by DK | Jan 27, 2015 | .
On Monday, January 26th, Timmy, aka “Timinius”, had a successful grooming session at the Alturas Lake Ski Trails. Not only were dangerous trees cut from the trails with the help of Forest Service sawyers, but Sheep Trills, Wapiti, North Cabin and Over the Hill trails were groomed for skating, along with classic tracks set on Over the Hill. On this day in history, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania experienced success as well, defeating the Tsardom of Russia in the battle of Ula in 1564. The 150 years of war between Russia and Lithuania were immortalized in a famous painting of skiing Russian warriors by the great artist Sergei Ivanov in 1903. The painting hangs in the Tretyakov gallery in Moscow today.
by DK | Jan 25, 2015 | .
With Davinius out of action on a 72 hour involuntary psychiatric hold earlier this week, Timmy took over as lead groomer at the Alturas Lake Ski Area this weekend. On Friday, the Trail to the Lake, Over the Hill and South Loop were groomed. On Saturday, Over the Hill, South Loop, Wapiti and Sheep Thrills were groomed and were providing excellent skating opportunities. Because trails are very hard classic tracks are still nearly impossible to set, however double grooves were also laid down on Wapiti and the north end of South Loop. With his new promotion to head groomer, Timmy has asked to be called Timinius and has declared his new grooming motto to be “AUT VIAM INVENIAM AUT FACIAM”… I will either find a way or make a way.
by DK | Jan 22, 2015 | .
On Wednesday, the 21st of January, South Loop and Sheep thrills were touched up for skating. After that and after dealing with a mechanical breakdown of the Ginzu groomer’s tracksetter, Davinius and Timmy drove two snowmobiles to the far end of Sheep Thrills Trail to rough in the final loop, which had been blocked all season by 7 fallen trees. When they got there, they were amazed to find that lightly falling snowflakes had gradually accumulated and completely covered the fallen logs. They were able to ride easily across them. This reminded them of the great Buddhist debate of 1325 that had occurred on that very date. The winning debater, Buddhist monk Daito, described zen saying, “An octagonal millstone flies through the air.” It is with such “mind blowing” intent that the good groomer creates ski trails by “flying through the snow.”
by DK | Jan 20, 2015 | .
On January 20th, the moon rose with the sun, it will journey across the sky with the sun and in the evening it will set with the sun. It is what we call a new moon, its dark side invisible to the human eye and yet affecting the human psyche in subtle ways. In addition, today’s new moon is also a super moon so expect exceptional glide on the skate lanes at the Alturas Lake ski area. All trails to the East of Alturas Lake Creek were groomed for skating on Monday and looked pretty good, however, a hard snow pack made it impossible to set decent classic tracks so they are sadly lacking from the trail system at this time.
by DK | Jan 19, 2015 | .
In the words of Emily Dickinson, “I’ll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time.” This morning a brilliant lavender, yellow and burnt orange sunrise over Galena Pass cut through the cold morning sky, warming ski trails at Alturas Lake. At 8 a.m., the temperature there was approximately 5 degrees. On a wet sleety Sunday at the ski area, all trails except for North Cabin were rolled for skating. With colder temperatures on Monday, an attempt will be made to add classic tracks.
by DK | Jan 17, 2015 | .
On January 16th, the day on which prohibition took effect in 1919, and the same day upon which Hitler descended into his Berlin bunker in 1945, short time hermit and supposedly retired ski trail groomer Davinius decided to take the opposite tack and emerged from his snow cave bunker to have a stiff drink. Once outside his frigid hermitage, Davinius heard the plaintive cries of his grooming acolyte Timmy, who a short way down the trail had just pulled off the spectacular double whammy of running out of gas while burrowing the snowmobile groomer all the way through the snowpack until it hit pay dirt on a steep uphill incline. While squirrels and a nutcracker looked on, with a bit of effort, two shovels and a can of gas, the dynamic duo were able to free the snowmobile and resume the day’s grooming chores, and by the time the sun was setting over Alturas Lake all trails except for North Cabin had been groomed for skating and classic tracks were laid down on the Trail to the Lake as far as Bridge Junction, Over the Hill and South Loop. Timmy’s plan was to return on Saturday for more grooming adventure.
Recent Comments