Grooming Report for 2/2/24 (Copied from Jim R.'s post on the CMNSC Facebook Group page):
Deer Hollow Grooming was a struggle... I'm struggling for words to desccribe it! When our Groomer Group got to Deer Hollow this morning, the 'Good Plow Fairy' had not shown... more about that later in the report! Three groups of us had our seperate parts dealing with the foot or more of fresh snow that Deer Hollow had gotten. CMNSC Volunteers Chris B., & I had the least climactic part, shoveling out the trailer and snowmobile grooming equipment, as well as shoveling and grooming the bathroom! Mission accomplished! Meanwhile, Jess, Skyler, & Robby of the Forest Service jockeyed 3 Snomos around most all of the Deer Hollow trails, trying to just pack the 3 to 4 ft. of bottomless powder, and in the process, managing to get the machines stuck several times. On one occassion, all 3 got stuck at once, and luckily the SnoCat Groomer found them and was able get them out. Anbd finally, CMNSC Volunteers Topher M. & Steve R. spent their day taking turns jockeying the Big Cat. I'll let Steve tell their tale: "Topher and I put in a full day of grooming in “fits and starts.” We intended to get an early start, only to find there was no power at the Midway shed, so no fuel availability. Kevin Lambeth from UDOT was kind enough to come in off the loader he was using to clear Midway parking, found some fuel to put in their emergency generator, then fired up the generator to power the fuel pumps. An hour later, we were off and running through about a foot of new powder. We groomed the first mile of the Hollow to find all three of the Forest Service snowmobiles stuck in about 4 feet of snow, so we spent some time assisting them. The snowmobiles packed out all of the trails ahead of us, which made Topher’s and my job much easier. In the time we had available, we laid a groomed corduroy trail on all trails EXCEPT Aspen, and the south end of the East Draw between Claron and Dolomite. Only a few trails have classic tracks because of difficult snow conditions, and most trails are only one groomer-width wide. We had intermittent snow throughout the day, and it was coming down hard as we were leaving around 4 p.m., so our work is starting to get covered up, but at least there’s a solid base on all the trails (except Aspen)! And UDOT was plowing the parking lot as we were arriving back at the base area, so THANKS, UDOT! And thanks also to Abby and Sarah for dropping off treats. They hit the spot after a long day of grooming." It is now up to the rest of you folks who make it up to Deer Hollow tomorrow to tell us how we did??!!
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