So far, I don't think this January thaw is killing the trails as badly as
we might think. It was 47*F for the high yesterday in town, so it wasn't
too bad up on the trails. Today is supposed to be warmer, so we'll see
what happens. It was cold enough for things to be quite frozen up by the
time Seppo and I hit the trails at 6pm last evening.

Speaking of frozen up -- it is time for the ice cutters, powder-maker
rollers (still out of commission), and the bladed groomer to be used if
the grooming takes place at night. The Tidd is actually more effective
BEFORE it starts getting cold and the surface gets frozen. The classic
track setter also works better at that time. Get it done while it's
still soft, then it freezes and sets up nicely. Otherwise, we're stuck
with really trying to break up the top surface of ice.

That said, things look great up there. Ken Kisiel and Pete Stilwell
followed up on Tom's grooming on all the upper trails on Monday night,
and now Seppo and I have hit the lower road and the meadow trail all the
way to the Baca turnaround (there were lots of foot prints on the upper
meadow trail). We ran the ice cutters on the 6' wide Tidd (they're more
effective on the 4' wide Tidd!), using the lower hitch so that the teeth
have better contact with the snow. It was somewhat effective, especially
in the upper meadow where there is still untransformed powder and the
cordouroy set up nicely. The lower road needed to be passed again with
the bladed groomer to fill in all the potholes. One more pass with the
Tidd (minus ice cutters) would have made it a perfect skating surface
there, but we were tired and just left it with the bladed surface. I
skated it this morning, and it was great (very fast!).

We did not set classic track on the lower road, nor meadow. There was
still track present from Tom's grooming, but we wiped it out in a couple
of the narrow sections, and the tracks are shallow in others. Otherwise,
it's still there and holding -- icy in spots, just fine in others. Use
blue klister in the morning and sticky red in the warmest part of midday.
Conditions vary dramatically from bottom to top, so plan accordingly.
Personally, I would go with a blue klister base with a violet/red mix on
top. Double pole the bottom and have good kick past point B.

The front hill is holding up well, thanks to the fencing. It's hard and
slick, but still quite skiable. Even the rock at point A was still
covered well. That'll probably change over the course of this week...

A few "hard conditions" grooming observations:
1. The 4' wide Tidd works better on the ice (with the lead weights), as
it concentrates on a smaller section and doesn't bridge the low spots
like the 6' Tidd does
2. The lower hitch is better for "ice cutting"
3. We need to have upwards of 200 lbs. or more on the classic track
setter. The weights, plus a person (it really works!) would be
sufficient. If there are two people grooming, one person can ride on the
track setter, and it makes for fast change-overs on the switchbacks.
4. We noticed that running the ice cutters, then the blades, and then
follow up with the Tidd combs (w/o the teeth down) makes a perfectly
rejeuvenated surface. That's a lot of work, but it made it nice.

John Bernardin has hardware to fix the powder-maker rollers. They work
well in colder, icy conditions to till up the top surface. Hopefully,
we'll have those back in commission soon.

Seppo and John U. are now trained and ready to groom. Have fun!

Clay