Weston ski track

Back in Boston for the New Year (after a trip to Chicago—running along the lakeshore is nice but a. they need a snow gun out along the lake and b) they need some hills) I ventured out to the ever-reliable Weston Ski Track. I did some technique with my dad and then some double poling in about four inches of new snow on top of the manmade base in some areas and the golf course in others. If there was a week to be out of the Cities, the weekend of -20 might be it (although the race at Battle Creek looked like fun times).

I went in and talked to the owners after skiing (I worked for them in high school) and found out that they've been making snow for 25 years, in very marginal conditions (although being on the Charles River gives them a good water supply, temperatures are quite warm). They can get their guns up and running quite fast, even for short windows of time, and can blow in a k of snow with only a couple of days of cold weather. Hopefully in two decades the Twin Cities snowmaking venues will be as good. (Of course, their Pisten Bully is broken right now and until they get a new one next week the piles of manmade snow are rather uneven.)

Tomorrow, off to Waterville Valley for all sorts of fun, especially a 500 vertical foot striding hill.

Flurries awards: snowmaking of the year

My first year in the Twin Cities, 2002-2003, we needed fake snow. The first skiable snow was in February, before that we had a week on the lakes and, otherwise, it was browner than brown. A few guns could have pumped out some "powder" since it was cold, but there were very few options, and none were nearby or cross-country specific.

I grew up with a luxury beyond luxuries: manmade snow five minutes from home. Okay, so anyone who knows Weston Ski Track knows that it is far from luxury, but with a dedicated team of snowmakers, four or five guns and a nice, brown river flowing by (when manmade snow is made on new snow, the colour difference is impressive) they consistently have skiing from December through March, even with Boston's fickle climate.

In 2002, the options were far more limited. Trollhaugen had just started offering their slopes to skiers, and Hyland was open from 7-9 in the a.m. Buck Hill would set a bit of a classic track around their base in the mornings too. Still, my memories of waking up for practice at 6 a.m. because we had to make the best of things at Hyland were not pleasant.

It's amazing what a difference six years makes. We now have Elm Creek, which has probably overtaken Weston as the best snowmaking near a city. We also have the snowmaking at Wirth Park, which is closer and has, in my opinion, better terrain than Elm Creek. However, Wirth has a bit to learn about making snow. (In my opinion, Weston is by far the best I've seen. They can have four hours of temperatures below 28 and pump out a significant amount of snow in that time, which often means the difference between skiing and not skiing.) Until Wirth can get things better, like making enough of a base to last through meltdowns, touching up areas which are thin or dirty, and bridging low spots so that they don't wash out, Elm Creek will win this award hands down. I do hope, however, that Wirth gets its act together; they better have a nice thick base to last in to march for JOs in 2011.

If the COLNF can master snowmaking and lengthen the course (John Swain had mentioned commandeering a manure spreader in the winter and using it to spread a trail) it will likely be the best snowmaking around, and probably a candidate to host some high-level races. I'd be all for it.

Wirth snowmaking

Tolerable.

The skiing at Wirth is okay. Over most of the course—90%—it's actually quite excellent, fast but with an edge. However, there are the couple of sections that are icy and dirty. It's a shame, because with temperatures where they've been a couple hours of targeted snowmaking would have Wirth in tip-top shape.

Step it up, guys.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com