Wednesday 5 February'25

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5:15 AM Temperature -26.9°C. Environment Canada forecast is for high of -17°C. Yesterday's forecast was for a high of -16, but it did get heat up to -10.4 mid afternoon, not accounting for windchill. The prime time would be 1:30PM - 3:30PM. (That is the time slot that Aaron works on his winter tan). Dress for it, watch each other for frostnip, don't ski alone, especially on the less well travelled trails. Go no further than you are comfortable walking back to the lodge if your skiis/bindings fail. Carry a charged cell phone. Use the main lodge to put your boots on, and take warm up breaks.

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With the generous recent depth addition to the snow, it is was relatively easy to some Signature Grooming of the trails on Tuesday. In the words of one of Otway's members that has skiied 30+ days so far, the ski conditions yesterday were the absolute best they had experienced this season. To quote another member: "The ungroomed ski conditions in the parking lots over the weekend were superior to the majority of the trail conditions last season!" We sense a little exaggeration there, but they have a point. We are having an incredible run of stable good conditions. There is minimal traffic since it turned cold. Any day you can accurately count the number of skaters from the tracks they leave on the dog trails is a slow day. Usually you can't even see any remaining corduroy by lunchtime! So doing any grooming today would not measurably enhance your skiing experience. It would just serve to shorten the life of the snow. The aggresive action of tilling lowers the snow quality & workabililty of the snow every pass that the snowcat makes on the trails.

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Therefore, we are declaring today (and potentially a few days after that) a Grooming Free Day. The skidoos will continue to enjoy a well deserved mid-winter hiberation. And a timely opportunity to put our elderly snowcat (PB07) under anesthetic today for some major surgery. It broke a front paw a few days back.

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SKATE: Excellent +++.

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CLASSIC: Excellent +++.The right wax can make all the difference. Fish scale are a little too grippy.

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CLASSIC BACKCOUNTRY: If you are skiing with a buddy, a good day to check out our 2.7 km semi-backcountry Dogpatch trails. They are narrow (not really skateable) & have no set tracks. Some signage was recently put up, so you will have to work a little harder to get lost.

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SNOWSHOE: Excellent+++.

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GRAND TOUR: It is Week 4 - The Nor' Westers. Both the Easy & Hard routes have been 95% groomed & trackset. Click here for a Grand Tour of Caledonia introduction

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Ahem: Your somewhat faithful Snow Scribe generally develops a writers cramp this time of year, & takes a break for a couple of weeks in February. This year is no exception. So you will all get a well deserved break from the plethora of ubiquitous jocular verbosity that overflows from the Grooming Report. More time skiing, and less time trying to figure out what the message really is.

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Which is . . . Pone illa extra toques ac carpe diem!

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