2" of New Snow Packed Down

It was a pleasant surprise to have 2" of fresh snow from Tuesday night. I wasn't able to get up to groom it in until today, but I spent today (Friday) packing/grooming and doing some trail work so that the trails are ready for the weekend. 

Rail Trail and the Loop have been groomed and have fresh tracks set! The tracks aren't perfect all the way around, but they're not too shabby given how hard packed the base is, and on most of the Loop they are pretty great. The skate lane also looks really great. Hopefully it all sets up well overnight. 

Porter's and Jelm both got two passes with the packer. Unfortunately the bare spots are still too significant to take the groomer around, but the packer is a good backup option and did the job.  

I also worked on snow fence today on Rail Trail. I got about 50' of new fence up, and strengthened some of the existing fence, so hopefully we'll see some benefit in the coming week. 

Have a good weekend and enjoy the skiing!

-Tighe

Skiff of Snow

Well, this weekend is a bit of a take what we can get kind of a deal. I was sure hoping for more than the scant 1/2" of snow that fell overnight, but every last snowflake helps these days. 

I groomed a full skate lane around the Rail Trail and Loop, and it actually looks pretty darn good, given recent weather. I tried out the classic track setter, but the snow is so transformed and firm under the fresh stuff that the it just wasn't really making an impression at all. We'll likely have to wait for a bigger snowfall before we have good classic tracks again.

On Porter's and Jelm, I got two passes done with the packer, in an effort to keep the snow from blowing away. Unfortunately, the wind blown bare spots on those trails are too big to take the groomer over right now, but again, where there is snow it's in good shape. 

It was great to see so many folks out enjoying what we do have, even in the cold. Stay warm and happy skiing! 

-Tighe 

Lost Item! Keep an eye out!

One of our friends from Fort Collins was skiing on Monday, Jan. 19th and lost a necklace with his grandfather’s dog tags on it. 

He’s devastated at losing such a priceless possession. It’s a silver chain with dog tags that have the name George T. Steitz on them. If anyone happens to find them please email snowyoming@gmail.com

A little run around the Rail Trail this morning!

 We had the day off of work so we took the Tidtech to the connector, out and back on the Rail Trail and around Rachel's O. Buffed out very nicely and we reset the track. Then skied with our team.

The skiing out there is quite good with the usual sections where the wind is making itself known. 

Besides the UW team there were over 20 cars in the lot at 11:30.

Get out while the skiing is good!

Grooming and time trail tomorrow

Lots of grooming work happening this evening! Ben used the packer to groom Porters and Jelm View loops. Meanwhile, Ella worked on shoveling snow onto some of the thin and bare spots on the Rail Trail and Connector. We handed off the keys to Tighe to groom and set tracks on the Rail Trail and Loop. Should be some good skiing this weekend!

Just so this doesn't get lost in the blog posts: SNOW is holding an informal race/time trial tomorrow at 11am, see the previous post for more information.

Informal Race Saturday

We will be grooming this evening to do a classic race around Rachel's O on Saturday morning.

There will be 5km (1 lap) and 10km (2 lap), interval start classic race. The start time will be 11am.

If you’d like to join just email snowyoning@gmail.com to get on the start list!

Fresh grooming!

 Tonight we were able to pack the connector trail to the rail trail, out rail trail and around Rachel’s O! We also groomed the city sprint figure 8 nearer the trailhead. The conditions are surprisingly awesome. The bare spots are minimal. Tomorrow would be a great day to ‘play hookie’ and skate the rail trail! 

Grooming and a Time-Trial!

 There has been little snow recently, but we're going to take the packer, which will hopefully make pretty corduroy, out on Wednesday afternoon. We will also do our best to repair the Tidtech enough to use it to do more work for the weekend.

We will also be doing a race/time-trial with the High School and College teams on Saturday morning, hopefully around Rachel's O. If you are interested in joining us for this epic event please reach out to snowyoming@gmail.com and we'll make sure you get all the information you need to participate.

We still have good skiing and we feel extremely fortunate so get out there!

Lodgepole Clearing Started

 Today we went out and began chipping away at the down trees that have prevented grooming of Lodgepole Loop. It was an inauspicious beginning, as the chainsaw decided it was done after only a few trees. I hope to have it repaired and back in action mid-week, and will continue to work away at the downed trees on Lodgepole. It is unclear how long this will take. 

In good news, we maxed out our knowledge of engine/machine repair by lightly tapping some fuses and connections and... it worked! At least for now, the groomer is back in action. It seems likely we will be waiting for some fresh snow to do much more work on the currently packed trails, and the forecast isn't looking too hopeful at the moment. Until then, we'll try to get some more trail maintenance done. 

Happy skiing, 

T

Groomer is down

We had great plans of getting the fresh snow early this morning but the groomer would not start. We will try to figure out what is wrong and get back to grooming as soon as possible. 

New Snow

We got 2-3 of much needed new snow! All trails were rolled a few times this morning to try and pack in this precious snow. The Rail Trail and Loop are in very good condition. The usual bare spots still exist on Porters and Jelm View but otherwise those trails are also in good condition. It's looking like we will get some more snow tomorrow night into Thursday and hope to get up there to roll that before the weekend.

Where the skiing is good, it's great!

The Rail Trail, Loop, and Jelm View were all groomed with tracks on Friday night. The tracks set up very nicely for some excellent classic skiing! Porters was groomed twice with no tracks this morning. We also moved some trees to hopefully act as snow fences in some of the thinner areas on Porters. In general, the skiing remains quite good in most places but the thin spots are getting thinner and the bare spots are getting larger. We'll try and leave the trails alone until the next significant snow to preserve the snow we have and prevent pulling up more dirt and rocks.

Best skiing so far this year!

The conditions up there are some of the best we've had so far this year... and I'm not making a New Years joke, it was actually some of the best conditions of this ski season (at least where there is snow). We groomed the Rail Trail with a track set on the way to/from the loop, groomed one pass of the loop with no track set, 2 passes on Jelm with a track set in most places, and one pass on Porters with no track set. The usual bare/thin spots are opening up on the Rail Trail, Jelm View, and Porters and there are places where you can still see the effects of the ATV tracks on Porters. However, despite these few areas, most places have good coverage and the snow groomed out very nicely. We have personally verified that the skiing is excellent and it is indeed very skate-able.

There is some snow in the forecast over the next few days and it was just beginning to fall as we left for the day. We will keep an eye on this and time our next grooming endeavor accordingly. It will likely be Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Happy 2026!!

Ben, Ella, and Tighe

Happy New Year!

 There will be grooming today! We aren't exactly getting an alpine start to 2026... but Ben, Ella, and Tighe will head up to groom this morning.