Friday, March, 26, 2010 Report – The 10th full report for the 09/10 year. See Minor update For April 9, 2010
Caution: I’ve cut down on the extra links in this report. Most ski links are at my “General” XC Ski Page. However there may be a few that were only in the “weekly report”. You can access them in last year’s First Report through the Last report. See instructions on finding any report from 01 to 13.. ALSO previously I’d display the full hyperlink for many web pages. Now, most folks are aware that any blue underlined text is a hyperlink that they can click on to navigate to that page. The downside is that if someone printed out the report they’d not see the actual hyperlink. However I don’t think many folks well be printing out these reports.
Click here for the TABLE OF CONTENTS for the “Extra Web Data” not in the email. This upper section will be used for minor updates until the next report is prepared. New items are preceded with an *.
Friday, April, 09, 2010, 03:25 PM.
Planned Trip: Saturday, 04/10/10 Meet at the Shoup Bridge Campground at 10:00 for a trip to the William’s Cr area. However, if coming, please call me at 756-2085 or my cell phone. My cell works at the Shoup Bridge CG and is: 303-1041. Snow conditions will determine where we ski. Tentatively I may ski out the upper Aspen Loop and up the William’s Cr Trail a ways to work on locating the rest of the by-pass around some steep areas. If the snow looks good we’ll ski down to the Lower Aspen Loop and TH. If not we’ll ski back and make a trip around the Wapiti Loop. Those not wanting a steep trip can just plan to do that.
This may well be the last group ski of the year. However, I will plan some ski trail workdays later however. Last Friday we skied in about the same route and it was excellent. The shaded areas had great powder and the sunny slopes had “corn snow”. I understand that a group went back on Saturday and also found even better skiing.
Since last Sunday evening we probably had over 5” of new snow. The three hour readings at the Lemhi Ridge Snotel showed +10” of increases and -13” of decreases. Some of this may have been depth sensor fluctuations, but I’d say at least half of the 10” was really new snow. Total depth went from 40” to 37”. Density went from 24.3% to 26.8%. It’s been well about freezing for much of the week so I think we’ll probably have corn.
This report is also at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm - Go to that site and scroll down to find links to snow and weather info for both William’s Cr and Chief Joseph Pass.
PS: I’m going to try and get the trip reports done for this year on Sunday. Check back next week at http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/skitriprpt.htm to see if I’ve updated my trip reports for the 2009/2010 year.
/s/ Cliff
Note: Blue or red underlined text is a web link. When clicking on the following
links or any link it’s sometimes necessary to do it twice by hitting the
refresh button or F5:
Friday, March, 26, 2010, 05:55 PM
Cross Country Skiers,
You are currently on my Salmon XC Ski Mailing list. Let me know if you want off
the list. If some of the links don’t work or to see minor updates please go
to the web version at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm
To see previous reports add a 1001, 1002, etc through 1009 to the “xcskirpt”
wording. For example the last “report” that actually covered Mar 03 & 13 is
at http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt1009.htm
Planned Trips:
1. Sunday, 03/28/10 Meet at the FS/BLM parking lot at 10:00 AM or the Shoup Bridge Campground at 10:10 for a trip to the William’s Cr area. I hope conditions will be great. I’m tentatively planning to ski up the Buckhorn Trail and down the William’s Cr. Trail to the Lower Aspen Loop. Those that want a milder version can ski down the Meadow Trail taking a new by-pass to the Lower Aspen Loop. We can even fashion an easier trip for those that want mostly flat skiing. Well behaved dogs are welcome.
Future Trips: I’m hoping to do some work on some by-passes on the William’s Cr. trail. Probably on Tuesday. Give me a call at 756-2085 if interested or let me know if you want me to contact you.
Snow Conditions William’s Cr: Use the following links for William’s Cr. Trail Descriptions Trailhead Locations Trail Map and Trail Segment table. Also check out the NOAA William’s Cr Summit point forecast and the Lemhi Ridge Snotel. (The Snotel has been receiving somewhat more snowfall and about 6” more depth than William’s Cr. Summit this year. It’s also been reporting somewhat cooler temperatures, but it’s still a good gauge of conditions.)
