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8:45 AM Temperature -1.9°C. Today's (Monday's) Environment Canada forecast is for a high of +10°C. Typical spring ski conditions. Hard & nasty in the morning, softening up when air temp & sunshine heats the surface. There is still lots of snow cover on the trails. Depending on your route, there might be a portage or two. It will be a blue blazer! Shades & sunscreen are in order.
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No grooming today. The snowcats have begun their off-season naps.
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SKATE SKI: The trails will be hard/icy/fast this morning. Unless that is what you like, best to wait until the snow surface softens, somewhere around midday?
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CLASSIC: The last tracks were set Sunday, 30-Mar'25. They will be fast & icy in the morning, should soften a bit in the heat of the day.
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HAZARDS: The upper elevation trails are losing the snow faster than the rest. The top stretch of Birch Bend, that seems to get more than its fair share of sun & wind is looking a bit rough. Take care, portage if needed.
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To view photos of recent conditions:
- Click the text "Historical Reports" - top of this page
- Scroll down to previous reports that show a thumbnail photo
- Click the photo to enlarge
- If there is a right arrow "-->", click the arrow
- Scroll thru the other photos of the day.
NEWSLETTER: For those few that deny themselves the pleasure of subscribing to Otway's Newsletters with all the latest events, offers, & activities, click here for the current & archived editions.
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PLANNING AHEAD: There are no OLD skiers at Otway, although there are a few that push the youth continuum to and past its traditionally accepted limits. That said, if you want to plan ahead for the day when you want to continue to ski, but have more physical and/or balance challenges than you would like, click here to see what one imaginative (and stubborn!) life long skier did to keep on skiing.
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GROOMING: Curious about how grooming works, and why we do what we do? Some folks figure that the snowcats just chase each other about the trails, playing tag, or on the narrower trails, a touch of hide & seek. The steep pitches lend themselves to surfing, sometimes sideways, which is pretty entertaining. And when the operators get bored with those frolics, they then drive in circles around the stadiums, seeing if they can catch the other snowcat. Well, that is but a snow-fairy cat-tale. Curious about the logic of when, where, & if grooming happens? Click this link while your second cuppa is brewing/steeping. Extra hint for those that are memorized by watching the trail map change colour: Click on the blinking snowcat icon on the trail map, that will indicate the average speed. 2-5 km/hour is typical while setting tracks in nasty icy conditions, 8 - 10 km is typical speed when there is a lovely dry 10cm fresh snowfall on a good base. Early in the season, when there is a fresh snowfall, but the base hasn't built up enough to groom with the snowcats, the skidoo/ginzoo combination can do a mighty fine job of setting tracks @ 14 - 18 km/hour.
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LENGTHY SNOW REPORT: For those of you appreciate a concise, 100 word Grooming Report, and grumble now & then about the draft you feel from this Snow Scribe's long windedness, you might get a kick out of Lucy Welsh's 1264 word Snow Report of 1-March-2025 for Sugarbush Resort, an alpine ski facility in Vermont, that had the "opportunity & privilege" of hosting some VIPs recently. It didn't stay published for long. . . Hope she still has a job.
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Another article (not so much a grooming report) that speaks to the personal value the writer places on nordic skiing, from Morice Mountain: Click here. Some of these folks know how to write!
Nothing Groomed Today | Distance | Open | Last Groomed |
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1-3 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
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Larch Loop | 1.91km | G T | |||
Fingers | 3.56km | G T | |||
Sun Dog | 1.11km | G T | |||
Top Dog | 1.6km | G T | |||
Under Dog | 0.8km | G T | |||
Dogonit | 2.18km | G T | |||
Tigger | 1.85km | G T | |||
Pine Flats | 1.46km | G T | |||
Upper Parking Lot | 0.12km | G T | |||
Greenway Corridor | 1.18km | G T | |||
Nite Rider | 1.26km | G T | |||
Canada Cup | 0.72km | G T | |||
Cranbrook Climb | 0.49km | G T | |||
Hickory Wing | 1.6km | G T | |||
Up the Creek | 0.54km | G T | |||
Hickory Wing West | 2km | G T | |||
Gravel Pit | 0.91km | G T | |||
Iceman | 0.56km | G T | |||
Homecoming | 0.11km | G | |||
Stadium | 0.26km | G T | |||
Northern Lights | 2.55km | G T | |||
Race Maze | 1.8km | G T | |||
The Hub | 0.24km | G T | |||
Iceman Cutoff | 0.3km | G T | |||
Caretaker Hill | 0.32km | G T | |||
Teaching Area | 0.11km | G | |||
Biathlon | 0.36km | G T | |||
Teardrop | 0.51km | G T | |||
Supersprint | 0.22km | G T | |||
Eh Climb | 1.12km | G T | |||
High Five | 1.28km | G T | |||
Paranordic Cutoff | 0.12km | G T | |||
Lynx | 0.79km | G T | |||
Ridgerunner | 1.45km | G T | |||
Raven's Col | 2km | G T | |||
Birch Bend | 2.47km | G T | |||
Santa's Cabin Connector | 0.21km | G T | |||
Old Biathlon Loop | 0.25km | G T | |||
Dog Bypass | 0.19km | G T | |||
Bullseye | 0.19km | G T |
11-14 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
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Chute | 0.92km | G T | |||
Inner 5 | 1.06km | G T |