November 8, 2019; This is a grooming report!
Reporting Notes: There being no real grooming report writers stepping into the breach, you may be stuck with drivel again this season. Sorry.
GROOMING INFORMATION: I don’t care how many times it happens, the first snow event catches me by surprise. The batch window is short when skiing ends in May and begins in early November. As such, some of us save time by skipping the whole storage wax thing. So, while both of you are scraping off this waste of wax, today I will be putting dusty skis on the snow.
Andy rolled 10” of new snow on the Noque to the pine plantation as well as on Animoosh to Muckwa. Cover is good and the forecast calls for highs in the 20s and lows in the teens. Roll packing will drive frost into the ground providing a nice base. Steep hills should be avoided until we receive more snow so the Wagis are not nearly ready. Of course, this is a good thing for those of us with legs and lungs that are what can only be called atrophied. So I will rationalize my hill avoidance by pointing out the hills are not ready. I’ll work on badly needed technique.
Trail Work Comments: As commented above, the batch window is short so getting everything done is problematic. Try as we may, things happen (or not). I don’t actually believe in the Fates but I am reminded of Oedipus Tyrannus. Sophocles (anti) hero’s father suffered the same fate. The oracle at Delphi warns him about his unborn child. Try as he might, his son would end up fulfilling the prediction. In an ideal world, all trails would be mowed prior to the first snow. NTN contracted this service yet some trails are yet to be mowed. Needless to say, we were seriously distressed to hear Andy report that many of the trails were not mowed. So, there is grass and weeds poking above the relatively high early season snow. We are going out today to survey what trails have been mowed and what can we do. Of course, in the olden days we would roll and groom and wait for enough snow to cover the grasses. We have been spoiled by what can only be called golf course quality skiing in the beautiful back woods of Marquette County. I expect (hope?) we will get so much snow that this speed bump will be soon forgot.
We take the blame for this situation. What we have learned from this is that we need to rely on NTN employees to do NTN work, with less reliance on contracted people. We will work towards hiring more people with that in mind. This, as you can imagine, costs more money, but we need to live up to our commitment to you to provide the best trails for the conditions. Cary, our fearless leader and NTN President is taking this personally and wants to apologize for this situation and urges both of you to accept his apologies.
NON-GROOMING INFORMATION: Be sure to purchase your membership. With more money we could provide better skiing. You don’t want to get caught skiing without an arm band. And, for you trail builders, don’t let your prime k marker spot go to someone else. We will be tracking you down in the days ahead. You can save yourself the time of reading another way too long email and the grooming report writer’s guild the time to write a way too long email. Call Kellie or go on line and renew. In any case, you know who you are. See you on the trails,
Sondo