Thursday Jan 4
Carol Catalano
At 8:00pm we measured the snowfall from Storm Grayson at 12", and it is still coming down.
We are going to call today’s battle between North Shore Nordic’s valiant grooming crews and Mother Nature’s blizzard a tie!
She had us on the ropes in the open fields, with white out conditions challenging navigation and deep 3’ drifts swallowing the sled and stalling the roller. More than once, teams had to dig the sled out or unhitch the roller and “pre-pack” with the snowmobile alone. Rolled trails quickly filled in with blowing snow.
Crews recovered in the sheltered, wooded areas, establishing base trails in preparation for finish grooming tomorrow.
The Scorecard:
Pingree Woodland/Harvard Forest, Appleton Grassrides, and the Asbury Trail in Bradley Palmer are the most skiable surfaces. These trails have been rolled, but do not have set tracks or fine corduroy.
The open fields at Appleton Farms and Pingree do not have established trails that are not covered by drifting snow.
With a full roster of volunteers we will be out early tomorrow grooming the fields as much as the forecast and wind allows. We also plan to set tracks on the wooded trails.