much ice, so klister wax should not be necessary. (Don't quote me!) We also rolled M, H and S for skating.

Everything is very hard underneath the new snow. C and S are barely civilized and B is ridiculously bumpy.

There it was -- gone.

2011-02-19T08:43:00.002-05:00

This morning, it is a challenge to write positive sentences. The Jackrabbit program is in the process of being cancelled for today. The wind chill is -22C, the snow is still very wet under the surface and the blowing snow will immediately wipe out any benefits of grooming -- if wet snow were groomable in the first place.

And so, the best skiing for 20 years on the DRXC trails lasted just about one week. Not very many skiers were here to experience it.

Grooming will proceed in stages as personnel and conditions permit.

Peaceful skiing, beautiful clear days

2011-02-10T11:22:00.007-05:00

M, H and S have now been restored to service for classic + skate skiers. H is reasonably flat, but S is still extremely bumpy with unexpected soft spots because of the very uneven ground underneath the snow. B is still ungroomed and it also is extremely rough. The surface water trouble spots seem to be frozen at last, but there are only 2 or 3 cm of fluffy snow on top of the ice. We may attempt to open B-loop this week.

D, R and X still have the excellent Silver Spoon track with this week's new snow on top and further grooming will not improve the skiing. If it snows some more, a new track will be set. C-loop still cannot be set with the new grooming equipment. If some helpers can be convinced to come out and shovel for most of a day, we may be able to subdue this pesky loop. No promises.

In view of the predicted several days with above-zero daytime highs and the very small number of skiers this week, the skiing will probably last longer with minimum grooming -- better to leave some fluffy snow around to groom on top of the boiler plate.

A brief update

2011-02-06T15:27:00.003-05:00

The Silver Spoon Ski Fest and orienteering events have now run their courses and the trails are in many respects as good as they get. The tracks on D, R and X are heavily used, but appear to be in very good condition. C-loop remains skied only and not track-set recently, but is reported to be quite friendly and fun.

M-loop has the Silver Spoon classic track on "best racing line"; translated, the track is on average in the middle of the trail and cuts the corners gently. Very short sections of the track have been crushed by the team that retrieved the race signs, not much of a problem in general, and most of the track is like new. The bottom of the M-loop track is glazed and will be very hard after the temperature drops. M-loop is, at last, much smoother than previously and skate-skiing is as good as it gets except for the placement of the classic track.

The first ascent on S-loop and the first descent on H-loop remain in excellent skating condition with no classic track. The back sections of S and H have the recent snowfall relatively intact, with a reasonable classic track, but deep-snow skating. B remains ungroomed.

Had the weekend's temperature been colder, additional grooming would have been possible today. Since it is very detrimental to drive the machines on damp or wet snow, grooming will resume over the coming week on cold snow.

Is it REALLY snowing?

2011-02-02T09:11:00.003-05:00

The snow is coming at a really awkward time, but someone said "Nature is a Mother".

The Mackenzie High School Invitational (skate-ski) race goes on M, S, H and K loops tomorrow from 0900h until 1400h. There will be mobs of young people having fun around the chalet and many vehicles on the road until mid-afternoon. (This race was postponed from today, Feb.2, because of a school bus snow day.) In addition, signage for the Silver Spoon race will go out on the trails tomorrow and/or Friday, which will cause minor inconvenience to touring skiers.

M-loop has no track now and will not have one until late Friday. Apologies for this, but M is so rough that nasty things are still not well covered and experience tells us that we will only get one chance to set a track.

D, R and X loops are in the best condition for years right now, but will not be groomed up again until late Friday.

DRXC members and others are respectfully requested to keep strictly off freshly set tracks on the race course from late Friday afternoon until Saturday morning.

If you are one of those people who think that fresh snow on a ski trail is heaven, you are in luck.

The best yet

2011-01-28T20:33:00.002-05:00

For the first time this season, I think you can probably use good skis! The steady light snowfall has transformed the trails and there is more good quality track than bad, a welcome change. Note that there were definitely obstacles that the track setter hit, but only 3 or 4 in total and all were rather gentle. A skier reported rocks on M and H skate trails, but the roller did not find them.

