Montana Creek rolled this morning for Skate. Don gave it a *** rating . I rolled it twice from Bridge up. There is a two roller track down the hill to bridge. Could not groom to gate as skies go to pavement and a can not move. I posted this at noon but for some reason it did not go through.
Scott rolled and compacted the new snow at the campground. The snow layer is very thin and there are exposed rocks in sections. Easy classic skiing on old skis would be best. Skate skiing is not recommended unless you want to ding up your bases. The compacted snow will not melt as fast, so if we get another snowfall on top of this, conditions should improve.
This evening I hauled my skis up to the John Muir cabin in Spaulding Meadows. Approaching the meadows, what appeared at first to be snow was actually the white air drop gravel bags. I had spikes but did not use them going up. There were some snow fields in the meadows around the cabin so I skied around as it was my first time there. It was a matter of patch hopping, occasionally grass skiing. Walking down with headlight, I put spikes on and could travel faster. A nice outing and certainly not worth hauling skis up. I can say there is a lot more snow up in the Dan Moeller upper meadows especially at cabin height.
Yesterday evening hiked to Dan Moeller cabin using spikes put on once into the narrows. Skied the upper basin. Very soft and a bit difficult to turn coming down the meadows northwest of the cabin. Spotty snow and some grass runs. Put spikes back on to descend through the narrows. Below the narrows, the snow was very silky over by the woods edge over towards Kowee Creek. I am going to try Spaulding as it is similar elevation – 1000 to 1500′.
Yesterday evening hiked to Dan Moeller cabin using spikes put on once into the narrows. Skied the upper basin. Very soft and a bit difficult to turn coming down the meadows northwest of the cabin. Spotty snow and some grass runs. Put spikes back on to descend through the narrows. Below the narrows, the snow was very silky over by the woods edge over towards Kowee Creek. I am going to try Spaulding as it is similar elevation – 1000 to 1500′.
We are beating a dead horse! Mostly bare pavement from gate to bottom of first hill. Then ice to bridge. Ice from bridge to about half way up. I did try to groom machine slipping on the ice most of the way up. It does get better the further you go. Gray icy snow. Groomed on the way down on edge were there was some snow. Lots of wind blow debris in places. No more grooming until we get snow.
Headed to Montana Creek this morning to see if there is any snow left. Will groom if there is.