Apr 13 2019
Boiling by headlamp. 2019
Closed for skiing for the season. If you have a season pass you can still ski. There are a few bare spots. And the snow is dirty. Andy had the best day on Thursday. The corn snow was nice.
We are gathering and boiling today, for the last time this season. If you want to come on by and join in the fun, it is always nice to have company. Bring snacks.
Apr 10 2019
Looking back it is no wonder we are all tired. If you missed November and December, 2018, here is the link. And I plan to do 1 or 2 more. Thanks for a great season.
January 1st: rain and a high of 45º, closed.
At the starting line. January 2, 2018.
January 2nd, we hosted a high school race. Almost every other Nordic center south of Craftsbury was closed. Ian groomed it up and the race was on. About 80 kids. Super fast conditions! First race on the Peregrine, we cut out the steepest downhills. Ian co-coaches the Burr and Burton high school Nordic team and this year/season they had been on their skis since Thanksgiving. And they truly had the home court advantage.
The weather trend continued: one day snow, a day to enjoy, then rain, then snow. Work, work, work. Throw in boughs. shovel, cover, do it again. Snow, rain, snow. And run that groomer.
On January 9th 6.8 inches of snow. Heavy sticky snow man snow. Catie and Graham built a snowman. And Ian groomed and shoveled on the Chickadee and most of it was open the 10th.
The 10th thru the 19th the skiing was fairly consistant: good skiing, rolling along, grooming with the Ranger/Ginzu, and the snow machine. Normal winter work.
Good skiing on the 19th, the Saturday of Martin Luther King weekend. Major snow storm in the forecast, up to 18 inches of snow Saturday night and Sunday. Late Saturday afternoon Ian was checking all the machines. Gas, all in working order, etc.
In the north field on Wednesday, 2/6/2019.
The Ranger, new last February had broken strut cables. Too late on Saturday to get the parts. Out of commission. Ian called his friend John, might need your machine as a back up. We still had the snow machine, it would work, it would just take longer.
January 20th, Sunday morning, 10 inches of snow and it switched to sleet. It wasn’t the forecast 18″, but, that was ok. 10 inches is 10 inches and now with sleet it was a great base for skiing, and still a lot of work to groom.
Ian started really early, 4am. By 5am he had the long trails packed and the snow had turned to sleet. And he was almost done with Turkey when the snow machine quit moving forward. The transmission was blown. He texted his friend John for help with a spare groomer. And John says, “Hell yeah, I’ll drive it over.” By 6:30 John and the groomer were here, I drove John home. Ian groomed as much as he could. Another friend, Jonathan came over and rode around with Ian for moral support. Nice to have good friends!
The beginning of a new weather trend? Snow then sleet. Snow is great and once packed down, we get really good skiing. But with sleet, it packs down faster and we get good skiing with less trips around. But, no, not done with rain yet.
January 21st and 22nd, high temperatures around 0º and windy. Good skiing, but cold.
Janurary 22nd we are the proud owners of a new snow machine (quieter, less exhaust fumes, more fuel efficient! And it is red.).
January 23rd, nice skiing early, then freezing rain in the afternoon. Trails iced over in a flash.
January 24th, closed, rain. 1.37 inches as of 7am.
January 25th, closed. The rain total as of 7am on the 25th was 2.28 inches. For a two day total of 3.65 inches of rain. Ian reports, “Lower trails aren’t too bad.” (Upper trails were pretty bad.)
This is Chuck and me fixing one of the major wash outs on the Chickadee. This is the spot at the bottom of the downhill, just before the 2nd road crossing. This spots has washed out before with big rains, we knew it would need work.
This is what did in the Loon for so long. 1/26/2019
Janurary 26th, Ian checks the upper trails and the Chickadee and Loon have major melt outs.
Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to work we go.
On the 27th we organized a 2nd major shovel brigade. Our friends were visiting, and true to form Lena volunteered herself and her children to help any way possible. Mindy stopped at the hardware store and bought two more large scoop push shovels. And on Sunday morning at 8am, crews headed out to put the Chickadee back together. Chuck with Lena and the boys, pictured above. Jonathan and Mindy on the north part of Chickadee and around, and Andy on the Middle Blue Jay. Holy smokes. There were some major holes/wet spots.
The last few days of January, the skiing was good, really good. But lots of time was still spent shoveling, getting base in, hoping it was for the rest of the winter. Getting Waite’s Place Loop, the Upper and Middle Blue Jay skiable again. And this year we did that again and again. Ian and Dick shoveled some more on Upper Blue Jay. And Ian finished up Middle Blue Jay on his own. Whew, baby what a month.
Apr 07 2019
Still skiing for season pass holders. Starting to see ground in a couple spots. 55º today and partly sunny.
Yesterday this post was sent out by mistake. It was still only a draft. It happens. I worked on it some more and here are a few highlights from November and December. Over the next week I will do the rest of the winter. 2 or 3 more posts.
Thanks for being part of the family.
