Hello. I just joined the LAnordic mailing list and am looking
for someone who is interested to share a ride/drive to the Enchanted Forest
xc venue this coming Saturday, March the 9th.

About 25km are currently groomed and tracked (for the current
snow conditions go to www.enchantedforestxc.com).
For those, like me, who primarily do the classical style,
this is probably as good as it gets this time of year in NM.

I am planning to leave Los Alamos around 9am on Saturday. The trails are
open until 4:30pm in the afternoon. The daily pass is (if I remember
correctly) eleven dollars and there is a three-four dollar discount if one
comes in after 12:30.

Drop me a line if you are interested.

-andre starobin

Continued meltout up there causes us to announce
the end of grooming for the 2002 season--we're moving
the equipment down to town and will resume next year.
The long term forcast is dry till Fall when el Nino
is supposed to kick in for a wet winter---let's hope
and pray the weather gods comply! Thanks for your
interest and support.<br>LANSC

Sundays x-c ski race, the LANSC Loppet, has been
cancelled due to lack of snow--we WILL put it on next year
and are working on a January venue for it. Trail is
fairly good for skating now, tho you have to divert
around the occasional bare spot. The Norski Tracks above
Santa Fe were groomed for classic on Friday.

1" new snow on the trail--skating conditions were
good thursday, allowing for the odd hike past small
bare spots on the lower trail. Dave has groomed the
Norski Tracks this morning at the Santa Fe Ski
Basin--conditions are good there for the weekend unless it gets too
warm too quickly.

Mondays storm put 3" snow on the trail and
conditions for skating are good. Still a 0.7 km hike in to
the skiing. The RACE IS CANCELLED--there's just not
enough snow (and a few bare spots) for a loop. Dave W
has just set classic tracks on the Norski Tracks up
at Santa Fe Ski Basin---give them a try, they should
be good during the week.

Well, the big meltout continues and conditions
arent great. Also, our snomo is on the blink right now,
so even if it did snow, we're a bit challenged
groomwise! At this point the Race scheduled for 24 Feb is
almost certainly cancelled--if Monday's storm was a
miraculous one we might well borrow a machine to groom and
put the race on, but dont hold yr breath, it looks
like another dry storm. When it does snow, we will
continue grooming---watch here for updates.

Conditions continue very warm and dirty with lots
of wind generated debris on generally icy
snow---forcast calls for more meltout until the weekend, when
there is a slight chance for a change in the
weather.<br>Things begin to look a bit iffy for the Feb 24th
race......

Dave and Ken did extensive rolling,packing and
skate grooming on the trail, and on the meadow leg of
the old racecourse---1st time it's been groomed in
4-5 years! Classic tracks to go back in the 8th.
Condns good--partial hike in, which will probably get
longer as the next several days are forcast to be warm.

Clay rolled the woods trail last night to de-rut
the skating lane---the classic tracks continue to
hold. Initial packing has begun on the meadow descent
portion of the race course for our February 24 Freestyle
x-c ski race, The Los Alamos Loppet, and further work
will be taking place during the week.

Last night's storm put about 6" snow on the
trail. Los Alamos Nords packed the entire trail system
with 2 Ski Doo Alpines this afternoon--skating condns
were good, but tomorrow, addnl grooming and a classic
track will be added. You no longer have to hike in to
ski, although you may have to dodge a rock or two on
your way up, so rock skiis are still recommended.

25 Jan--only 1" snow out of last storm--no addnl grooming---skating and classic
skiing yesterday PM pretty good, esp above Point "J" on trail map.Hike in now
all the way to "B"--about 0.7km.

Trail groomed this afternoon for both skating and classic skiing---still a hike
in to just past Point "A" on the trail map.

Shd add that new snow has been machine packed Friday PM.

Pajarito X-C Ski Trail picked up 2-4" new snow last night--still a hike in but
enough to freshen condns.  Still no classic tracks but good skating.

Pajarito trail rolled today with the
powdermaker---conditions rather hardpacked, but still quite skateable
(still no classic tracks). Hike in thru the strawcovered
rocks and dirt is now almost 1 km, but remainder of the
trail skiis well and is a nice workout--certainly beats
rollerskiing!

After mid-weeks disasterous thaw, Thursday's
storm dropped a modest amount, 2-3", on the trail, just
enough to cover the brown spots, pine needles, etc.
Denny N. promptly rolled the new snow into the old
Thursday night and conditions today were excellent for
skating. Still a half kilometer hike into the snow from
the trailhead, and still not enough snow for us to
set classic tracks, though lots of ski tourers were
in evidence up there today.

1" new snow yesterday--just enough to freshen the
trails and cover the pineneedles. Team 3 rolled the
trails last night, conditions are still good for
skating--hike in is the same as in earlier messages.