Snow Conditions – We last skied the area on March 14 and conditions were fairly good except in open areas exposed to the sun. Check out the last report for conditions at that time. However since then the temperature has been well above freezing every day. However it’s been in the mid teens to lower 20’s every night. This should have resulted in fairly good corn snow on some of the more open areas. However Since yesterday the Lemhi Ridge Snotel, and I assume William’s Cr Summit, received 3 or 4 inches of new snow. If it’s over 2 inches and has not crusted it may be good tomorrow. The current William’s Cr. Summit Weather Forecast shows another inch of snow this afternoon and tonight, with temperatures below freezing until about noon. Thus if you want powder without the “Glue Meadow’s Syndrome” you’d better plan on an early ski or plan to ski in the shade tomorrow afternoon. Be sure to bring “maxi-glide” or similar glide wax.
I really can’t predict conditions for Sunday. It’s predicted to only be 18% cloudy tomorrow afternoon and that could crust the snow. However I expect it will still be soft in the shady areas.
Except for the lower William’s Cr. Trail (below the lower Aspen Loop) and The Lower Meadow Trail to Cougar Point, I expect adequate snow except on southerly micro slopes by tree wells. In other areas the snow should be adequate for several more weeks. Last year we skied until mid May, so I think we should have skiing through mid-April. Unless good corn snow develops, the best skiing will be on the flatter shaded trails in the trees.
Snow Conditions Chief Joseph Pass: (CLICK HERE for my description of these trails.) See additional links above and also, for a map of the groomed trails, CLICK HERE. (It’s best to right click & “Open in New Window”, so you can continue reading while the map is loading). “Zoom-In” for more detail.
LOST TRAIL & CJ ROAD, SNOTEL & WEATHER LINKS &
REPORT:
Here are the links to
the Lost Trail Pass Web Cam. Here’s the Montana link: http://rwis.mdt.mt.gov/scanweb/losttrail.shtml
and here’s the Idaho
Link to the same cameras. Select camera 1 (south-bound) or camera 2
(northbound) at the top of the page. (The links are to the same camera, but
sometimes one link will work when the other doesn’t.) Here’s another useful
link: CLICK
HERE for a list of Idaho Transportation Data for Lost Trail Pass. About 3
days worth of data taken every 15 minutes is displayed, including: Temperature,
Wind Speed, and 24 hour total precipitation, and more.
Check out the latest Lost
Trail Ski Area Weather/Snow Report.
The Saddle
Mtn Snotel 3 Hour Readings are the most current snow and temperature values
for the area near the top of the chair lifts. The times are listed as Pacific
STANDARD Time. In addition, CLICK
HERE for the daily readings (taken at 01:00 AM mountain time) which may be
less confusing for a weekly view.
The best weather & snow forecast for the area is The
NOAA Lost Trail “Table Point Forecast”
I often check the: Snow-Forecast.Com’s
6-Day Forecast for Lost Trail. If you click on this link be sure the
“Imper” button is selected, i.e. inches rather than cm. I often disagree with their
snow depth predictions but it’s sometimes helpful.
CLICK HERE
for the weekly Friday Avalanche Forecast. CLICK
HERE for the backcountry weather forecast. This forecast usually shows more
snow than the above NOAA forecast.
CHIEF JOSEPH PASS AREA UNGROOMED TRAIL LINKS: r
For a map of the “Un-Groomed XC Ski Trails” near Chief Joseph Pass CLICK HERE.
(It’s best to right click & “Open in New Window, so you can continue
reading while the map is loading). “Zoom-In” for more detail. This map takes
awhile to download, so it’s best to save it on your computer if you expect to
use it again. This map and a table of the trails is available on the NEW Beaverhead
NF Winter Recreation Web site. This is an excellent map, but it does have a
minor error in the location of the Ander-Rich and Richardson Ridge Trail
junction. CLICK
HERE for a corrected location for these trails. Sometimes when trip
planning it’s helpful to have intermediate (segment) mileages. CLICK HERE for
my “Trail Segment Table”.
Although it’s not been a good snow year, conditions at Chief Joseph and Lost
Trail have been consistently better than other areas. When temperatures have
been below freezing and especially after an inch or so of new snow conditions
have been excellent.
To see the latest report click on http://missoulanordic.org/cgi-bin/snow_grooming/discus.cgi and scroll down to the Chief Joseph section. Click on the Chief Joseph link. I will try and update this report later this evening or Saturday morning. They are not grooming the trails anymore this year, but enough folks are skiing that tracks of some sort are usually available.
