It’s February 2nd, Groundhog Day, and earlier this morning in Punxsutawney PA, the town’s namesake rodent soothsayer, Punxsutawney Phil, allegedly saw his shadow, suggesting six more weeks of winter. Meteorological science aside, here in Park City, after an extremely chilly and dry January (no I haven’t quit drinking), the traditional January thaw has procrastinated and opted to present itself this first weekend of February, with rain and temps pushing 50-plus degrees. Thanks for the heads up, Phil!
Winter trail management and grooming operations are an extremely fickle and challenging endeavor. In recent years we’ve experienced increasingly more variable and extreme weather patterns, adding to the challenge. Who could forget the record snow year just two seasons ago when the vault toilets in Bonanza were submerged beneath several feet of snow and Round Valley was an unrecognizable sea of white, with all but the tallest sagebrush engulfed in nearly 5 feet of snow.
Contrast that to this less-than-stellar winter, with well below average snowpack (60% of avg), where full-fledged Round Valley grooming ops didn’t truly get rolling until late December. In fact, our team has yet to rock ‘Roy, the City’s high-tech grooming machine and snowflake slayer, on the Round Valley Nordic trails. There just hasn’t been enough snow and ‘Roy remains camped out atop Empire Pass, for weekend grooming missions in Bonanza Flat, sans Transit to Trails.
Up until this warm, wet, week, and despite a marginal base, our team has been able to provide a consistently good snow surface, thanks to daily tandem snowmobile and drag grooming efforts. The operators lower an electrically actuated “tooth bar” into the groomed surface, renovating the snow, while a weighted, polyurethane comb leaves the telltale corduroy finish. This team of two regularly grooms nearly 30 Km of trail- that’s roughly 18-20 miles a day. The cold temps we experienced during the latter half of January and consistent weekend “storms” that delivered a big toe to ankle deep refresh, have been key factors in enabling our team to do a lot with a little.
In low snow years such as this one, groomers are quite often at the mercy of the elements, and hopping on a snowmobile at 6am with single digits temps and a sub-zero windchill is not for the faint of heart. It can feel like a 3–4-hour cold plunge without the physiological benefits. Our crew must also contend with the original “Postholios”, those entitled and ill-behaved elk, who think they own the place and regularly post-hole the crap out of the Nordic track. But you can’t explain etiquette to Elk. Seriously though, they can do a number on the track, but it’s all part of the adventure and we love seeing them.
Not only has the Nordic been surprisingly good, the low snow, cold temps and high pressure have contributed to a great fat bike season, with over 20 miles of groomed, rock-solid singletrack online throughout the month of January. So, even in an off year we’ve had it pretty darn good but it’s not without effort.
Meanwhile, I just returned from taking the dog for a run on the Rail Trail, where the snow surface had the consistency of a 7-11 Slurpy. While I’m not going to place much weight in the prophesizing of an oversized, shadow-seeing ground squirrel, I do have faith in the Open Snow forecast provided by my man, Evan Thayer. Evan’s latest forecast calls for colder temps later in the week and a solid shot of a storm rolling in on Friday. So, hang in there, Park City. We’re not done just yet…
Have a great one out there!
