A Gift
Our little pre-holiday clipper gave us just enough new snow to try and start all over again.
We took a light trip over Montreal with the 6’r, track sled and saw. 95% of Montreal is very good. It’s that 5% that may scratch your skis or trip you up. Look ahead! There are sticks, leaves, bark and for all I know, frogs that got blown in from Arkansas last Wednesday, out there.
That said, there are some wonderful stretches of tracks to enjoy. Once the balmy Friday goes by, we’ll all do a snow-dance and see if we can conjure up some more white stuff to work with.
We hope you and your friends can get out (with care!) and ski or snowshoe over the holiday.
We’ll be waiting for the next snow.
UPDATE 12/23/21
Everyone is looking forward to the holiday. So are we. It looks like we’ll squeak by with decent winter conditions when we decide to get out.
Montreal: The Grade is good, very good. There is some very thin snow along the clear-cut, midway on the grade.
Verner’s & Lempi Loops are good. Rough and rocky just above the Grade on Verner’s. Otherwise, pretty nice.
#4 is a little thin on snow; but skiable.
Pence Loop is good; a rock here and there and that nasty water valve at ground level made the 6’ plane jump but the tracks are just off of it.
Calucchi’s: pretty darn good. No rocks bumped. Pavlovitch gathered every twig, stick, branch and leaf the wind blew around. The two spring-seeps opened up and then froze. We dragged snow over them and they should freeze hard again; but it’s a little rough in those spots. Deep Rock and Stanley’s are good to decent. There’s a rock or two here and there, so look ahead.
The Trail Chief got out and skied late this afternoon. The Chief knows the trails, was present when the tracks were set, felt every rock and bump. He’s a pretty good master skier and he ended up dropping a knee (that means falling, to a master) at one spot. It wasn’t a rock or a nasty stick in the track; it was some very thing snow and club moss was exposed. It felt like the ski hit carpet, and he wasn’t ready. Down.
It’s fast. Not icy; but the old snow is mixed in with the new. We didn’t get enough new snow to set track on the slower, more forgiving new stuff, so things are quick.
Be careful, but; have some winter fun.
Uller UPDATE 12/23/21:
The Iron County Forestry and Parks Department have been out on and off, since the big warm up and wind event. The west loops and the main stem to Hoyt Rd have been packed and cleared of windfall. Uller requires a foot, 12”, 30cm of solid snow to even begin to think about setting a good, safe track. We were close 8 days ago. That kind of snow is not out there yet. We support snowshoeing or back country skis (old ones, with metal edges) on Uller for the foreseeable future; but be on your toes and ski with a buddy. The more rocks we move, the more water we can drain on Uller will allow us to ski the Range with less snow, so until we can get at that work, we have to wait for a good foot of snow. Krankkala Spur: a mystery. We’ll do some scouting on the spur and the Hoyt-Pence section for our holiday skiing. We’ll let you know how things are.
By a nose, we’re still ahead of last year. Get out. Be careful. Ski Freely. Z
