Groomer swallowed by snow drift

On Thursday, all trails at Alturas Lake were corduroyed with two passes of the roller through 8 to 10 inches of new snow. Trails were beautiful but a bit soft. Classic tracks were set on half of South Loop and on the Trail to the Lake as far as the bridge junction. On Friday, a gloriously glowing golden dawn flared for a moment and then quickly morphed into a rather cold grey affair with a temperature of around 5 degrees reported at 8 a.m. .  Ginzu grooming is scheduled at Alturas for Friday and Saturday morning to add more classic tracks and further compact the skate lanes. At Park Creek grooming was interrupted late Thursday when our intrepid groomer Randy, the Yankeeforker, was sucked into a deep drift on the top of Skyrocket and disappeared. After digging a 12 foot trench to no avail, he was forced to call out reinforcements and Thaddeus Sardonicus returned from his grooming retirement to pull him out. Skiers are cautioned be wary of the Woodsman and his helpers on Lupine Loop where they are hoping to finish hazard tree removal  on Friday.