On Sunday, February 21st, the birthday of the peace sign, created in 1958 to promote nuclear disarmament, skiing should be great at the Alturas lake ski area. On Saturday, North Cabin and Sheep Thrills were compressed and flattened with two roller passes. All other trails were ginzu groomed for skate and classic. More grooming will take place on Sunday. Please remember that the Alturas trail system is a nuclear free zone, dogs still welcome.
On Friday, the 19th of February, all trails at Alturas Lake except for North Cabin and Sheep Thrills were rolled with two passes through surprisingly deep drifts of new snow. Drifts at the lake’s edge were particularly impressive. A Saturday morning grooming is scheduled to add clean classic tracks and ginzued corduroy.
On Friday, the 19th of February, the birthday of Copernicus, pastel colors streaked the Sawtooth Valley sky as the world spun itself round into a glorious dawn. Redwing blackbirds, Clark’s Nutcrackers, Steller’s Jays and Magpies rose en mass as a fox leapt from the snowbank and neighbor dogs barked. “At rest, however, in the middle of everything was the sun.”
On Wednesday, all trails at Park Creek were hit with the compaction drag to widen and flatten them out. No more dishy trails there. Friday grooming through some new snow is scheduled to add classic tracks and sweeten the corduroy.
At Alturas Lake, Over the Hill, Wapiti, Sheep Thrills and South Loop, and the Trail to the Lake as far as the bridge junction were rolled on Thursday through 5 inches of new snow. Classic tracks were set in some very sticky snow on the lake trail and Over the Hill. After 3 more inches of snowfall in the night, grooming is scheduled to continue there on Friday and Saturday mornings.
At 9:51 it was 29 degrees fahrenheit in Stanley Idaho. Now if you are still wondering whether the skiing will be a smooth glide or a labored slog and whether this little report conveyed much useful knowledge or just added to your confusion, grab your ski wax and remember what Nikolaus Copernicus was so fond of saying…”To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”
On February 17th, after several unusually warm days, temperatures are beginning to fall to normal levels on the Sawtooth Ski Trails. And WOW! Up to 14 inches of new snow is predicted to fall on the trails by Thursday afternoon. At Alturas Lake, initial attempts to resurrect the dead snowmobile groomer stuck on South Loop proved futile over the weekend. The plan for today is to drag it to the highway, winch it onto a trailer and move it to the shop for further diagnosis of the mysterious “46 error code” that flashed on its dashboard before giving up the ghost… ” Danger! Will Robinson! Danger!”
Happily, our back up snowmobile has been moved to Alturas, so grooming is once again underway. On Monday, all skate lanes except for North Cabin were refreshed.
And finally, on this, the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition in the United States, one final quote from Major West, Lost In Space… “OK, last one to kill a bad guy buys the beer.”
In the words of Zen Monk Shunryu Suzuki, “Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.”
Saturday morning, leaving a dead snowmobile behind on the Alturas Lake ski trails and walking to the highway, old groomer Davinius was suffering. Just two days before he had been so pleased with how great the trails looked after a ginzu grooming. Now they were glazed over, hard and icy, with shifting patches of grapple creating amoebic shapes that settled into comfortable depressions on the windswept meadows.
But, you know, everything changes, and on Sunday, Davinius awoke with a warm feeling of perfect composure… an inch or two of new snow has already fallen, covering the ice, a professional investigation into the snowmobile’s charging system malfunction was underway, and morning coffee with his valentine, the pretty girl from the village, was a particularly good brew.
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