ABR Trails

3 groomers are still out grinding up the hard pack. They will be done by 9:30-10:00. We groomed up about 15 k of combination trails. We left the classic tracks alone, they are glazed, shallow and icy. The ground up surface in the skate lanes is transformed, snow cone like texture about one inch deep; it does have a few chocolate chips mixed in where we groomed over debris. The surface is harder and faster than some skiers like, there is a higher risk of falling and the landing surface is harder than normal. However we are open for skiing and snowshoeing and the groomers invested 15 hours into doing the best with what we have.

We started out with a groom crew here at 6 AM. We collaborated and delayed grooming for a bit since it was raining. I checked all my grooming hand books and Snowcross searched you tube…there were no instructions. Bull Dog told us to dress properly, put on “your Big Boy Pants” and get out there! Crasher was reluctant so he devised an umbrella ‘windshield wiper system (video on our Facebook page).

we groomed old ABR as I reported this morning….dirt spots, slush spots, icy spots and good stretches of snow. We had a busy day with satisfied skiers….conditions were as advertised and skiable.

Sunday morning plans…we have 4 groomers coming in to groom at 6 am. We will groom “old ABR’ skate lanes. Classic tracks will be left as is until we get more snow. The tracks will be glazed/icy on the single tracks, this is fun for the flats but can be difficult for beginners on trails with hills so we are suggesting deer trail and jacks flats and cherry dairy for classic without hills. Intermediate skiers may enjoy the combi trails more going down River, Popple Flats, w hill by bypass at pit point, memory, river and coming back on blueberry and meadow ridge. The dog trails are holding up well since they don’t get much use.

conclusion….check in at 8 am or so when I have made a few rounds with the groom crew. Pictures are not real helpful now since conditions are variable.

Groomers are just coming in grooming in the rain. The conditions have deteriorated from yesterday. There are many thin areas, wet areas and bare areas. We groomed the wide trails of old ABR and the dog trails, it is skiable and we are open.

I posted a video of us grooming in the rain on our Facebook page

We had a full crew out today grooming early this morning. The skate lanes groomed up pretty well but the groomers are bringing up some debris…not rocks but organic matter…dirt on the high spots and leaves and nuts when we groom over where the squirrels are digging holes in the trails looking for their nuts. There are about 6 bedrock exposures on the 43.8 km we groomed today

classic on the main trails are worn, glazed but skiing pretty decent. We reset classic tracks on Hemlock (the beginning is rough after the slight downhill but the rest was pretty good) jack and white pine, tamarack 2 track and sunset groomed up well. Wolf tracks is still pretty hit and miss. I am going to close puumala tomorrow and ridge runner because of some thin snow conditions on the downhills.

we have a full groomer crew in the early morning, based on the forecast we should be able to make lemonade in the morning…

just made a pit stop back to update report. We did not get any rain, it is 34 degrees. We are grooming all skating except ridge runner which is closed. We are setting new classic tracks on most of the single tracks, looks like a good day for skiing 85 km open

jack pine /white pine is mostly like this new