Yesterday afternoon, when the temperature had warmed up to -17, I tried a bit of grooming. My goal was to scarify and break up the ice on the surface of the trails, so that when we receive new snow tomorrow, it would not land on a glare ice surface and simply blow away or get pushed off to the side. I used my home-made piece of grooming equipment that I call the Piranha, and pulled it over the trails in the central part of the network.
The result was better than I expected. I managed to create a fair amount of loose granular snow on the trail surfaces. My wife and daughter went out skiing and confirmed that the grooming had had a beneficial effect.
I will do some more of this today, and then we will be ready for the predicted snowfall tonight and tomorrow.
Trails are still icy and difficult to ski on, and it's still fairly cold out there (right now -18). I would recommend waiting until after we've got our new snow. Hopefully it will measure up to the predictions.
Update: I've scarified the ice on all trails in the south and central sections, up to the north junction of #1 and #3. I hope to be able to finish doing this on the north end trails late this afternoon.
Great effort and fingers crossed for a good snow week!
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