Open, 29º and cloudy. A dusting of new snow. Loose frozen granular skiing. Good, fast, and very skiable. Same old trails, Woodcock, Snow Goose, Turkey, Grouse, Goshawk, and Peregrine. 60% chance of a little more snow this afternoon.

Photo 1/6/2019

I say same old trails, but we are lucky to have 10 km of skiing! There are many factors that play into our skiing right now on such limited snow. Fall trail work to get the ground as clear and clean as possible. Ian working with an excavator last summer to smooth and level trails and drain water. On the new trail, Peregrine, Ian had Cameron Chalmers, from  Ogden and Chalmers Landscaping, come in build the trail and flatten and drain water as he made his way around the 3.3 km loop. Remember we had a very rainy October, 10+ inches.  Cameron and Ian built ditches and diverted water. In November when the snow started coming down Ian and whatever crew he could gather, went around the trails with pine branches and covered the wet spots with branches and then started shoveling snow to get the wet spots to freeze up. And that is how we built the base, which now allows us to ski on very little snow. Oh, and we are against the mountains and have the advantage of elevation, orographic precipitation. And we face northeast which protects us from snow eating southerly winds. So there you have it location, hard work and a little good fortune. And we are grateful.

A barred owl sitting at my friend, Donna’s bird feeder.

This barred owl was hoping to catch a mouse or red squirrel sneaking some bird seed. It was sitting outside Donna’s kitchen window. This photo is with her iPhone through the glass. Sometimes paying attention to our surroundings has huge payoffs.