D, R, X, M, H and S have classic tracks. M and H have good skating snow and S has been rolled wide for the first time. This grooming required 5 km to roll K, 15 km of skate track rolling and 19 km of track setting.

S is still extremely bumpy because of subsidence over running water and has to be called dangerous for everyone.

B and C were not groomed. C is still too thin to groom near the river and B still has large washed-out areas with no snow on the ground.

Enjoy!

Thicker still

2011-01-19T08:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's snowfall added several centimetres and the depth of new snow for the week appears to be approx. 15 cm. I set 15 km of classic track and rolled 5 km of the skating trails plus K. For the statisticians, this grooming required 33 km of driving. 6 km of the driving was for K alone.

D, R, X, M, H and S are trackset. M and H have been rolled wide and S was rolled single pass. B and C were not groomed.

The grooming implements still hit ground on every loop, even with non-agressive grooming.

S is still not recommended because it remains seriously bumpy. The main reason it was rolled once was to make it driveable in the event of enough additional snow. B is much more bumpy than S and will require a major snowfall, or an army of shovellers.

C was not groomed because the previous work there did more damage to the track-setter than any other single usage.

Thicker again -- a little.

2011-01-16T13:20:00.002-05:00

Deep River and area skiers turned out in their usual enthusiastic numbers to enjoy the new snow yesterday. The best estimate of depth of fluffy new snow is 6 cm. A soft track was set everywhere but B this morning, but there is still not enough fine-grained snow on top of the ice for the track setter to work properly.

S-loop is crazy rough and is definitely "Ski at your own risk". B remains ungroomed, with the same warning. The principal reason for the roughness on S and B is the persistence of washouts, some of which are in very hazardous locations. Water is still running under the snow and new washouts can appear at any time, from one day to the next and even just as you start to ski over one!

The grooming uncovered rocks and roots on all trails, especially C-loop.

Many skiers still do not appreciate that newly groomed snow requires hours to set up. Think of it like putting mud on wallboard -- you have to leave it alone for a few hours. So, I apologise to Anne and Diane, who understandably did not like me to curtail their Saturday morning ski, but I had no other time to do that small job for the afternoon Jackrabbit group. As it happened, the snow never did set up properly that day, so the K area was still mushy at 4 p.m.

Some days are worse than others. Murphy said it best: "The best laid plans of mice and men ............... are roughly equal.

Thinner still.

2011-01-14T09:49:00.003-05:00

All DRXC trails are now ungroomable. The predictions for "up to" 10 cm of snow should salvage this weekend, but 10 cm is a useless skiffle as far as grooming is concerned.

M and H loops now have rocks appearing like magic, so old skis are definitely recommended. The M-loop downhill is scraped off by snow-plowing and speed control is only possible without skis. Walk off to the side of the prepared snow in the untouched snow; snow cover is not deep enough to make walking difficult. At any time, snow-plowing may uncover a rock or root on the M hill and personal injury from tripping at speed is a distinct possibility.

The snow on the bridges is thinner than everywhere else. There should be NO SKATING on any bridge. Once the bridge cover starts to break, the danger of a fall into the stream will be dramatically higher and there is more than enough fast-moving water to drown someone.

Thinner and thinner......

2011-01-08T20:09:00.002-05:00

I attempted to set a better track in the new snow on the smoother trails: K R X D M up S and down H. The track looked much better than it was, but at least the ice and needles are covered up for now. By the end of the day, the track was very shallow everywhere. Further track setting may be impossible -- no one should hold his/her breath about that!

Skiing on the new snow was as magical as always, but the skier traffic was up to Deep River's usual high standard and everything will be very hard by Sunday. Trail cover is now approximately 10 cm of white ice covered by 1 cm of compressed new snow. A few rocks on M and S have no ice cover and are not always visible. Any high spot certainly has something besides snow somewhere underneath it and less than 2 cm down.

The S downhill is snow-plowed off and far too bumpy to be safe in these snow conditions. Skiers at all levels of competence risk serious injury if they ski there. C has "about 100" rocks covered only by the new snow, or not! B is ungroomed and hazardous.

