Spring sprung but the Sno-Park program is still going on until the end of the month when grooming ends. This also means no more snow removal and sani-cans are pulled. Crystal Spring is typically gated. But until then, go enjoy spring and sometimes some really great skiing when frozen in AM and softening as the day warms up. Hit that sweet time and skating can be great. Oh – and don’t forget wax.
So, as for grooming updates, Salmon La Sac is not quite on schedule due to equipment issues. They are trying, but in these snow conditions, it can be hard on equipment. Still head on over, just take classic skis for backup.
Now – a little note on grooming. The grooming machines are very expensive. You think $400 for brakes in your SUV is expensive? Ha, that is nothing compared to pieces that can break on those machines. So, the groomers try to not break things. When it snows heavy wet snow in massive quantities like it did a few weeks back, it takes a while to get the snow packed in order to buff and roll – sometimes many passes going very slow. Some Sno-Parks see frequent grooming and others do not, hence, huge variability during storm events. Plus, our area has a variety of different equipment in use with diverse capabilities. I am guessing there are at least 5 different grooming machines used in our corridor for the non-motorized program. When it is wet, grooming can make the trails worse, (think rolling out pie dough when it sticks to the rolling pin) so sometimes the groomer operator will opt to not groom until conditions warrant. Snow and weather conditions can change quickly from hour to hour in our area.
Onto events:
Sunday March 16th, Snoqualmie Loppet – ski from Hyak to Cabin Creek
Last event of the season is Ski for Light Saturday March 22nd at Erling Stordahl. When groomed for this event, the tracks are side by side and there is not a whole lot of room for skating. Erling Stordahl trail system was developed by the Ski For Light organization. We will have an updated trail history on the web shortly.
