New Year, new snow!

Snow!
A beautiful layer of snow fell overnight! By no means is it enough to cover all the damage from last weeks freezing rain but its certainly a good start. Pete and I went for a New Year's Eve (well, afternoon really) ski along the Pine road as the fresh snow started to fall. This ski has become a bit of a tradition as Pete typically works a half day on New Year's Eve and then schedules in a ski before making the drive for home. I on the other hand am not working at all this week so I traditionally sleep in, prepare the pack with some celebratory liquids, wax up some skis and wait for him to book off work. It's a tough job but I always feel up to the challenge. Conditions were quite good although there were still a lot of sticks and twigs exposed at that time but it was certainly encouraging to see the snow falling hard.

Icy trees
Today - New Year's day - I felt a little optimistic as snow had been falling all night so I threw the wider skis in the truck with the hope of skiing some of the backcountry trails. Things were pretty nice although there certainly has been a lot of damage from last weeks freezing rain. Quite a lot of downed branches and even a few trees along with iced up trees bent over double on the trails. I pulled a few medium sized logs off the tracks but there are still a few much bigger ones here and there that will need to be cut. If the NCC isn't going to groom the backcountry trails this year I wonder who will? For that matter does grooming include cutting deadfall and brushing back the trails? If it does how will they get there if not with a skidoo (and will that ruin the track?)? Perhaps if I think about it for a bit longer more snow will bury all the hazards and I won't have to worry about it.

Took a little work to pull this broken branch off the track
While the logs might be one issue there is also a lot of branches doubled over with the prodigious weight of ice coated to their branches. This makes for some awkward skiing in the woods. Forces you to mosey left and right to avoid them. That isn't too bad when the trail is flat. Bigger problem is screaming down a steep incline to be faced with a load of ice covered branches in your way. Bit like going through those beaded curtains... at speed... and the beads are blocks of ice... and they're quite heavy... and there are often rather a lot of them (from the voice of experience;-). If we can get a few (more) skiers to go crashing through the branch traps, the ice (or maybe the branches) should break off forming some nice tunnels. Could make for some interesting trails. Either way it sure is beautiful skiing in the park right now. More snow over the next couple of days should make for a happy start to the year.