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Sorry to rub it in...

3K views 33 replies 12 participants last post by  Skier76 
#1 ·
We still have snow. Lots. We had 8" of new last week. Some trails have more than 4 feet! Here's a few pics from today...


Snow Winter Freezing Geological phenomenon Footwear
Snow Winter Freezing Geological phenomenon Tree
Snow Vehicle Mode of transport Geological phenomenon Winter
 
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#2 ·
You got our left-over snow. hehe. I got back from Mexico vacation and it started snowing. 12"-18"

Am told the mountains got several feet.
 
#3 ·
Went riding just before I left, took this picture:

Snow Winter Freezing Vehicle Tree



Then my wife snapped this picture while I was out on the wave runners.

Beach Body of water Sea Sky Vacation
 
#8 ·
Our last year was similar to KC's. I only did laps in the woods; never had a chance to hit the trails. This year was better. We had snow and the trails were open for most of the winter. However, just as things peaked, it warmed up like crazy. We lost feet of snow in a little over a week. Had the temps been seasonable, it would have continued to be a good season.

Unfortunately, our last club ride for tomorrow's cookout was cancelled. Ironically, temps in Vermont will be single digits tonight with negative numbers once you factor in the wind.

A lot of the mountains are making snow right now to salvage the remainder of the ski season. They usually don't make snow after President's Day.
 
#9 ·
Glad to hear that some people have snow! Here in Sweden it has been another mild winter unfortunately. We lost nearly all our snow during february due to mild temps, and that was only really a foot or two .. then we got quite a bit last week, and finally got out for a ride last weekend, that was longer than 1 mile ...

However the temps have been up and down like yo-yos the last couple of days, and we have also had freezing rain ... fingers crossed that the snow will last at least for the whole of March! The mountains are not too bad I don' think, though most places have less than usual.
 
#11 ·
The snowpack has been usable in the keweenaw, but the melts have kept it to about 24" of hard base, sometimes with a foot of powered on top. Even last year was better for powder riding.
 
#14 ·
March and April are our best riding months. Typically get some fresh snow in March and then the main factors: The sun actually warms up things in the daytime and we have longer daylight hours.

To give you all an idea. In December/January we have about 3-4 hours of daylight. When the sun is out, it is cold. Clouds = warm weather during most of the Winter (October through February).

March and April we get about 14 hours of daylight. Equinox is March 20, which means the sun is up 12 hours, down 12 hours. Daylight usually last about an hour before and after.

April, lower elevations are melting and are pretty much done for riding. Most of the time March is still pretty good in lower elevations.

March and April are excellent for the last part of the season rides in the mountains. In our case, there are two ranges that people go to. The Alaska Range near Cantwell (near Denali Park), and the Hoodoos near Summit Lake. Every April there is the Arctic Man race down in the Hoodoos. Camp site is a runway that was created during the construction of the pipeline. About 7000 to 11,000 people show up to play in the mountains and watch the race. You'd think with that many people that any powder snow would be packed down, but there is so much area that it is really easy to find some good fresh powder.
 
#16 ·
There has been a few times that we have had snow here in mn, but it was barely enough to ride in and it didn't hang around for more then a week. This year has been absolutely pathetic. I have done some sledding lately but I have had to drive over 100 miles just to get some snow. There was parts on the trails where it was dirt and rocks! At least I have a nice stash of summer toys that have been getting used more then the snowmobiles.
 
#17 ·
That's another thing that sucks about the midwest, you get mega cold weather and wind, but not enough snow for snowmobiling. I recall in the early 70's in North Dakota it seemed we had more snow. My uncle owned a snowmobile shop and my grandpa bought me an old 70 something ski-doo.

I now winter in Priest Lake Idaho, it isn't whether we will have enough snow, (the average is 80") it's just whether it will be wet or powder.
It's a trade off though, lots of plowing and shoveling, but lots of opportunities to go sledding!
 
#18 ·
New England got it pretty good yesterday. Over a foot fell in Southern VT. Thinking I may be able to get some riding in this weekend and possibly next. The base before the storm was spotty at best...and pretty hard packed. Hoping this latest round will pack down well. For now, sure feels like winter again around here!
 
#22 ·
Our club grooms the area around Lake of the Woods and Fish Lake in southern Oregon. We have about 350 miles of designated trails, but not all are accessible by the snow cat due to logging operations or Obama's last minute Monument designation that closed about 1/5 of our trail system. The remaining trail system all has snow, it's over 5 feet deep in some spots. But if this rain keeps up, we may be done grooming in a couple weeks!
 
#25 ·
Our groomers usually don't run if temps get above freezing. How can you keep everything from balling up? We were around 60 here at the house (4800'), riding areas start at about 6500 so that cools it off about 2 1/2 degrees. My season ended 2 weeks ago when I had a complete tear of my bicep tendon from the radius, could hear the pop over the sound of the engine.
 
#26 ·
Oh, ouch! Good luck on your recovery!

Balling up is definitely an issue, we can't do much blade work when the temps get above 35 or so. But it seemed when the air temps were above 60, the top surface of snow smoothed out nicely with the cat. Today we changed over to a rototiller and it made really nice smooth trails, at least until the first sleds hit it. The smoothest trail in the world turns to mush unless the temps are below freezing and the surface has a chance to set up. That below freezing thing is a bit of a problem lately. Lows have been in the high 30's.
 
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