ABR Trails

Snowcross and Wully Bully groomed up about 30 km this morning, skiing conditions have remained pretty consistent, with good coverage on the main trails, a few old classic tracks here and there, a hard firm but snow covered surface.

Pig Heart and Crasher heading out tommorow early morning.

Wolly Bully, Snowcross and Pig Heart groomed up 78 km of trail this morning after the new snow. It was so nice to cover some of the thin spots and have fresh snow. We are grooming again tomorrow.

Trails groomed are most, trails closed are windy ridge and puumala and wolf tracks. Highlands exit hill is icy, it may be better to take highlands/blueberry connector, blueberry downhill is closed .

Some good news tonight! We received 2 inches of lake effect snow (not forecasted) during the afternoon. This will NOT make the trails race ready, however it will improve the trails conditions. I personally want to encourage the SISU racers to come up and ski the trails here in Ironwood with the other recreational skiers this coming weekend. Skiers have been very happy with skiing in the woods on natural snow.

No videos or pictures today the 5 of us were so bundled for -3 degree grooming early this morning, we just hunkered down and got it groomed up. We groomed up 32 km today, no new tracks…yet. We groomed River, Popple, Memory returning on River, Bards, the Tamarack, blueberry to cold feet shortcut. We also groomed Jack Pine/ White Pine, Cherry, Deer Trail and Jacks Flats. 3 of us heading out early AM to groom, we are not planning to reset tracks yet. Tommorow we plan to groom more trails but will be “squeegee” grooming the new snow covering some of the debris we brought up over the last week. Check in the chalet for a personal report from Eric or Angela, nordic pulse will show are grooming paths but some may not be open or safe.

Partner giving Snow Cross some advice on grooming, Wide Track and Crasher listening….a fun breakfast after many days of grooming. What a great Grooming Crew! Missing in picture….(and breakfast) is Wolly Bully, Black Smith and Bull Dog. Picture by Pig Heart

I want to communicate 5 things in tonight’s trail report…not in order of importance:

1. I am so happy with how our groomer crew has been showing up daily and grooming for 25-30 k 3-4 hours daily, no excuses…it’s too cold, it’s too windy, I am tired. They are relentless; I am very thankful for such a great team.
2. I am happy that skiers have been enjoying the lower snow conditions and are not complaining about the low snow and are excited to be on real snow in the woods. I asked one of my favorite coaches Rob, yesterday” how is the team enjoying the skiing?” He said “it looks like real snow, it feels like snow, we are enjoying your trails”
3. Our ski cabin crew, Angela, Rob,and Jay have been communicating and directing people to the groomed trails, and Nordic Pulse is showing us in live time ( if our groomers click it on). We are showing the trails we groom every day on Nordic Pulse…if we update it correctly.
4. We have been grooming: stadium, hilltop loop, cherry, river trail, Popple, memory, river , returning on tamarack, then blueberry to cold feet and meadow, the dog friendly trails that get used very little, about 5 k across the road, cross behind the sauna. We are also grooming highlands with the shortcut off blueberry bluffs and all the by passes, we are grooming jack pine white pine and the first parts of Tamarack.
5. TRAIL CONDITIONS and SISU, we are grooming 25 k or more daily. Skiers are happy, snow base is low and we can not reset tracks as of today. There is some debris brought up by the daily grooming, we feel this is better and safer than not grooming, We are very sorry the formal SISU race was cancelled. We could not hold a quality safe race for 800 skiers as of yesterdays ski conditions. However we want to welcome SISU skiers to recreational skiing next weekend.

skiers were very happy and satisfied with conditions today, they are improving every day with the new snow. 5 groomers have been showing up daily early morning and we are logging 125 km of grooming miles on Nordic pulse, donated by one of our property owners and foundation directors.

we groomed with the same crew and we are having great results. The main course is skiing well, . The locals used to a 2 foot base and cold dry snow and firm bully tracks, are staying home.

we are grooming 20-30 km every day which is skiable. Recreational skiers are having a great time.