I skied Doug’s Folly and then Lions’ Pride. Both had been recently groomed. The groomer did a good job of churning the icy crust. However, the end product was crusty old snow which was very uneven. That made control on the downhills a bit difficult. My skis tried to track straight instead of following the curves. Because of that, I would rate overall conditions as fair to good. As the groomer noted, the outbound and return classic/skate tracks between the warming house out to the start of the classic and skate loops was sketchy. Thanks to the grooming, conditions were certainly better then they would have been without the grooming.

Photos:

(Jim Gantz)

Just finished grooming and tracking all classic loops. First mile out from the warming building is sketchy, but once on the classic only loops the tracks are, for the most part, deep, firm and very good. Skiers on the skate loops said the deck is very fast and hard, sometimes icy. They were groomed yesterday. We'll hopefully be able to redo them tomorrow. They're good, but be careful on the downhills with curves at the bottom.

(Will Maines)

Trails were glazed up this morning after yesterday's warmup so all the skate loops got tilled up and are back in skiable condition. Yesterday we held a Super Brush Party at Razorback and had 10 volunteers from our Wednesday Night Ski League come out and spend 3-4 hours brushing Long Rider through Bruce's Roundabout - these sections are now in excellent shape. The main snowshoe loop from the chalet also was brushed. Thank you Chase, Elizabeth, Carl, Deena, Paul, Catherine, Tim, Alison and John.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

Skied several classic loops this morning. Tracks were softening up, but still had a little glaze. Mostly very good even after heavy use this weekend. On the three kilometers of trail that are groomed for both skate and classic there were stretches of shallow, washed-out track, but otherwise tracks were holding up very well. I plan on waiting to regroom until Tuesday morning when it is supposed to be significantly colder. Both classic and skate loops will be redone.

(Will Maines)

Tidied up all the skate loops today and did a lot of brushing on Will's Crossing and Long Rider - still more to do. William set track on Thursday on all the classic loops and plans to touch them up Saturday morning. There's a new trail map for Razorback - you can access it by going to the Razorback trail information page here on SkinnySki and tapping on trail map.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

All the skate loops where rolled and groomed today and came out looking really nice. We held our Wednesday night group ski on the trails tonight and they skied well, slightly on the soft side. They should be in great shape in the morning. We will be out grooming the classic trails tomorrow.

(Robert Polic)

We are back in business. New clutch and belt installed on groomer this morning. I just got in from grooming and tracking Short Cut, Doug's Folly, Pine Hollow and Hair Raiser. Robert will be out early tomorrow morning to begin rolling and grooming skate side loops, after which I hope to have time to complete grooming and tracking of remaining classic side loops.

(Will Maines)

Just got back in from the trail with the John Deere service tech. The Gator is down on the trail with a blown belt and a clutch that blew apart, tearing up the belt in the process. He's hoping to get parts overnighted and possibly get the repairs done out on the trail maybe tomorrow afternoon. More likely Wednesday. In the meantime, skiers have been using Ridge Trail, Will's Crossing and Hair Raiser which had been given one or two passes with our old Tidd Tech before the breakdown. Everyone is welcome to ski any trails, groomed or not, but wanted to get the information out that they are not groomed.

(Will Maines)

Grooming disaster. Was making initial passes with 5' Tidd Tech this morning before taking the Ginzu out to finish. Blew a belt on the Gator coming back in from first pass over Hair Raiser, about 1-1/2 miles from trailhead. The only trails I had hit completely with at least one pass were Ridge Trail and Will's Crossing. Bottom line is that if classic skiers wish to ski those loops in bushwhack fashion they are welcome to do so. Truthfully, they are not in a condition where I would want to try and skate them.
Update: Heard from our groomer dealer, he won't be able to send a tech out to replace the blown belt until sometime Monday morning. Unfortunately, no trails will be groomed until then. Will's Crossing and Ridge Trail have had two rough passes completed, panning only. One pass on Hair Raiser until the blown belt about a half-kilometer before getting back to the intersection with Will's Crossing. Skiers are welcome to bushwhack ski until we can resume grooming.

(Will Maines)

Skied Oak Ridge and Pine Hollow on the classic side this afternoon. Cold, dry snow made it a little bit slow, but skiing was excellent. Almost no litter in tracks. I plan to be setting track on all remaining classic loops tomorrow morning.

(Will Maines)