Current Snow Conditions

Rain in January sucks.

30mm of rain in January really sucks!

But luckily the Ark had a decent base of snow going into Monday's chinook, and having just returned from a 1km snowshoe on the trails here, I have to say conditions aren't too bad. In fact, I would go as far as saying that, for the most part, conditions are actually pretty good.

I was a little nervous at first as the first hill going up to the llama pasture has some bare spots on it. "Oh oh..." I thought. But snow depth and quality definitely improved from there. It has snowed all Monday night and most of the day, but it was still +2C while I was out there, so although the snow was deep, it was quite wet.

There were also a couple of wet areas in the low lying areas. The creeks and streams are running at full force here. But temperatures are going to drop starting tomorrow and that will harded everything up. I'm going to stay off the trails until that happens to ensure I don't leave any concrete footprints in the snow. When I was out there today I mostly walked at the side of the trail.

So, with all that said, I'm expecting terrific conditions for snowshoe racing this Saturday. However, I know many of you don't care as much about that as you do the menu.... This Saturday we'll serving meat and vegetarian lasagna, with a garden salad and fresh rolls. For dessert there will be the standard potato chips, bananas, clementines, cookies, and I'm considering possibly baking some fresh home made fudge for this race... We'll have to see if time allows.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

February 25, 2010 6:30pm

I just came in from setting the "Hilly" Course of this Saturday's Mad Trapper. The snow is deep and wet. My downhill runs were awesome as the snow really cushioned and grabbed my Atlas Race Snowshoes. While I was out there enjoying the great conditions I was also a little bummed out because the last I heard they were predicting a high of 6C and "periods of rain" Friday. But I just checked with Environment Canada and the new forecast is a high of 1C and periods of SNOW!

We didn't get any rain at the Ark on Thursday either as we're higher (and better) than you city dwellers!

We're supposed to get another 5cm of snow tonight (Thursday) and more on top of that Friday and Friday night.

Conditions are going to be exceptional for Saturday's race. I expect Gilles will probably get to race in shorts again! (he's from Cornwall though and I'm not sure how often they test the drinking water down there...)

Since I'm sure many people were waiting to see if it was going to rain or not, I'll leave the online registration open until late this afternoon. I went a little crazy shopping today and we're going to end up with Monique's home made chili coming out of our ears - (yeah that's where chili comes out of,our "ears"). The home made brownies will also be here as will a new home made dessert. But you'll have to come out to see if they are as popular as the brownies!

This is the LAST Mad Trapper Snowshoe event of the year. And this is going to be the last "best winter weekend" of the year as well. SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR????? Come on out and see how much fun you can actually have while swearing your head off at the race organizer for including so many freakin' hills in the race!

Let it snow, let it snow!