The ski trails in the Sawtooth Valley this weekend should be pretty good but very cold. At 11 a.m. on Saturday the temperature was almost up to zero degrees. Grooming last took place at Alturas on Friday with excellent results and will be touched up again Saturday afternoon. Park Creek was groomed around Wednesday and should still be pretty decent.
Next weekend we will be celebrating the 20th incarnation of the Sawtooth Ski FestIval with a Chili feed and poker run at Park Creek from 11 – 1 on Saturday. On Sunday from 11 – 3, enjoy the ever popular Soup Kitchen and, weather permitting, live music from the Pesky Grape Seeds.

Alturas skate lanes were groomed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Grooming scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and if enough snow has accumulated classic tracks may get a reset. At Park Creek, all trails were graded on Monday and hopefully will also ge new classic tracks on Tuesday.

The new snow that fell on Monday night rejuvenated trails at Alturas Lake by adding a little needed softening to the mix. Trail grooming took place on Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and is scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Trails have been skiing great. Bouts of wind have filled in some classic tracks in open meadows at times and pushed little snow drifts onto skate lanes but generally trails are looking very good. Some equipment repairs went pretty well so the ginzu groomer was out of service for less than 24 hours after a broken weld and torn cables shut it down late on Wednesday. Ski festival posters went out on Wednesday to announce the two outdoor events. Sorry, no indoor dinner and silent auction on Saturday night due to paaandemic angst.

Added news…. At Park Creek, a big loop consisting of Shooting Star, Camas and Skyrocket was groomed on Friday.

This last week, trails at Alturas Lake were groomed on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. At Park Creek, with one groomer temporarily out with a nasty virus, the trails were last groomed on Tuesday. With temperature generally quite low and no new snow. all the trails are in pretty much the same condition… hard and fast with skaters reportedly flying and classic tracks deteriorating slowly but still pretty decent. Please watch your speed on the big hills! The Sun has been out and beaming all day every day but with snow forecast for Monday night we should be able to renew trails for a less intense experience.
The Sawtooth Ski Festival is rapidly approaching with outdoor events scheduled for March 5th and 6th so save those dates. The indoor dinner and silent auction have once again been cancelled due to the paaaandemic.

On a cold Sunday morning, after a broken ginzu-knife-blade-actuator was traded out and the compaction drag had its wings clipped so it would fit across the Alturas Lake Creek Bridge, all skate lanes, were double dragged, looking good and skiing great. Classic tracks were mostly good but a bit raggedy in spots.