Dear Mad Norski Friends, Just a quick update on progress at Telemark snow wise. No natural snow is in the 10-day forecast, but seasonal temperatures are predicted starting Sunday night. This should move the ground steadily towards freezing and allow our snowmaker to start blowing the white stuff.
For the Thanksgiving training camps our snowmaker is confident that he can produce snow over an area specified by the Gitchi Gummi Sport Association as necessary for technique instruction and video taping. Both the Gitchi Gummi Thanksgiving Camp (www.ggxc.org) and the National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation Camp (www.nccsef.org) are planned to take place on-snow or dryland. These organizations have confired with each other about scheduling of indoor and outdoor activities to ensure quality experiences for both groups. The area he will be covering will be part of the Valhalla slope needed for the Snow Cross snowmobile race sheduled for Dec. 8&9. Once that is completed he will proceed to add on loops to make a 2.5K backup for the CXC NorAm cross country ski races set for Dec. 12-16. After the Snow Cross that snow will be spread around for a base and recovered with fresh snow for XC skiing. Four scenarios seem possible over the next several weeks. One: We get natural snow. A great deal of work has been done smoothing and de-rocking our core trail loops to allow skiing on minimal cover. Two: Snow is made on the NorAm loops beyond the Snow Cross area and these are available for training other than times races are in progress (parts of Wed. Dec 12, Sat. Dec. 15 & Sun. Dec. 16). Three: We are unable to make enough snow to hold the Snow Cross. The race is cancelled and that area is available for XC training. Four: The tempertures swing back up and no skiing is possible. Phil Van Valkenberg Director of Sales & Marketing
