March 26th Grooming Report
A Nordic Look around the Country!
We are still skiing in Jackson Hole even though it is a major bummer that Grand Teton has effectively shut down most crust cruising options in the valley. You might be wondering what is happening beyond our home base.
Around the state National Forest is still open; Casper Mountain did close their building, but as of 3/20 were encouraging people to use the trails safely. Happy Jack by Laramie is still happily skiing and Park County has not posted anything saying they are not open. Looking west, it is rather amazing how many Nordic ski areas are in the California Sierras (14 just on this site) but most of them are closed either due to the virus or lack of snow. One exception seems to be Tahoe XC which posted a new grooming report today.
In Montana some of the Nordic centers associated with alpine resorts have closed, but a quick search revealed many venues on National Forest skiing happily, such as Bear Tooth Trails by Red Lodge and North Shore Nordic Club in NW Montana. Washington State has taken more extreme measures, although White Pass is still allowing Nordic skiing. Minnesota seems to have taken a different tack, remaining open but encouraging visitors not to come. In a sampling of Colorado, Breckenridge has closed the buildings but is still allowing skiing.
The Northeast remains partly open as well. Big alpine resorts have tended to close, although some Nordic centers like Jackson XC in New Hampshire are open with social distancing requirements. One ominous sign was that Craftsbury VT recently closed in the last week because people were not social distancing so make sure you don’t forget, especially when the cameras come out and the instinct is to come together!
A couple more notes: the Birkie in Wisconsin did manage to happen although The Birkiebeiner in Norway (the granddaddy of them all) which was scheduled for March 21st was cancelled.
Trail Creek is still open and still has nice skiing. Yesterday was a bit of a return to winter, with the trails hardly softening and an inch or two of snow. Today’s grooming happened yesterday evening with Ginzu skate grooming on most trails. Classic tracks are going to be a bit sketchy today, especially in the fields, as the snow was too firm for a Ginzu reset and there had been drifting. Classic tracks in the woods will be better and skate lanes are overall pretty good. If you make it out early this morning, the crust in the east fields could be a source of joy.
Groomer’s choice is keep on skiing and keep skiing healthily!
