Well, we're still hanging on despite the frequent warm spells. I got out last evening to grind up all the ice and debris that had formed and collected over the long weekend. There is no classic track anymore; some places got just a bit too thin for it on the edge of the trail. Instead, I focused on grinding up the trail and shoveling (and hauling) snow around to patch those few thin and eroding areas. Most of the trail looked quite good above the "new" Point B (B2). Above that, only around the "Rock" and that short portion below Point J looked bad, plus that very short section on the wooded downhill out of the lower meadow, just above Point O. I hauled snow to those points and shoveled what I could in anticipation of some new snow later this week. If it snows on what is on there now, it'll hold a lot better and extend the skiing for a while. Right now, skiing is continuous above Point A, but rather rough in the burn area. The front hill started off pretty good over the weekend, but looked pretty cooked by late yesterday.
Seems like we just can't catch a break with a good dump of snow to overcome the ever-increasing warm spells and ubiquitous thin base we've managed all season. But, looks like something is in the pipeline for tomorrow evening, through late next week. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope it keeps us going into March sometime. It seems like up to now, we've had an average of one good week, then one bad week, and repeat. Unfortunately, the bad interval seems to have increased a bit.
Quite often, this is a time of year that we get frequent wet storms that keep the skiing pretty good. The last couple of years, however, have not been good this time of the year. I think we got our last good storm around the first of March last season, only to have a nuclear meltdown within a few days. I hope that is not the case this season.
As I was out grooming and shoveling those bad places last evening, I had a strong sense of deja vu back to last season. It is almost identical. I hope we part with last year's pattern starting this week!
Anyway, the skiing will actually be quite good today with the trail all freshened and ground up. The meadows will be especially nice, just be careful on that short little spot on the lower meadow where it breaks over before descending into the woods. There are some big rocks there and I had a hard time shoveling there. The "snow" on the side of the trail there was so hard and crusty that I couldn't get any scoops out without breaking the shovel. Plus, it just skittered off the hard-pack anyway.
Think snow!
Clay
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