Author: SWNSC

Fall Trail Work in Full Swing – October 2026

We’ve had a few days (and nights) of trail work efforts. Hopefully, you’ll get an opportunity to come out and put some elbow grease into the effort. The trails take quite a bit of work to get prepared each season! What all needs to be done?
* Oil changes and general machine maintenance
* Grooming implement repairs and readiness O&M (electric wires, actuators, etc.)
* Cut locust, aspen, brush, grass with the roughcut mowers, loppers, trimmers
* Saw and remove all fallen trees
* Chainsaw maintenance
* Shop maintenance and repairs
*Fencing – repair support fence, remove shade fabric fencing and distribute, fence installation party
Whew! That’s a lot and it takes some dedication from volunteers. Please come help if you enjoy skiing in the winter.

A LOT of locust shoots spring up every summer and have to be cut out — they’re a real mess if not cut out before grooming starts!
The rough-cut mower/brush hog can clear most of the stuff, but hand cutting and trimming is also very necessary. Note the hedge trimmer attached to the brush hog.

We utilize the Kubota to haul the various saws and cutters to remove fallen trees and even to mow the brush as a first pass
Using the Kubota RTV not only allows for the transport of multiple saws and tools, but it also helps to light up the work area — much of the work is accomplished in thevenings after work
Summer and fall monsoons cause many trees to be knocked down
Trees even get blown down into the meadow trails — this one is rarely used in the summer, but still requires maintenance
Well-maintained trails are a resource for everyone

Please consider coming up to help. Fence hanging weekend is scheduled for October 31-November 1, but the fence will be out on the trailside next weekend, October 24-25 for installation.

Another One in the Books

It was kind of bittersweet… no, just bitter, to spend those volunteer hours doing trail cleanup after yet another lackluster winter season. Oh well, I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Predictions are looking better for next season, but we’ll believe it when we see it, right? I guess we did have some little moments this year, but they were very little and far between.

A big thanks to Siobhan for spearheading the effort this spring! She really stepped up and organized a little hard-core group, and then went back out with Anders and finished the fence take-down for pickup and storage. Also a big shout-out to Dina and her 70 yrs young mom, Olga, for spending so many hours a couple of weeks ago. Huge effort there, 5 stars!

There are still some trees down and a couple of odds and ends, but we’re looking good for the rest of spring and summer.

Heading back to the summer storage shack — 3 full loads
Lots of trees were down and blocked access to the different sections of fencing to be picked up
This one was a mess, and it’ll need more cleanup work later in the summer or fall
It’s always a bummer when one of our “landmark trees” falls down
Most of the trees were these old aspens that aren’t too hard to clear, thankfully!

Classic Track set – new grooming

The adult classic clinic is set for Thursday evening. There is fresh classic track set on/around the Camp May practice area.

Conditions are thin and a bit tenuous out on the rest of the system, but it was groomed last evening, and we put in a "best line" classic track on the upper trails. The lower road was left as-is.

We’ll leave it all classic until the weekend, then assess the situation to see if it’s worth grooming again for just skate/no-track.

It’s staying cool, but not really cold. Things are degrading a bit, but not like in December.

Winter stops by for a visit…

Finally…? Well, at least it feels a little more like winter, for the moment. Hopefully, things will pick up in February. We’re living week to week, day to day with the snow, as we picked up only the bare minimum to go up and groom. With the colder temperatures, it will stick around a bit longer, but rocks are still in abundance around the system, especially in those sunny spots that were bare before this past storm, which dropped anywhere from 7″, up to 10″ farther out in the meadow. It’s going to be tricky conditions — definitely rock skis, so don’t expect anything miraculous, but there is skiing for now, both skate and classic.

It always looks amazing right after the storm, at night. It’ll be a bit rocky under there in places, so be careful.

Still NOTHING!!!

All this awful sunny and warm weather is depressing! We need winter to return. In the past 30 years, no winter has ever been this devoid of… well, WINTER! Still hoping things will change in January, but it’s not looking all that promising — just a few little wisps of weather coming in from the Pacific, and it mostly looks like rain. How weird. Anyway, sorry… we can’t do anything about the weather.

There’s not even any snow in the canyons. Usually there’s at least some white in the shady areas, but not this year…

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.