Dance for snow. Bring back suitcases of snow from your ski trips. No contribution is too small.

Not too bad, considering!

2011-01-03T14:06:00.002-05:00

The title is a quote from our DRXC past president earlier today.

In summary, the classic track is still quite skiable, although very hard underneath and rather shallow. The little bit of fresh snow has covered up the forest debris, but it has also obscured the high spots that are even more prominent after the thaw. My judgement says that I cannot improve the classic track, and so I will leave it alone. The C-loop rocks are reportedly standing tall, in which case there are more just under the surface.

I scratched up the skate snow on K and little M, including M-extension, and I turned up sand in four spots on K. I drove about 25 km to accomplish this and the base is still extremely hard and slick. One intrepid young skier was skating around M-loop over and over this morning, so it must be tolerable or better. The teeth on the Trail Tenderizer are already showing several dings, so I am planning to wait for a little more snow before I tenderize M any further.

Rain -- YUK!

2010-12-28T22:08:00.002-05:00

The forecast is for rain and thaw soon. Please consider staying off the trails while the snow is wet. Spread the word. Compacted wet snow turns to ice that is completely ungroomable and unskiable.

In addition. right now you will easily punch through the thin wet snow to whatever is underneath -- not fun and it might even hurt. Don't do it. Please.

Hopefully, Deep River will remain colder than the rest of the province. I'm holding my breath.

Caution: very thin snow!

2010-12-21T12:19:00.003-05:00

The DRXC trail system has now been groomed and trackset except for B-loop, which is too rough for this amount of snow. The grooming has improved the skiing, but the ground is very close to the surface. Based on how often the groomers hit ground, D, R and M have the fewest high spots, perhaps two dozen in total. X and H have more while C and S are ridiculous. The C-loop hazards all tend to be rocks, which grab skis very effectively.

All skate surfaces and set tracks definitely have sand, logs or rocks right at the surface, possibly not very visible. If you see a foot-stool-size lump, e.g. S-loop, there is definitely something hard inside -- not just snow.

S-loop is especially hazardous because of uneven terrain and surface water that is undermining large sections of the trail. Someone broke into one of the puddles that was probably not visible ahead of time.

Especially note that there is a big (enough for a small person to curl up inside) sink hole in the most hazardous possible location on the left side at the bottom of the first S downhill -- bear right as you cross the stream, or fall down ahead of time if necessary. The set track was intended to help skiers to ski past this hole, but the snow is not firming up well and no one should depend on the track. Remember routine trail etiquette -- if you make a sitzmark, FILL IT IN afterward.

Deja vu.

2010-12-17T21:00:00.004-05:00

We have not seen a foot of snow and the river frozen over at mid-December for many years. What used to happen next was frequent small snowfalls and no significant thaws until March 30. I live in hope.

We knew that the single-track snowmobiles that we purchased would not pack snow as easily as the old double-track machines, so opening trails is going slowly. As of today, Dec 17, there are good tracks on D, R, X and M and a reasonable skating surface on M. H and S are packed and rolled. C and B have not been groomed at all yet because they are the roughest.

The plan is to try to set a track on C and pack B, followed by rolling B and then setting a track on H, S and B. Hopefully, this can be completed before Christmas.

The ground is still very close to your skis, so scratches in your ski bases are a definite hazard. Also, there are wet spots on S and presumably also on R.

Happy skiing and Merry Christmas.

That's all, folks.

2010-03-07T08:28:00.002-05:00

Further grooming this season is unlikely without a major snowfall. Soon. Snow will only bear so much traffic and the most used trails, D, R, X, C and M are past their limit. The outer skating trails are probably quite skiable for another day or two of this ridiculous mild weather, but M is so beaten down, dirty and ungroomable that it is not much fun to get out to H and S.

Skiers should beware that the trails will start to collapse soon. For the inexperienced, please know that all of the trails consist of a crust that is bridging lots of dips and hollows filled with weak snow. When the crust gets soft enough, your weight will break it, possibly unexpectedly. You might, for example, get all the way out to a sunny downhill without breaking the crust and then go through on your way down. This year, your ski will most likely go right through to the rocks when the crust breaks.

