Feb 16 2018
It doesn’t look too bad out there. We had to leave one area alone – two big wet spots that would melt any snow that we put in before it drains and freezes more. Lots of spots with dirty snow (tree debris), but it’ll be open another couple days at least!
Feb 16 2018
C and the Flash (photo doesn’t exactly reflect current conditions)
Open, 38º at 7am, with the temperatures dropping all day with a low of 5º tonight. Looks like most of the day we will be at 35º with snow flakes in the forecast for this afternoon. It got pretty warm yesterday, and didn’t freeze overnight. Please check in during the day to day to see if anything has changed.
22km open. Wet, corn snow base. No grooming today. With the temp falling all day, it will get faster and firmer. Again, check in during the day to see if there are any changes. I am hoping The Thunder Bolt Kid can save us from this weather.
Watch for wet spots/emerging obstacles on Chickadee and Middle and Upper Bluejay. We will send out shovelers this afternoon, and the groomers late tonight. We will definitely have 11km for tomorrow, and probably Chickadee too which would make 17km. Depending how solid the snow is, and how many wet spots melted, we might get Middle and Upper Bluejay open too. We have about 15 inches of snow on the ground at the high point on Bluejay, so there’s plenty to work with – if we can jam a shovel into it.
Man, oh man, I will say it again, I prefer cold weather! I will take below 0º. I will not complain. I know it was hard on equipment. But, this is getting old, the repeating warm, wet, cold, snow, repeat.
On a sugaring note, Chuck and Ian have some new equipment to add to the evaporator. A new blower has been installed, the arch is being rebricked and then the pans will go on the arch. On top of that they have a pre-heater and steam hood to add. And then a couple of new tubing lines up above. Wow. Chuck has been working on the sugaring operation to get us ready to go in 10 days or so.
Feb 15 2018
Open, 22km double tracked, 32º at 7am. Forecast high 45º and cloudy. (The picture above is Mary a couple years ago. I like the picture, it makes me smile.)
Good spring skiing. The snow has “corned up” and the skiing is really good. Corn snow is snow with a rough granular surface resulting from alternate thawing and freezing.
There is more of the typical 2018 weather pattern warm coming up: rain, snow, cold, warm, repeat. We are going to just keep grooming and skiing until we can’t. We will have the best skiing we can have. I do not have a crystal ball and I don’t know how the skiing will be 5 days from now, or 2 weeks from now. All I can tell you is our skiing is excellent now, and we will do our best to keep you skiing as long as possible. Remember when the temperatures are warm the dirt roads start to get muddy.
Yesterday was fun and the folks who skied had a great ski and a great time. Check out the gallery below.
Helena and her mom.
Feb 14 2018
Nice tracks in the field from Feb. 13.
Open, 18º at 7am. Forecast high 40º.
Good spring skiing on 22 km. The tracks are in and the skiing is noice.
I am not a Vermonter, but I can spell “noice” like the best of them, by-jeezum. We did not ski on Monday, letting the rain soaked snow dry out and it worked. Tuesday morning it groomed out nicely. The skiing yesterday was good, and today will be just as good, getting softer as the temperature goes up. Give yourself time to ski a couple of hours, it will be worth it.
Ian and Chuck watched the finals of the sprints yesterday. Jesse was 6th and Sophie was 8th. That is pretty darn good. We are so proud of our home town girl, Sophie, and Jesse, her teammate from Minnesota. And all the other nordic skiers representing the US.
Tracy & Jesse Diggins
