Black Mountain Classic course in excellent condition
Michigan Cup
Thu, Feb 28, 2008 - By Denny Paull
All of the preparations for the 5th annual Black Mountain Nordic Classic 34 km ski race are near complete. Groomers have been working on the trails all week and chief groomer, Jim Meyer, has reported that the trail is in excellent condition.
Forecasted snow for Thurday evening and Friday should only improve conditions. As of right now, the trail is very firm with a little fresh snow over a hard packed base. The conditions may become significantly softer before the race day depending on the amount of snow that falls.
Plans have been made to have at least a couple of volunteers ski the course early Saturday morning before the race to provide at least a partially skied in trail if snow continues to fall into Saturday morning.
The start/finish area will again be on Trout lake below the Chateau. The start area looks like a backwoods Worldcup right now with about 20 side by side, bombproof, tracks which continue the entire length of the lake until racers enter the woods. The start should be controlled and stress free. (Hopefully broken pole free, also.)
As mentioned earlier, barring a huge dumping of snow, the course should be the best it has ever been for this Saturday's race.
Forecasted snow for Thurday evening and Friday should only improve conditions. As of right now, the trail is very firm with a little fresh snow over a hard packed base. The conditions may become significantly softer before the race day depending on the amount of snow that falls.
Plans have been made to have at least a couple of volunteers ski the course early Saturday morning before the race to provide at least a partially skied in trail if snow continues to fall into Saturday morning.
The start/finish area will again be on Trout lake below the Chateau. The start area looks like a backwoods Worldcup right now with about 20 side by side, bombproof, tracks which continue the entire length of the lake until racers enter the woods. The start should be controlled and stress free. (Hopefully broken pole free, also.)
As mentioned earlier, barring a huge dumping of snow, the course should be the best it has ever been for this Saturday's race.