January 8, 2011: Any Opinions?
By: musicianonskis
Tags: announcement, snow depth, tracksetting
Category: Conditions, Cross Country Ski Photos, Gatineau Park, opinions
“Due to the icy base and dry snow accumulation, tracksetting operations could not be performed. Tracksetting of the trails will resume as soon as possible.”
This was the announcement on the Gatineau Park Ski Conditions page this morning. According to the site, the major parkway system was “compacted”. Any opinions from those who ski regularly in the park? How did you find the skiing today? Was any tracksetting done? How are conditions compared to our other yearly January thaws? What do you think of the announcement?
I skied just after dusk – see bottom photo (or not, it’s pretty bad)
The top photo was taken this morning near our compost pile, 2 k from the park. At noon, it was still snowing, and minus 5.
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They were indeed collecting money and checking passes. It was apparent that at some point they had gone by, maybe late last night, with that snowmobile magic carpet thingy, but by the time I was on trail at 9am almost any trace of that work was gone. P10 was already full, P9 starting to get cars. Snow just as loose as last night. I am not sure of the logistics of packing down this type of snow, I mean it certainly seems like it doesn’t pack at all, so maybe they really can’t do anything. Conditions are good but very… Read more »
It seems like quite ordinary, very nice snow to me. Could they groom this with real grooming machines?
It looks like we’ll need another petition this year to get grooming operations underway in a consistent fashion. I feel that I’m getting less for my money each year when I purchase my ski pass. There’s no excuse for the lack of trail maintenance that I see out there today. It should be skier’s paradise out there today, but once again, it’s not.
The skating on the parkways would have been infinitely better had they been groomed. Skiing in soft fluffy snow is delightful…until you hit other people’s ski tracks…of which there were lots. Come on Demsis, fire up those groomers.
The parkway from P6-Champlain wasn’t really groomed, and if it was I didn’t notice it as I was skating…
I’ve been buying season passes for 16 years. Not this year. I called up to ask whether a pass was required and was told, “Yes, but you won’t be fined if you don’t have one.” I won’t. Each time I ski from this point on I’ll be putting a note in the box saying that, as a personal protest against non-grooming and poor grooming since the contract was low-balled, I’m refusing to pay for what I’m not getting. I’ll review the situation next fall. It’s not about the last few days or weeks; it’s about the last couple of years.… Read more »
Here is an excellent report on today’s conditions by Ron. Skied classic from P6 to Huron & back. This should have been a great day with new snow – it wasn’t. It was old fashioned skiing all the way – slogging through new snow – the problem was that I don’t have my good-old wooden skis and gaiters anymore. Demsis decided that they couldn’t trackset this morning because the snow was too dry and the base was too icy. The classic tracks, where they existed, were skier set and quite wobbly; the skaters were having a real slog. The excuse… Read more »
It’s the same with me Jonh, I’ve been buying my season passe for years, but not any more. From now on, I go skiing without buying my daily passe, if it’s well grommed, I’ll pay after I ski. I only paid twice so far and I skied about 15 times.
My friend and I skied (classic) yesterday afternoon from Gamelin up the Parkway. We enjoyed our ski, though we had to make our own tracks or use those of others rather than track-set ones. There were two snowmobiles with carpet-like attachments attempting to compact the centre portion. The snow was pretty fine; perhaps they were afraid they would just expose the ice and pavement, which wasn’t far below the surface. However, with more snow since then, I am surprised that little work has been done.
Not surprised from DEMSIS…. I live by Chelsea, yes theres a lot of snow on the ground but really fluffy. I walked my driveway and I get to the concrete at every step I make. Maybe Demsis can’t pack this fluffy snow after all.
Skied from P7 out past Western and 24. Ski-doos had been along bits of Ridge Road; otherwise no evidence of grooming anywhere. We are paying for this, right?? I went around noon and classic tracks had been skied in. So conditions were fabulous for classic. 6 inches of new snow on 24 and Ridge out past Champlain Lookout. Ski patrol said that Burma was pretty good. Happy faces on classic skiers coming back from the fire tower. Skate skiing looked like a slog. Lots of exposed ice on Kyber pass and upper portions of Penguin. Will be interesting to how… Read more »
Interesting that Demsis said the snow was too dry to be able to groom…the railroad tracks along the river were groomed this morning!
Unfortunately Demsis’s history of poor grooming leads to lots of skepticism. I don’t know when exactly and how much snow was falling overnight. Maybe even if they got out at 4am they could not have packed the snow and tried to set some tracks. Certainly it should have been packed sometime between 4 and 8am. Although I have seen grooming equipment on the trails around say 9 or 10 am I don’t think that strictly speaking this is in keeping with the contract. My understanding is that grooming is not to occur during the day. It’s a total joke that… Read more »
Talk about a dream contract. You are paid based on a season so the more you don’t run any grooming the higher your profit above what was factored in the orginal bid. Here’s the real delicious part, your boss and contract overseer supports everything you do or DON’T do. Where do I sign up? Really, who exactly does the NCC represent? The snow accumulation that I saw in the park today was AT LEAST as much as we got at the beginning of the season. Funny how that could be compacted over top of asphalt. The base is very hard… Read more »
Well if they are just not grooming it at all and letting people ski for free, why buy a pass? It seems the contract does not really apply and has not been honored so: ex dolo malo non oritur actio … don’t pay!
IANAL 🙂
I skied on Friday morning just along Ridge from Penguin to Keogan, and was breaking trail through about 6-8 cm of the snow that had fallen overnight – fair enough that they hadn’t groomed then, I thought. And a Demsis guy checking P5 told me they’d be grooming overnight. So I was really surprised when I went out again on Saturday morning and found they’d done nothing. Their excuse I saw and heard was that they were waiting for the snow to stop, as well as it being too dry. I’m sure they could have packed overnight, and while there… Read more »
Are there any details available about the cost of operations, how much is recovered from sale of seasonal versus day passes and that sort of thing?
blah, blah, blah. Easy to complain. The snow was very light and dry so I feel it was a tough call wrt whether grooming should have/have not occurred. With such a minimal base, and snow this year, my (probably very unpopular) opinion is that it was a good call to let things settle in naturally for a day before grooming. Was grooming better under the previous contract…probably. But I just feel as time progresses we complain more and more about everything. So we had to ski in natural conditions with 15-20 cm of beautiful snow??? I was out there…..and sure… Read more »
I sent this in to Jo Anne almost a year ago amidst similar concerns: “I am a frequent visitor to your site and the park. Last year as we all fumed about the poor grooming, I asked a few pointed questions at the office. It seems there is no way for them to enforce the use of trail passes. Even when they have people collecting at the entrances, they cannot stop a person from entering the trails. I am not suggesting we avoid paying for services, but it does provide a possible mechanism of some leverage for NCC and Demsis.… Read more »
Why not just have the publicly funded/endowed NCC groom the ski trails in this publicly funded park and have them open for free for everyone as part of the commitment in the region to being a world class xc ski destination? Surely by not plowing the park roads some money is being saved that can be justifiably put towards grooming. Then there’s the Ottawa Public Library which is doing its part by purchasing ski passes for free loan to its users 🙂 The races held on the trails must pay for some grooming in the lead up to the events.… Read more »