My XC Ski Report (this page) is also on the web at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm check back for updates.
Earlier this month I followed the Iditarod sled dog race. If you want to check out some of the best of many internet sites that cover the race go to my home page and select the Iditarod Link or go to: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/iditarodlinks.html
If you missed the Iditarod Sled-dog race but want to see how the leading mushers did you might want to take my “virtual tour” of the race at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/Archive10.htm I have it updated through the arrival of at least the top 20 racers.
/s/ Cliff
Word Count 1,211
End of the Email
TABLE
OF CONTENTS: (Click
on the following to jump down to that section. Hit the Back Button to return
here.)
1. PLANNED TRIPS: (See above)
2. PREVIOUS TRIPS:
3. Ski Trail Condition Reports: WILLIAM'S CR. TRAILS: ,
CHIEF JOSEPH - ANDERSON MT. ROAD
AREA:
4. MISC.:
5. AVALANCHE:
6. OTHER WEB LINKS:
INTRODUCTION: To better understand planned trips and previous trip reports, I encourage you to get three maps. Go to the A. INTRODUCTION Section of my Salmon Idaho Cross-Country Ski Web Page for Details.
The current ski report will always be, posted on http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm.
If you want me to make changes on the email list, call me at 208-756-2085 or email me. You can get my email from the messages that I send to you or call me. Currently we about have about 80 on the list.
PLANNED
TRIPS:
See above.
PREVIOUS
TRIPS:
For a short description of each ski trip to date for the 2008-2009
season go to: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/skitriprpt.htm
Scroll down, or click on the links for the latest and subsequent months
for the season. NOTE also that there are links to the reports for previous
years back to 2004.
SKI REPORT:
CHIEF JOSEPH - ANDERSON MT. ROAD AREA
Click Here for the Missoula Nordic Grooming Info page. Scroll down for my latest Chief Joseph Pass report. Also see the link to the Lake Como Trails. Go to my home page at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/ and follow the links to more XC Ski info.
Lost Trail Ski Area
OTHER
WEB LINKS:
Links not yet in "CLIFF'S SALMON IDAHO, CROSS-COUNTRY SKI PAGE:
Here's a link to a site that describes the TEN ESSENTIALS to carry on
the trail. He's added a few additional items:
http://www.isu.edu/outdoor/ten.htm
Some folks may want to do some
skiing in Stanley Basin or the Sawtooth Valley:
The following site has links to the summer recreation report (last updated in
September) and to some general info re winter recreation:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth/recreation.htm.
The Outdoors Sections
of the Missoulian and the Ravalli Republic on-line newspapers
often have articles of interest.
CLICK HERE for
the Outdoors Section of the Missoulian On-Line. Check out the latest
Outdoors News Briefs.
CLICK HERE
for the Outdoors Section of the Ravalli Republic. Here are two examples
of some of their reporting. One is about Chief
Joseph Pass another about the Lost
Trail Ski Area and some recent changes. There was an earlier article
relating to the Lost
Trail Ski Patrol, another that relates to Nordic
Skiing including areas to skate ski, and another on snowboarding at
Lost Trail Ski Area called Battle
On The Border.
CLICK HERE for the Outdoors Section of the Butte Montana Standard Newspaper.
CLICK HERE for the Outdoors Section of the Boise Idaho Statesman Newspaper.
Here's an interesting link to some
history of ski (mountaineering) equipment:
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/ms/rei-catalogs.html
Here's Lou Binik's
"Foxwear" web site:
http://www.foxwear.net/. Be sure to copy
or type this correctly. "foxware.net", "foxware.com" and
"foxwear.com" are all different sites.
Tawna Skinner services cross country
skis and equipment.
She will also give cross country and telemark ski instruction.
Details are at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/TawnaXCski.htm
Pray for snow,
Cliff Keene, Salmon, Idaho
Initial Word Count 4,542 See email
section for partial update Date & Time.
Revised Count: 4,484 after minor edit on 03/24/07 added Email
only..
Previous Full Update: 02/15/2007 14:20 PM
Latest Full Update:
02/22/2007 21:25 PM
Minor Edit (see **): N/A.