Some of us would be very happy to see a major snowfall, but not many people in the town sympathize very much. Especially when I am perverse enough to suggest that it is un-Canadian to dislike snow.

For better or for worse

2010-03-04T15:07:00.002-05:00

As promised, I waited until I was reasonably sure the groomer would not sink in wet snow, as happened to Brian at PAXC, and then towed a Tenderizer around M and the S/H spur (~5 km), three passes. I attempted to leave the classic "track" alone because I will not likely be able to set another. It does not appear to be enjoyable or much in use.

The skate skiing is much improved from its former condition. Berms from the edges of the Tenderizer were unavoidable and there are many ice cubes in places. As each day warms up, the snow will change from fast, frozen granular with ice-cube patches and hard ruts from yesterday's skaters, to mostly acceptable skating with treacherous frozen sections in the shade, to somewhat slushy sections. Rocks may be very close to or above the surface at any time, where "close" depends on how soft the snow is!

'Au naturel' skiing

2010-02-26T21:09:00.004-05:00

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

2010-02-21T18:00:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-02-13T19:59:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-04T17:36:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-02T07:54:00.002-05:00

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.

Too much ice

2010-01-30T07:43:00.002-05:00

Inspection of D-loop after the recent "grooming" shows many metres of ice frozen on the ground with a lot of debris from the trees on top. Driving the new tenderizer over these areas three times and following with the track setter had almost no effect, except to scrape the skiffle of new snow off the debris. Nowhere was the set track well formed.

In all decisions of whether to groom or not, the primary question is whether or not skiing will be improved. In the present circumstances and after a direct trial, the answer is not. It is pretty much a no-brainer to leave the new snow on top of the debris rather than to beat up the equipment for no gain. My senior grooming consultant agrees that further attempts to set tracks now are not warranted on the bush trails. We are essentially back at square one and we need several inches of new snow to start over again.

I note with interest that the entire Gatineau Park system was closed for several days because of mild weather. Even now, only half of the system is open and skiers are strongly recommended not to ski on the ungroomed trails because of dangerous ice. This is where we are, with two differences: 1) we cannot close our trails in mild weather, which results in even harder ice, and 2) the OPP drove on our snow at its wettest. Go figure.

Dangerous conditions

2010-01-28T22:00:00.002-05:00

The OPP snowmobiles left very deep ruts on many of the turns on all DRXC ski trails. The worst ruts are about 15 cm deep with 15 cm ridges of hard, lumpy ice frozen on the outside of the turn. I have started to flatten the trails, but my 800-lb snowmobile does not even come close to flattening the ruts. On all trails and especially on the downhills, these ruts require extreme caution to avoid a serious fall.

I flattened D-loop and the short M-loop and set a track of sorts. I also started to flatten H, S and B, to be continued. After one pass, the ruts are still very obvious and the snow that is scraped into the ruts is much softer than the rest of the track.

I am in the middle of arranging for local delivery of new equipment, assembling new equipment, grooming for weekend programs and planning grooming for the Silver Spoon. Do not expect quick restoration of good skiing anywhere soon.

Unhappy times

2010-01-25T15:34:00.004-05:00

I encountered several OPP Search & Rescue officers in the R-loop parking lot today, preparing to scour the area on skidoos. This may make the ski trails even worse than they might have been after this ridiculous weather. These officers are risking life and limb by driving on trails with weakened crust. We should all be grateful for their dedication and hope for their safety.

Lachlan has been missing for several days now. If prayer is an option for you, now would be a good time.

Two Firsts

2010-01-22T20:16:00.003-05:00

A few skate-skiers pointed out that H, S and B loops might benefit from grooming, so I took out a "bed-frame" with an old Ski-Doo and smoothed those loops. I apologise for not doing this sooner, but I assumed that those loops had been flattened during the mild weather, like M-loop which remains completely ungroomable.

Unfortunately for some, there is now no track on H, S and B. This is a first. I cannot set a track out there on the downhills, which are like M-loop, so there seemed little sense in taking out the track setter. I hope that those who much prefer those loops without a track will enjoy Saturday and then pray for snow, and that the classic skiers are not too inconvenienced.

