
























Sunday 6-April'25
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SURVEY: Interested in providing us with feedback on the Reciprocal Program & the Grooming Report? Got 5 minutes for 18 questions? (Multiple choice answers) please click on this link. Thanks for your time.
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GROOMING - The Closing Act: Final grooming of trails took place Friday, April 4th. The grooming staff have exchanged their skidoo & snocat keys for the staff issued golf clubs (Beres 09 of course). Next trail grooming will be sometime after you buy your Early Bird 2025/26 Season Pass this fall!
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WRAP UP: It has been a pretty decent season: Altho some of the die hard rock skiers (the 150 days+ crowd) were on the trails before they were officially groomed, we got the equipment out on the trails by Nov 17th, and did 116 days of grooming between then & our final hurrah on April 4th. Early generous snows, & some cold spells allowed us to compact the base from being eroded by the intermittent warm wet patches of weather that occurred mid season.
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SKATE SKIERS: For those that are loath to pack their skis away quite yet, there should still be adequate skiable trail terrain for a few days & potentially week(s) yet. For days like today, where the temperature stayed above 0°C overnite, the skate lanes softened up nicely by mid morning. There should be a few more nites of below 0°C weather, so wait a bit longer on those mornings before you come for your workout. Check Otway's weather station (link below the report) for overnite lows if you want to ski earlier than later. Some mornings the temperature difference between Environment Canada's airport temperature & Otway's is 5 C°.
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CLASSIC SKIERS: The last tracks were snowcat set Sunday, 30-Mar'25. Current status: somewhere between "historic artifact" and "melting memory." There will be a few stretches with a longer life. Head to the Northern Lights section—shade is your best friend. If that fails, go off-script and pretend you're blazing a new trail. Just you, your rock skis, random sprouting devils club, and your imagination.
Enjoy it while it lasts. Spring skiing: where every trail is an adventure and every ski is a surprise.
NEWSLETTER
For those rare and mysterious individuals who somehow resist the irresistible charm of Otway’s newsletters—packed with thrilling updates, enticing offers, and all the latest happenings—fear not! You can still redeem yourself. Click here to catch up on current and past editions. We won’t even judge you (much).
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PLANNING AHEAD
There are no old skiers at Otway. None. Not a single one. However, we do have a few who have enthusiastically redefined the limits of “youthful vigor” (some might say stretched those limits like an overused ski boot liner). If you’re thinking ahead to the day when your enthusiasm for skiing remains boundless, but your balance and joints politely disagree, check out what one particularly stubborn lifelong skier did to keep gliding. Click here—because planning ahead is way cooler than just face-planting into the future.
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GROOMING
Ever wondered how ski grooming works? Some folks assume our snowcats just zoom around the trails playing tag, or, on the narrower routes, a thrilling game of hide and seek. And yes, on the steeper sections, there may be some sideways surfing involved (purely for entertainment purposes, of course). When things get dull, the operators occasionally engage in synchronized stadium laps to see if one snowcat can outwit, outplay, and outrun the other. But alas, this is merely a snow-fueled fairy cat-tale.
If you actually want to understand the real logic behind grooming—where, when, and why it happens—click here while your second cup of coffee is brewing. Bonus tip: If you’re one of those mesmerized souls who obsessively watch the trail map change colors, click on the blinking snowcat icon. That will show you the speed:
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2–5 km/h: Slow and steady, battling nasty ice
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8–10 km/h: The dream—10 cm of fresh, dry powder on a solid base
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14–18 km/h: Skidoo + Ginzoo magic when early-season snow is deep enough to groom but not quite enough for the full snowcat treatment
Basically, grooming is part science, part strategy, and part extreme sport.
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LENGTHY SNOW REPORT
If you think this Snow Scribe can get a bit long-winded in the Grooming Reports (gasp!), then you might get a kick out of Lucy Welsh’s 1,264-word snow report for Sugarbush Resort (Vermont), dated March 1, 2025. It was, shall we say, thorough. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay published for long. Let’s hope she still has a job.
If you prefer actual literary value over snow grooming rants, check out this article from Morice Mountain, where the writer waxes poetic about the deeply personal joy of Nordic skiing. Some people really know how to write. Click here and be inspired.
Nothing Groomed Today | Distance | Open | Last Groomed |
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4-6 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
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Fingers | 3.56km | G T | |||
Northern Lights | 2.55km | G T | |||
Under Dog | 0.8km | G T | |||
Sun Dog | 1.11km | G T | |||
Race Maze | 1.8km | G T | |||
Pine Flats | 1.46km | G T | |||
Nite Rider | 1.26km | G T | |||
Larch Loop | 1.91km | G T | |||
Iceman | 0.56km | G T | |||
Greenway Corridor | 1.18km | G T | |||
Dogonit | 2.18km | G T | |||
Dog Bypass | 0.19km | G T |
7-10 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
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Tigger | 1.85km | G T | |||
Upper Parking Lot | 0.12km | 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 | |||
Homecoming | 0.11km | G | |||
Stadium | 0.26km | 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 | |||
Top Dog | 1.6km | 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 | |||
Bullseye | 0.19km | G T |
Nothing Groomed Today | Distance | Open | Last Groomed |
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4-6 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
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Fingers | 3.56km | G T | |||
Northern Lights | 2.55km | G T | |||
Under Dog | 0.8km | G T | |||
Sun Dog | 1.11km | G T | |||
Race Maze | 1.8km | G T | |||
Pine Flats | 1.46km | G T | |||
Nite Rider | 1.26km | G T | |||
Larch Loop | 1.91km | G T | |||
Iceman | 0.56km | G T | |||
Greenway Corridor | 1.18km | G T | |||
Dogonit | 2.18km | G T | |||
Dog Bypass | 0.19km | G T |
7-10 Days Ago | Distance | Open | Last Groomed/ Trackset | Trackset | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tigger | 1.85km | G T | |||
Upper Parking Lot | 0.12km | 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 | |||
Homecoming | 0.11km | G | |||
Stadium | 0.26km | 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 | |||
Top Dog | 1.6km | 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 | |||
Bullseye | 0.19km | G T |