January 7, 2019 Grooming Report
Today’s report is brought to you by the Dave and Joanne Buhl family: The Buhls sponsor the Mead Bypass Intersection on the Noque’. Without the support of folks the Buhl family we would not have the great trails we have come to expect. If you see them, say thanks.
Trail Builder sections are available. Please visit www.noquetrails.org and follow the links. You too can be feted in an up coming grooming report.
Forestville: Andy is running the Bombi from the ponds to 14k on the Noque’ and Animoosh.
Look out for truck traffic today at Forestville. NTN has purchased a new Piston Bully groomer! This is a fabulous piece of grooming equipment and is scheduled to arrive this afternoon. Please give the truck driver and crew extra space. The road may be closed right near the trail head as a result. This is a great thing but logistics may be difficult for a few hours today. More on this subject as well as comments on snow quality in the WTLGR below.
TRAIL – First Priority
Ponds to pines
Lower Animoosh Bombi groomed and tracked 1/7
Bombi groomed and tracked 1/7
Upper Animoosh Bombi groomed and tracked 1/7
Boozoo Bombi groomed and tracked 1/6
Zhing Bombi groomed and tracked 1/6
Papasay 2” new snow
Gookookoo Bombi groomed and tracked 1/6
Bagwagi to 2nd cut off 2” new snow
Chiwagi by pass Bombi groomed and tracked 1/6
Chiwagi Hills 2” new snow
Migizi Bombi groomed and tracked 1/6
Waaban 2” new snow
Mukwa 2” new snow
Connectors 2” new snow
TRAIL 2nd Priority
Noque from Pines to 510 2” new snow
Way too Long Grooming Report:
Piston Bully will be great! Our Bombi (Bombardier) groomers are long in the tooth and we have invested in a new top of the line cross country groomer; a Piston Bully. There are two main groomers you will see on trails and at alpine resorts and one of them is the Piston Bully. Now we will have to begin using a new moniker. We can no longer say we had a Bombi run. Ice rink folks have the same problem when they talk about Zambonis. Many rinks actually use Olympia equipment but folks may not be familiar with the name. This like Band-aid or Kleenex. Maybe we need a contest to give it a nick name but in any case, what a great thing.
Yesterday on Animoosh
Yesterday’s Skiing: The new snow from Sunday afternoon groomed out to make ideal skiing. The ungroomed areas have only 2” of loose snow and remain skiable for skating. Classic on these ungroomed remains very good and I expect more of the same today. Please see more on snow age below.
A note on snow quality and related reporting: If either of you are packaging engineers you will be familiar with accelerated aging. For a package to be certified as appropriate for a given task, engineers place packaged product in special rooms and alter the temperature and humidity to simulate (say) five years in as little as (say) five months. Snow goes through an ageing process as we have discussed (ad nauseam) in the past. We go to great lengths to understand the snow quality in order to help skiers understand what to expect. When humidity, sun angle and temperatures are low and cloud cover is high, snow remains “young” beyond its years. If, on the other hand, temperatures sneak above freezing or there is high humidity or even a mist, one day old snow can become old and as grumpy as a grooming report writer. This happened the other day and it caught me unawares. The boundary between “not too bad” and “really bad” can be effected by just a few extra hours of warmth or mist. Skiers on January 3rd found some treacherous skiing. Worse yet, I reported that it should be pretty good. We strive to get it right because “under-selling” is almost as bad as “over-selling” conditions. We take this seriously and will pay special attention to the possibility of really poor “freeze/thaw” conditions. See you out there today; I’ll be the one with the hair shirt.
Saux Head: Tim groomed and reset the track, Saturday, 1/4/2020. I expect Saux Head also received about 2”+ new so expect some new snow on the trail.
Big Bay Pathway: The Hidden Grin Loop was groomed on Saturday morning, January 4th. I have not heard how much snow fell Sunday but expect you will find several inches of fresh snow on the trails. Some sections do have uneven areas as the Big Bay trails do require a good deal of snow. If you do ski please be aware, this is classic only and you may find rough areas. Please let us know what you find. I have not been on the Big Bay trails yet (bad dog).
Fit Strip: Neil groomed yesterday and reports very good skiing.
Snow Bike South Trails: Main loop and enchantment are open, “probably” firm except for the 3”+ from Sunday.
East side (mt mqt/blue loop) is open, with some drifted areas on north side and some water hazards on jeep trail descent.
Trail opening and grooming is ongoing during the weekend, thanks for your patience!
Snow Bike North Trails: North Trails remain in very good riding condition. Wildcat is snowshoe packed and hard enough to ride on (please stay in the singletrack avoiding ski trails). You will find several inches of fresh snow from Sunday.
THE FORESTVILLE TRAIL HEAD CHALET IS OPEN! Chalet hours are 7 AM to 10 PM and rental equipment is available between 10 and 4. Space is still limited during construction but come in and enjoy the fire and company.
To learn more about the NTN, to join, volunteer, become a sponsor or make a comment, please visit www.noquetrails.org .
Sondo