The second first was that I was able to use a leaf rake to clear needles and twigs off the snow in several places. If I have my druthers, I shall never have to use a leaf rake on snow again!

Life is hard -- so are our trails

2010-01-19T08:06:00.002-05:00

Whoever coined that phrase about a rock and a hard place probably skied on our trails recently.

Much experience plus the guidelines that came with the new groomer dictate that it is a serious blunder to try to groom on wet snow, so we did not do that and the snow has now frozen. Our new "Ginzugroomer" is now wired up so that the operator can raise and lower the snow knives and the track setter and I tried out the knives on the power line yesterday. The technique is to take very light cuts to start and gradually lower the knives in subsequent passes. It took me 75 minutes to groom the power line with two passes and the second pass was too deep -- I should have been more gradual in lowering the knives. Because the knife array is less than 1 metre wide, this operation required more than 15 km of driving, all with relatively hard pulling.

Present and former groomers are in agreement that there are still many places on the trails where a knife groomer like ours will stub its toes on rocks and roots, even with very light cuts. This has great potential to seriously damage the groomer and also the snowmobile and the club executive has recommended that we not risk equipment damage.

In addition, there is only so much "life" in the snow. Thus, while the powerline is now quite good for skate skiing, if there is another thaw or damp day, it will end up harder than it was and also harder to groom.

Considering all the factors together, for example the moratorium on high-school ski practices this week and the possibility that there may be more thaws and little more snow before the three races here early in February, I feel it is prudent to leave the trails alone for now. I wish it could be different!

Happy Weekend

2010-01-09T13:23:00.002-05:00

All DRXC Deep River east trails have been groomed and trackset as of about 9 a.m. this morning (Sat.). More trees came down during the week, mostly from snow and ice on the branches. D, R, X & C were clear last evening and the skating trails this morning. Skiers should be vigilant in looking far enough ahead to allow time to throw out an anchor and stop if the trail is blocked.

The snow is, however, thin and increasingly crusty. The tracks set last evening and this morning are poorly formed and crumbly, and in hindsight, you may have been better served if I had kept the machines in the garage.

I now have no equipment that can improve the skiing before significantly more snow falls, except perhaps on the powerline ("K-loop") and part of M loop. Since I struck obstacles under the snow on C-loop with the old tracksetter, I will be assessing whether attempting to use the new small groomer has more benefits than risks. It would be unfortunate to damage it seriously so soon after its arrival!

Note that this blog is one way. I did not initially enable return messages from readers, but now that an old friend has promised me a complimentary message, I am tempted. I will post any developments in this direction.

It's still snowing!

2010-01-06T07:55:00.002-05:00

D, R, X and C loops were track-set on Sunday. I had a report on Monday that the tracks were already quite hard. I had to cut off and move twenty or twenty-five tall saplings because they were hanging into the trail. Different trees continue to bend over farther and obstruct the trail every day and several people are taking a saw with them to clear the trails as they ski.

Touring skiers are strongly encouraged to give overhanging branches a strong tug as they pass. This usually dislodges the heavy clinging snow and allows the tree to rebound out of the trail.

Yesterday (Tue.), all of M, H, S and B were rolled and trackset. Removal of many obstructions slowed this work. Rolling is new for DRXC and the result looked wonderful. However, the snow did not harden very well, partly because the temperature rose during the day, so the skating trail is patchy-soft and broken up by skiers. The classic track seems better with a firm bottom.

The rocks seem well covered now, but the track-setter was still bouncing on the R-loop corduroy logs. The snow is still quite thin over the high rocks and the saving grace is the layer of wet stuff that fell and froze on boxing day.

Love that snow.

2010-01-02T07:46:00.002-05:00

We managed to roll the Kids' area, also called the powerline, and set tracks for Jackrabbits. M, S and B were packed, but H was not touched because of ice-laden branches hanging into the trail. A volunteer will work on the branches today (Sat.). Say thanks to Bruce if you see him. No trails have been track-set since the snowfall.

