Open, 15º at 7 am and partly sunny. Forecast high 23º and sun, clouds, and maybe a snow flake.

The skiing is really, really good on 18 km, Woodcock, Snow Goose, Turkey, Grouse, Goshawk, Peregrine and Chickadee. Loon, 2 km, has not been groomed since the crust, people are skiing it as is. (I do not know how it is.) Upper and Middle Blue Jay, 5 km, have been snow mobile groomed over the crust and are a back country ski experience.

Ian groomed everything last night, and it all set up nicely. Overnight we got another half inch of snow. After the snow a coyote wandered all over by the house and barn looking for a nice gray squirrel meal. Above are the coyote tracks, after the snow in the ski track Ian put in last night.

This is what the tracks looking like before the snow:

And a shot of the coyote tracks from above with my mitten for size reference.

And right this minute out there, a winter wonderland.

Open, 17º at 6:30 am 2.5 inches overnight and snowing. Forecast high 24º and a little more snow. The skiing will be nice. Ian is grooming this morning, loose granular with powder in and on top. The woods will be quiet again, and lovely. Woodcock, Snow Goose, Turkey, Grouse, Peregrine and Chickadee are open today. 17 km of classic and 6 km skate.

Ian worked on the Chickadee for the last couple of days, it is ground up, with the new snow and good to ski. I think it will have a double track today. let me know. I wouldn’t take a beginner up there. Chuck’s mom always said snow conditions can and do change the level of a trail from blue to black, from green to blue, depending on the snow conditions. Just be aware and make smart decisions.

Please stay off the Middle and Upper Blue Jay. Ian is hoping to get the new snow to stick and wants one more day. He will try to open Middle and Upper Blue Jay on Saturday.

We are again, grateful to the person inside the groomer and the machine itself. Big shout out and virtual hug to man and machine!

Open, 13º at 7 am and cloudy. Maybe it will snow a little today with a high around 23º. The low trails are open, Woodcock, Snow Goose, Turkey, Grouse and Peregrine. It is 12 km with classic tracks, and 6 km skate.

The skiing is good. It is faster than we are used to after a month of slow powdery snow. The snow is frozen granular. It is sugary where the big PistenBully has been with the power tiller. This is the same machine the downhill areas use.

The Chickadee and Blue Jay need more snow to get them open. Maybe it will snow today. I’ll let you know tomorrow. In the mean time, the skiing is slower in the morning right after Ian grooms. If the sun comes out it softens the snow and the skiing gets a little slower. But that means when the sun goes down, the skiing gets faster.

Here are a couple photos from our friend Andrew Leber. Thanks for sharing Andrew:

Andrew has invested in a number of vintage film cameras, has built a dark room and is practicing his art.

Open, 10º at 6:30 am and sunny. Forecast high 21º and sunny. Loose frozen granular base, with a track set, or double track. 12 km classic and 6 km skate.

The skiing is good, on the trails Ian can take the snow cat on. Today we have Turkey, Woodcock, Snow Goose, Grouse, Goshawk and Peregrine. Not today, Chickadee and Upper and Middle Blue Jay.

The top and bottom photos from this morning, finger and all. Part of the trail below has been groomed, part hasn’t, you can see the difference. This will all be groomed by the time he is finished going around.

We had 2.5 inches of sleet that absorbed some freezing rain and rain. It was heavy and wet. The temperature went to 36º and the snow slide off the metals roofs. The crust, where the groomer did not grind up the snow is thick. Thick enough to walk on until you break through. The kind of crust a kid could stay on top of, but you couldn’t.