Slip Sliding Away

The March Meltdown is about to commence. We groomed that quick-hitting, wind blown 2″ from yesterday’s squall, and will hit it again tonight for the weekend, but after this, the dreaded SW H5 high-pressure dome is set to cook our snowpack for 2 or 3 days until there’s a possibility of a storm next week to stop the damage. By then, I’m sure we’ll have a number of bare patches to ford around the trails…enough to stop grooming we think. There may still be some good skiing out in the upper meadow, so we’ll have to assess that. We’ll likely keep the bottom, Camp May Rd practice area groomed a bit longer for some afternoon laps. It was certainly nice this week. It’s kind of a bummer, since we had such good conditions up until now with a less-than-optimal snow pack.

SWNSC Kids continue to practice until there ain’t a patch of snow left!

Rollercoaster of a Season

Trails are again, in great shape, after yet another season-saving period of wintry weather and snow. It was looking bleak again after our great mid-January period, but as has been the case this year, we got saved just in time. Things are great (front hill not included) the entire way around once again. Get it while it’s good. Who knows what the rest of this season has in store, but the forecasts don’t look too bad. If we make it into March for any length of time, we’ll consider it a win.

Canada Bonita Meadow looking spectacular on President’s Day weekend

New Snow!

Whew, we almost had to close up shop on the upper trails, but we got a nice little dose of much-needed snow. New groomer, Cameron Staples, got out early to roll pack it all, including Camp May practice area. He reports pretty nice conditions on the upper trails, and pretty good on the lower Guaje Road. It’ll still be thin, so keep bringing your “rock skis” until we get that big 10″+ storm. We’re kinda being strung along with these smaller storms. But, Enchanted Forest in Red River did receive 13″ as of this morning (Dec. 29). They’re totally set with great conditions for New Years!

Local kids skiing last week, taking a break at the rim of the Valles Caldera

Great conditions up at EFXC!

We put on a little informal SWNSki Kids intra-squad meet up at EFXC this past weekend, and were treated to wonderful conditions and a lot of fun. If you haven’t been up there yet, make the effort. It is definitely worth it! Also, they have a lot of used ski gear for kids, so ask Ellen Miller about that when you’re there.

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Used kids’ gear for sale up at Enchanted Forest XC Ski Area
Great conditions for the holidays. Our kids raced a 4km course classic style for their intra-squad meet.
XC ski culture, COVID style — actually pretty nice! Bring warm clothing.
Sprint course finish on Face Flop Drop

Season is ON!

Well, at least we’re skiing a little bit. It’s definitely thin and “early season” as they say – use your old/rock skis! Be sure to check the club’s Facebook page (see link on this site), and also the club blog, where we post conditions updates as they come. It’s been so super busy trying to get things up and running that we’re behind with some posts, but that’ll change. Looks like more weather at the end of next week into New Year, etc. For now, we’ll take what we got. Also, get up to Enchanted Forest XC and get your season pass there. They have even better conditions!

NEW SNOW!!!

What a crazy year! Oh well, we’ll take this weather any time! The weird thing is that this is not actually the “first snow of the year” post, haha.

As of this post (Monday afternoon), it’s still coming down and quite cold. If it continues overnight, it might be worth taking out a machine and grooming Camp May road practice area — we’ll see. If that does pan out, we’ll report back. At any rate, we’ll definitely be holding the SWNSki Kids group practice at Western Area park tomorrow evening. We’ll probably even give it a test run tonight.

We heard that Enchanted Forest XC up in Red River is really getting pounded. That will make for some nice early season skiing. Woohoo!

Club Membership and Donation Link Active on SkiReg

Alrighty…it’s about time! We finally got the membership registration and donation link all renewed and functioning again. The link is above the picture on this home page, but here is the link just in case:
SWNSC Club Membership and Donation on SkiReg

We’ve been busy getting things ready for the season, with lots of trail work, fencing repairs, and some pretty crazy machine mechanic jobs. Now, the weather just has to start changing. We’ll be ready…

Our venerable 1972 Cushman Trackster, aka “Kermit” is getting a complete rebuild, including motor, transmission, and drivetrain. If you see Logan Ott, buy that man a steak dinner. We could never do this without him!

Starting up…

Hi everyone! Hope you all are having a great and healthy fall. What a weird year (that’s an understatement). We’ve been getting things ramped up in anticipation for what we hope is a turn in weather and a good winter season. It hardly feels like winter is coming, but sometimes it is like that. We’ll start posting updates as we have them. For now, we’ve finally gotten around to turning the “SkiReg” club registration and donation site back on. It may take a day or two to start working, so we’ll update again.

End of Season Report (summer!)

We ended up being able to ski for most of March, but it only snowed a couple of times, forcing us to alter the tracks just enough to make it out to the good snow in the meadow. It snowed only once in April, with an oddly cold day in a string of overly warm and dry days, giving one last day of touring skiing. After that, we closed up shop and had a great cleanup day from club volunteers.