Happy New Year!
To have a windstorm and 1 or 2 monsoons back to back topped off by many feet of snow before all the water drained, left the winter work community struggling to keep up.
It is going to take a lot more time to get some of these trails open such as the dog sled trails and South Loop out of Cabin Creek. Trees are STILL COMING DOWN. Pay attention when you are out there.
Please help all of us by pulling branches off the trail as you ski by. It will extend our season this spring if we are not skiing on pitch. If everyone throws off a branch or two or a dozen, it will make a big difference. Thank you.
recap:
John Wayne Pioneer Trail - about 60 trees over trail, plus sections plowed due to power repair needs. I think the section from Stampede Pass road east to Easton is still plowed. The avalanche chute slid too and needed clearing.
Hyak - challenging parking up until a day or so ago. Sled hill is busy. Today the line was out the Sno-Park around the corner and up to freeway exit! Crazy.
Gold Creek - not sure if it is wide yet. Lets hope so.
Crystal Springs - trails are mostly cleared and groomed now including the dog sled exit. I have not heard about snowmobile grooming out of this Sno-Park and just how far they have opened up. The dog sled trails will takes weeks to clear. The Mountaineers grooming machine had a major break down and at this time, I do not know what the plan is for repair / trail clean up and potential substitute grooming.
Erling Stordahl is completely groomed! Yea!
There is ABSOLUTELY NO SLEDDING AT THIS SNO-PARK.
Cabin Creek - perfect after removal of about 186 trees between there and Erling Stordahl.! The South Loop still needs countless trees cut away.
Lake Easton - perfect after removal of about 8+ trees. This area is as good as it gets right now. Go check it out. Last Saturday while everything else was a mess, this area was quiet, had parking available and was in excellent skiing shape. The John Wayne Pioneer Trail in this section is very pretty.
Salmon La Sac - might be grooming right now. The road needed to plowed wide enough to get equipment in, and they also need to cut up some trees. Hard to get status updates for this area.
These groomer operators (all of them) have been working their chainsaw fingers to nubbins. They are probably deaf from the noise, exhausted and sleep deprived. So do NOT complain about the grooming to them, or anything for that matter. I bet some cookies might be in order. My grooming tip of the week is please give yourself at least 3' from the grooming machine when you encounter one. If you have to step off the trail to let them safely pass - do so. And - please do not follow the groomer as he is grooming, it only messes up the product. Give an hour or so to let the snow set or go to another Sno-Park or trail. Right now they are working odd hours STILL catching up.