Grooming effort is limited during this family holiday time and we will confine grooming to late afternoons and evenings during the weekend. If skiers aim to finish by 4 p.m., grooming is easier and the skiing is nicer.

We have some issues to solve as we learn to use the new equipment. In addition, the bulk of our new equipment order will not likely arrive before late February. One of the two new snowmobiles has a fault that requires attention and we are not using it at present. These issues mean that grooming will be slower than ideal.

We will start moving snow by hand into the rough trails, so skiers should not be surprised to find a snowmobile parked to the side of a trail. It is particularly important to ski the trails in the conventional direction during this activity so that we can park the snowmobile in a safe spot.

Christmas break

2009-12-26T09:13:00.002-05:00

This blog will not be updated again until Jan. 3, plus or minus. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Boilerplate

2009-12-21T08:42:00.002-05:00

What I found out there yesterday is called "eastern boilerplate". I first heard these words applied to snow conditions in 1970, my first year in Deep River, so this is an expected phenomenon. For the non-technical people out there, boilerplate originally meant a piece of hard, flat, smooth steel intended for the manufacture of a pressure vessel. Paint it white and you have our ski trails right now.

In the equipment yard near the DRXC chalet, you can find the remains of a welded-up groomer that we made in the 80s to attempt to break up boilerplate. It was bent beyond repair by a hidden root after only about 1.5 km. The moral of the story is that we have no equipment to deal with boilerplate, even if we had enough snow to keep from hitting roots and rocks.

All of the set tracks are hard and bumpy, so the downhills are quite hazardous. These are ski-breaking, joint-dislocating conditions. Beware.

The Christmas grooming

2009-12-18T22:34:00.002-05:00

An effort was made to make the skiing as good as possible with the existing snow, for the Christmas season. All of the groomed trails were packed and a classic track was set everywhere but H, the M extension and the power line. Smoothing with a "bedframe" was done for the first time on M, the S uphill and the H downhill, "the High-School loop".

D, R, X, and M should have a good track for classic. Snow cover is still thin and the track setter deflected off obstacles a few times. Rock skis are recommended.

C, S and B have a track, but rougher than the other loops.

Small-M should have good skate-skiing. M-loop will be smoother now, but more rocks and roots will be closer to the surface and there will be soft spots before and after the bumps where the bedframe dumped snow. The High-School loop is very rough with major bare spots and holes, especially at the bottom. The alders will also be a challenge on H.

At least one of the groomers had Handel's Messiah in mind today ...."The crooked made straight and the rough places plain".

Merry Christmas. Enjoy the skiing while it lasts.

Tuesday, Dec 15

2009-12-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

The snow was dry in the morning, so I set a single track on D, R, X, M and the powerline. The new snow set up quite quickly leaving a nice firm track, but the track was not well formed everywhere -- too little snow. R-loop had no wet snow after I drove over the wet spots, but that can change quickly.

I also repacked small M for skating. I am not planning to groom the powerline again until closer to Jack-Rabbits, to maintain workable snow in case of a thaw while almost no one is using it. I will experiment with smoothing M for skating, but I can already see the ground on small-M and skaters should not hold their breath for good skating on M-loop.

B and C are still very risky for skis and skiers.

We are now the proud possessors of two beautiful Yamaha snowmobiles. These are the long-track, 3-cylinder, liquid-cooled machines designed for professional use. We will have to continue to use the 15-year-old Alpines for packing new snow until the new grooming implements arrive, hopefully before the new year.

'09 Dec 14

2009-12-14T21:18:00.001-05:00

It's snowing, life is good. The plan is to groom on Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 15) after most of the snow is down and the new snow starts to dry out. With so little snow, we cannot groom more than once and it will be a mistake to drive on the snow too soon. Keep up the snow dances -- good work so far.

2009 Dec 12

2009-12-13T18:17:00.001-05:00

All of the club's townsite trails have been machine packed. A classic track was set on D. "Small-M" and the power line were smoothed for skating and a track was set.

Average depth of compacted snow varies from 5 cm in the woods to 7 cm where no trees are overhead to less than 2 cm over any visible bump. Expect to hit hidden roots and rocks on all trails. B and C are in very hazardous condition, for skis and for skiers.