Yesterday PM Dave W rolled the trail again so
condns shd be the same all week given cold temps---still
have to hike 0.75km into to the snow and the "Woods"
section of the trail remains closed to Dogs and Hikers
(and runners).

Bad news is it only snowed an inch or two up
there, so everyone is still hiking in a half a Km to get
to the skiing. Good News is Clay rolled it anyway
and from Point "C" on the trail is just great for
skating. Also, after a terrible influx of hikers mid-week,
Clay closed the "Woods" trail to dogs and hikers---so
if you want to ski with your dog or hike or sled,
you have to do it on Guaje Trail 282 (The USFS
road/trail up to Canada Bonita)just like last year. The
woods trail(Pajarito X-C Ski Trail) is for x-c skiers
only from now on. Many of us bring our dogs, ski the
"road" trail up thru Canada Bonita a few times with
them, and put 'em back in the car for a nap while we
skate the upper trails...not a big deal. More
significant snowstorm expected tomorrow night and again a
chance tue night, so we may be able to set classic
tracks by mid-week!

John B an Dave W rolled the entire trail network
yesterday to smooth out ruts---trail has thin snow cover
but ski-skates nicely---snow condns are quite cold.
Dont be discouraged by the lack of snow 1st km--plan
on walking in to Point "B", but skiing is quite nice
from there on. Still no classic tracks (NEED MORE
SNOW) so dogs, hikers, etc are okay.

Pajarito X-C Ski Trail received 2-3" snow Friday
night: just enough to refreshen everything and cover the
ruts---not enough to groom classic tracks, so the trail is
still open to dogs and hikers. Skating was good today.
Do plan on walking in the 1st 0.6km to the hilltop
at "A" as the road is "way" rocky.

Sunday, 16 December 2001: Team 3 has been
snomobile packing the entire trail system this week. There
is not enough snow to groom or set classic tracks
yet, but the packing is good powder with no ruts and
is relatively rock-free: many were skating the trail
yesterday for an early season workout. Because of the above
conditions the entire trail network remains open to "mixed
use": dog walking, hiking, etc. When we get more
significant snow we will start fine grooming and at that time
reserve portions of the trail for skiing only, with the
remainder open for "mixed use". Watch this space for
updates.

Unseasonably warm conditions have allowed LANSC
members to put in long hours "McClouding" and re-seeding
the newly dozed sections of the Pajarito X-C Trail
(about 3km)--additional work was done on the 2km that
was bladed in 1993, mostly spot removal of rocks and
stumps and clearing summer deadfall. Once snow falls,
the club will be re-seeding the old road, also known
as Guaje Trail 282. The blading will allow us to
have groomed skiing conditions much earlier each
season: we should be able to groom after the first two 6"
snowfalls---our old windrowed trails required much more snow
before we could get grooming equipment on the trail.
Watch this site for grooming updates thruout the
season.

Does Los Alamos Nordic have a website? Ours is at
www.geocities.com/ellensburgskiclub/. Thanks for the grooming info.  How old is
your aged Alpine?<br><br>pc

We use the exact same 4' Tidd Groomer you're
considering. We usually pre-groom with a homemade bladed
groomer: a series of 5 48" blades set perpendicular to the
trail direction in a simple frame that allows us to
angle them.<br><br>The Tidd does an amazing job of
cutting up icey old snow---almost like a tiller. We pull
it with an aging Ski doo Alpine.

Hello Friends;<br> It sounds as if you do some
tracksetting down there in Los Alamos. What sort of set-up do
you use. We're thinking of buying a new tracksetter.
Right now we use what I believe is a very old YTS unit
owned by Wash. State Parks. We're looking at a 4' Tidd
Tech. It's started to snow along the Cascade crest.
Snow showers predicted for the rest of this week.
We'll send some down your way.

Sam Gardner of S G Western donated a dozer and
operator last week and working with him we bladed and
leveled the remaining portions of the trail--we had
leveled 2 kilometers in the mid-1990's at a cost of
$2000, so this gives an indication of the value of Sam's
contribution!--last week's work brings our total to about 6
kilometers of perfect level trail---we are in the process of
hand smoothing and seeding the newly worked 4 km and
we could use some help up there in the next few
weeks--if you'd like to join us call the forest service and
ask for Ranger Miles Standish and he can put you in
contact with one of our volunteer work crews.

We're working with myles on permitting some
dozing on the sideslopes---Ken thinks he may have a
volunteer who can start this next few weeks--if so I'll be
calling you all to come up and assist---keep watching
here or e-mail me for more info.

At John's suggestion, just deleted the old club
name (and site) from the Yahoo board--and changed it
to this shorter one--we can use this for at least
some part of our organization and messaging next
season in addition to e-mails, which will allow us to
post public non-email messages, grooming updates, etc.
Will be sending out invites thru yahoo for you all to
get connected.

Welcome to the Yahoo! Message Board for Los Alamos Nordic