A few highlights from November and December:
Wood moving day. Two inches of snow and 5 cords of wood. 11/10/2018
The first snow came November 10th. Two inches of snow on the ground. This day had already been scheduled as “wood moving day”. We moved 5 cords of 2 foot wood into the basement, with the help of family. I asked about waiting a week, so the snow would be gone. I was outvoted and it was a good thing!
John, with the weed eater, Bill with the loppers, finishing up the Peregrine. 11/12/2018
Bill skied the Peregrine for the first time November 12th. This was also the day Bill and John did the final clean up on the Peregrine. Bill clipped and John used a weed eater. Turned out to be a good thing, we still haven’t seen the ground.
On November 17th and 18th season Pass holders started skiing. Ian had the Peregrine, Turkey, Grouse, Woodcock and Snow Goose packed and a track in.
On Monday the 19th, The Peregrine was groomed and being skied. This was the day Gretchen got this great video of Patrick, John and Leo skiing the last drop off. (Best viewed full screen.)
On the 20th of November Ian started working to fill in the holes in the trails that were full of water. Remember we had 10.5 inches of rain in October, and the ground was not frozen. He started cutting up balsam trees and laying the branches in the wet spots to catch the snow on top of the branches. Filling water holes would be a recurring theme through the third week in January.
Thanksgiving was the 22nd, season pass holders were skiing.
This is what it looked like 11/23/2018.
On the 23rd, we officially opened, earliest first day ever. The trails were beautiful, nice skiing on the low trails.
The forecast on the 25th was for heavy snow, and Ian said, “I hope not the kind of snow that sticks on trees and bends trees and branches over.”
And on November 26th, a Monday, it started snowing. A heavy, wet snow. 10.5 inches by Tuesday morning. The kind of snow that bowed branches. Some bowed, some broke or toppled over. But the mess would get bigger after another 4 inches of wet, heavy snow on Nov. 29th. Limbs and sticks down everywhere. A huge mess.
November ended as a record month, 40.5 inches of snow, earliest opening day, lots of good skiing and 3 to 4 trips around each trail to clean up the mess.
December 1st, good skiing and we pulled Christmas trees out of the woods on skis. Another first, skiing with the tree, not cutting it down.
On Dec. 2, closed, yucky, rainy weather. Ian and Andy went around the Middle Blue Jay to clean up the mess from the week before. Jonathan got his saw stuck in a huge maple tree that was down on the old Goshawk.
The rest of December was spent fixing water holes. Filling in wet spots with branches and shoveling snow on top to make a base.
A little bon fire, a little skiing. 12/20/2018
On December 20th, West River Sports hosted a winter solstice celebration at Wild Wings, they sure can build a fire. There were about 100 people, lots of kids on skis. The best.
This is what a long line of kids with head lamps look like. 12/20/2018
December continued to roll by, working on the trails, either with a shovel or a chain saw. On Dec. 21st and 22nd, it rained, 2.03 inches of rain. And somehow we were open again Dec. 23rd. (Ian and Dick are what got us open.)
Our original snow cat died on Dec. 26th.
And on Dec. 27th we hosted the first Wild Wings Jager Sprints. This event was at night by head lamp. I think Gretchen won the contest for the oldest ski suit. She wore Chuck’s ski suit from 1978.
At the Jager Meister. 12/27/2018
More rain on the 28th. On the 29th a large shoveling crew went out. Andy is holding the large push shovel on the left in the photo. We did so much shoveling this year and found that shovel to be the most useful. We now are the proud owners of 4 large push shovels.
We were open again on the 30th. Ian saw the Grouse on the Grouse. And got a picture!
Grouse on the Grouse.
By end of December we had been open 27 days. The winter already felt like a lot of work, but promising. Little did we know, the pattern would continue. Snow followed by rain. Lots of wind, leaving lots of sticks to pick up. But Ian just kept working, by himself or organizing crews, at keeping the trails cleaned up, filled in and well groomed.
Apr 06 2019
Finishing up and shutting down on Wednesday after the power went out.
Closed/Open for season pass holders, 34º and cloudy. High today 50º. Two inches of snow at midnight. By 7am, it had melted down to 1/2 an inch of snow. The new snow is heavy and wet. It will slow the skiing down. Expect variable conditions. Would be a good day for a Woodcock/Snow Goose ski. And you might run into a few sticks or branches from the wind Wednesday night. In gerneral the Peregrine and Upper and Middle Blue Jay have more snow. The very beginning of Chickadee after the road crossing has melted out. BUT, there are still no bare spots out there. Today and tomorrow at 50º might change that.
Have sap, will boil. We gathered yesterday. Ian is going to start the evaporator about 11am. Should have syrup by 12:30ish. Boil the afternoon away, gather again at about 3pm and keep on boiling. Hope to be done boiling by about 7pm. We will make about 8 gallons of syrup. Remember 40 gallons of sap makes about 1 gallon of syrup. And on our evaporator we make about 1 1/2 gallons an hour.
Big thank you to Chip and Fin and friends for helping gather this year. Ian is injured (an inconvenience, but not a big deal) and we are even more happy to have help!
AND, Dick, Chuck found your saw. If you don’t get up here, we will bring it down.
