Race Video

For those who may have missed it.
Below is a link to a video on Nordic Ski Racer.com
The video was shot with a head camera during our 10 K Freestyle Race.
You get a pretty good sense of the hilly course while watching the video.

click here for video

Grooming Today

Seeing some blue sky between the clouds & little wind this a.m., went out in a yank to groom some trails as possible without making full day of it. Combed the hilly side of Bluffs loop, set track on the flat side coming back. 4 inches of new snow most places since Sunday's grooming.......more in some areas.
Today one could skate or classic up to the Cheb. shelter by choice, depending on which side of Bluffs loop you use.
In between, combed the 1st Cheboygan hill cutout, skipped the second one, crossed the road, did skate lanes & track set on the upper triangle including the loopies, combed the two hill turnouts two laps around full width for skate....no tracks on the hills, down to PI Shelter & back up around the loopies two laps, so there are tracks along side the skate lanes on most of that mentioned.
Started at 21 deg, but by then it was 28 with ice balls starting to thump in the older set of track drives. Did a fast trip down & back to the Twin Lakes parking lot so that is combed & tracked at speed, however it turned out. Significant drifts here & there out there, just flattened them by barging thru with "Big Red" at speed, nothing but a snowstorm in the rear viey mirror.
Whatever new snow is moving in tomorrow, what was done today will make it more manageable, even if invisible.
Skate lanes & tracks both looked pretty good from what I saw in the wake today.
Took a longer look at the broken Ginzu sitting on the dead line at the Bluffs, pondering our options for next season with only one drag type groomer.
See you at the 211, 6:00 p.m. this eve.

Jim

March Skiing

Below are some pictures taken by Denny Paull this past weekend while skiing on Black Mountain.

Grooming Report

Jim Meyer.filed this report after grooming yesterday;

With 4 inches of new snow since the upper 40's warm spell & rain the other day, went out this a.m. 17 deg. to regroom 12 miles of trail.
That included both sides of the Bluffs loop for skate & classic. Up the long hill to the Cheboygan shelter, down to the north Twin Lakes parking lot & back up setting a track. Across the road onto the Presque Isle side to groom the upper triangle. There was still water under the snow in 3 of the parking lots I passed through. The trail base under the new snow had not refrozen solid, leaving track truck impressions hard to cover without multiple passes, with real packy snow from beneath sometimes piling over the groomer. Groomed the upper triangle with multiple passes, including 8 passes around the rollercoasters to finally cover most of the track truck impressions on the softened base. This should set up real well overnight. The track setter pre-cutters iced up constantly, with track bottoms riding on the glazed old hardpack in some cases. Call it Spring conditions, but overall, plenty of places to ski out there. Deep base & full coverage everywhere, with colder nights, more snow in the forecast, things are looking good for the week ahead. Soon as it stays cold long enough, will regroom more trails as conditions allow.

Skier Report on Conditions

The trail did set-up very nicely after Jim groomed! Very good ski conditions continue at Black Mountain. Should be a wonderful weekend to enjoy the trails! Park at the County line lot for access to the most km of recently groomed trails.
 
     - Nicholas Johnson

Grooming today

Got a note this am from JIM M.

Not sure what the result will be, but I'll be heading over shortly to attempt some grooming. Focus mainly from the Top parking lot, playing it by ear from there if it looks possible to expand beyond. Not sure what the recent 50 deg. & rain did to some portions of the trails.......so this is one way to find out.
With the Yellowstone Ginzu groomer frame broken, we are down to one home-built groomer to finish the season.
Will let you know the result later today.
                                                                 Jim

Tracey and Denny reported good skiing yesterday and this morning.  So Jim should do fine.

Outer Loop re-groomed

Due to a  equipment breakdown, it took two days to get the outer loop clean of signs and re-groomed.

Should be good for awhile.

Hopefully we will get the Blue Track Truck back in service soon.  Meanwhile we have the Black Truck left to do the work and warm daytime temps predicted.  Maybe good for skiing, not so good for grooming.

Race Results

Our anual Black Mountain Race was held this past weekend.  This year it was a 2 day event.  We had the 31K Classic Race and the 10 K Tour on Saturday and a 10K Free style was held on Sunday.

 The 10 K Freestyle race was run on the newly reopened  10K Skate Course.  This course had not been groomed since the DNR budget cuts kicked in a few years back.  We heard a lot of positive remarks regarding the course.  Most skiers thought it was a challenging but a lot of fun to ski.  I saw a couple of skiers go out an ski it again after the race finished.

Race results are linked below. A time of 5:55:55 is a DNF .  The database does not allow for text in the time field.

                                   Click Here for Race Results