Category: Grooming & Conditions Update

Grooming Report for 2023/02/06

Classic Track: No

We’re still in business. That little heat wave did transition the snow on the lower sun-exposed portions of the trails (the fire affected areas), but it’s all still nicely covered. The front hill, as usual, is the least good section, but only in a short section. The farther out on the system, the better the snow is. The meadow trails are still perfect.

Tonight, I ran the groomer on everything several times to grind up the icy stuff and buff out all the weekend traffic that occurred during the warmest part of the day and left holes and/or skate indentations. It was quickly freezing up rock-hard as temperatures dropped, so each pass was different from the previous one(s). The grooming really softened up the snow, so it’s safe and nice again.

Because there was a lot to be done to grind up the trails, I didn’t reset the classic track (sorry about that). I’ll plan on doing that tomorrow evening. So, skating is the best option tomorrow, classic for Wednesday. It was supposed to snow a little tonight too, but that doesn’t look likely now. It did however, get cold again, so conditions should hold into the weekend.

Enjoy!

In Full Swing

The snow gods have finally blessed our area with some of the Pacific stream of storms that seemingly everyone else in the West have been getting. We were missing out until early January, but now we’re looking pretty good. Groomers have been staying on top of things and will continue making improvements as we hopefully continue to get more snow (check the FB page for condition updates). Lots of happy skiers out there! There are also other places to go ski around the Jemez, such as the Valles Caldera, the Bandelier ski trails (just before the Caldera), lots of the old roads, and of course, San Antonio hot springs. Check out the picks of the Gibson family, who led a group out there recently!

SWNSC kids on their way to San Antonio hot springs
A pretty adventurous trek, but well worth it
The reward
On the approach
At the top of the meadow (Canada Bonita trails) during an afternoon kids ski
How can you not smile with these conditions?

Finally! (seems like a recurring theme…)

We are FINALLY skiing! We got a healthy dump of some very good-quality snow that has done a good job of covering the trails. It’s still thin in the usual “big rock” locations, but if you’re careful and know where they lurk, you can miss them. Be especially careful on the section of trail between “TJ’s” and “Dave’s Dogleg” (between point G and H on the map), and the screamer downhill toward the bottom of the meadow, just above point M on the map.

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait so long before we get another good dump, but with some reasonable January temperatures, it should be pretty nice.

Heading out to pack the trails yesterday morning (January 2, 2023)

A Reprieve!

The trails picked up between 6″ to 8″ the other night, and we got right on it to keep things in shape and preserved. Whew! Just in time! Should be a nice weekend, if not a little warm. Hopefully, we’ll see another similar storm next week. Stay tuned.

Trails groomed for skate and classic. Watch for obstacles. Most of the course is in OK to good shape, then there are those bad spots…

Saturday and Sunday adult and kid clinics. Check the FB page for more info.

Hangin’ in there…

Not a whole lot to report, as we just seem to be in a long run of “no weather at all” type of weather. It’s nice out for gettin’ out, but we desperately need snow; not just for skiing, but for this long-running drought. It’s pretty bad. Anyway, groomers have been working on things and keeping the snow we have skiable. The front hill has taken a beating, but check out our new snow transport system:

Snow transport system using “Kermit”
Logan with his new creation

Trails will be groomed as long as we have decent enough snow. It is looking like early February will be more active in terms of weather, so we remain ever the optimists…