We finally have some more snow! A crack grooming team is heading out this Friday to prepare the trails for us! Enjoy! It’s supposed to warm up a bit next week, but hopefully we can get enough of a pack to survive until the next dump comes! Hang in there and enjoy the fresh snow now!
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From the club president:
We finally have some more snow! A crack grooming team is heading out this Friday to prepare the trails for us! Enjoy! It’s supposed to warm up a bit next week, but hopefully we can get enough of a pack to survive until the next dump comes! Hang in there and enjoy the fresh snow now!
Free Ski Day 2.0: As you saw, we rescheduled Free Ski Day for January 17th. There are a few spots left for free lessons and cross-country ski rentals, which you can sign up for here. If you are a club member who volunteered to help with lessons, to make soup or to help otherwise and someone from the club (me or Elise Stacy) has not been in touch with you since last week, feel free to check in with us to confirm whether you’ll make the new date. If you wanted to volunteer before, but could not, but can help with the new date, feel free to reach out too! More friendly folks helping with beginners are always welcome!
Blue Mountain Trip: We also rescheduled our trip to the Blue Mountains for January 24-26. The trip involves an easy one-way ski from the Rose Springs Sno-Park (south of Pomeroy WA) in 7 miles to an old forest service cabin – the Clearwater Big House. Adventurers will plan a feast and games at the cabin, and enjoy plenty of groomed or backcountry skiing for your appetite. Want in? Email palousedividenordic@gmail.com to reserve your spot. Heather Pettit, owner of Hyperspud Sports, will be leading the expedition! Adventurers will share costs for cabin rental and parking stickers. If we get someone to drive the snowmobile, we can also have someone haul our gear in!
Lunch and Historical Tour of the Palouse Divide Lodge. On January 25, Shirley Hathaway, owner of the Palouse Divide Lodge, will be hosting a lunch and historical tour of the lodge. Looking to get the full lodge experience? Join us before or after your ski (or both!). $25 per person. Seats are limited. Sign up by giving a name, contact email and phone number, and the number in your party to palousedividenordic@gmail.com.
Enjoy winter while we have it!
Ski Lessons for Saturday, Jan 10, canceled due to lack of snow.
It’s snowing at the Divide today, but without a base, we can’t be sure there will be enough snow for lessons this weekend. Keep doing your snow dances – we still have plenty of season left!!
Due to poor snow conditions, Free Ski Day is postponed until Jan 17. Pre-register at this link https://free_ski_day_Jan17.eventbrite.com
Join us for Free Ski Day on January 3rd and enjoy hot drinks, soup, and skiing fun!
Parking is free for all. We also offer free beginner lessons with free rental gear to introduce folks to the Palouse Divide trails! This year we are implementing a new pre-registration system to smooth the gear distribution process. If you or someone you know is interested, please share, view event details, and register via the link below. Lessons will start at 9:30am, 11:30am, and 1:30pm.
Register here: Pre-registration required for the free lessons and gear rental package and children must be accompanied by an adult
Ski instructors needed: If you would like to help teach the free ski lessons, contact Elise at Palousedividenordic@gmail.com
Join us at the 3rd annual Palouse Divide Nordic Ski Swap on Saturday, December 6, 3:30-4:30pm in the Lecompte Auditorium at Moscow’s 1912 Center.
The swap will be followed by the Annual Meeting at 5-6:30pm! We’ll update club members on trail conditions and our exciting array of club events for the winter season for beginners and experienced skiers alike. There will be food and bubbly water for everyone as well as beer and wine available (for a small donation).
We’ll have new stickers, microfiber trail maps and club beanies available (they make great stocking stuffers!) You can also update your club membership there, and Hyperspud will have Idaho Park ‘n Ski Passes available.
Thanks to all the volunteers who helped with trail clearing this past weekend. All the trails have been cleared and the warming hut has been moved and stocked with wood! We’re finishing the servicing of the snowmobiles now! Just about ready for some snow!
A team of volunteers will head up to the Divide, move the Warming Hut to its winter location and clear the trails with chainsaws, loppers, and other tools! We can use your help! If you have an ATV that you can bring, all the better! We will start Saturday, November 15th at 10am and follow up on Sunday depending on how much work remains to be done! Let us know you are coming at palousedividenordic@gmail.com.
Saturday, October 25, the Palouse Divide Nordic Ski club will have a table at the Moscow Farmers Market, in front of Hyperspud Sports. Stop by, say hi, pay your dues if you have not yet, pick up one of our new club stickers, get trail updates and pick up a trail map, and give feedback demos of our new club beanies (knitted caps) that will be available in December!
This is likely to be our last weekend with ski-able snow at the Palouse Divide. There’s enough snow for some nice spring skiing, but not enough to groom. Enjoy it while it lasts!
The Divide got a lot of snow this morning! Get out and enjoy it before it’s gone! There’s no grooming, but you can follow Jesse’s tracks on Big Loop, Meadow Creek, and Little Loop.
The ambiguities of March skiing on the Palouse are here. Is there enough snow this weekend to ski? We’ll see how it goes!
There was not enough snow to merit grooming this week, so there are no smooth tracks awaiting you at the Palouse Divide. But if the snow comes down Saturday, there could be fresh snow for skiing. Share your photos when you go to inspire others to join you (or warn them away from following you!). We’ll keep the port-a-potties there another week to see how the conditions turn out. We’re not ruling anything out yet!
The groomers did not groom this week. There is still some snow up at the Divide, but expect patchy conditions (and icy conditions in the mornings), and perhaps sections walking with your skis. Looks like snow might come next week so keep your eyes open and let me know if you see some fresh snow! Our crack team of groomers will get out there! But we’re leaving the port-a-potties out for those of you who do go out this weekend! (pics below are a couple weeks old)
Skiers report that snow was ok on Saturday (groomer’s groomed on Friday), thinnest from the trailhead to the warming hut and about 5 bare spots out to Lane’s Lookout. Better further out. Beautiful day. Skiing should be worthwhile on Sunday especially early.
Very nice skiing at the Divide this afternoon. 32 degrees and snowing hard. Packed base seems to be holding up and 1”-3” of new snow thanks to today’s storm. Don’t put the skis away quite yet. There’s still some season ahead up here.
Today, our friendly team of groomers (this time, Andy, Eric and Tim), groomed all the trails on the east side of the highway at the Palouse Divide! Amazing! Tomorrow, another team (Jon and Matt) will be up there to tidy up and make sure we’re all ready for the Loppet! Thanks to the team! We have the best grooming team I could imagine and can’t thank them enough for all the hard work and dedication our Nordic ski community. So you can help me thank them too!
In other news: Bald Mountain Loppet is Saturday & Women’s Ski is Sunday! Do you want to get all the update from the Palouse Divide Nordic Ski Club: Go to https://pdnsc.groups.io/g/main to sign up!
Thanks to David and Jon for getting the 377 and Hume Road groomed today.
Going into this weekend, everything on the east side of the highway except Potlatch Loop has been packed and groomed. Snowed a couple of inches Thursday night and was snowing hard Friday morning. Expect some light powder over packed snow for some very nice skiing this weekend.
We are not going to have the machines out on the trails this Saturday or Sunday.
Good time to get out and enjoy some of the best conditions this season.
Teams are already starting to prepare for the Bald Mountain Loppet on Saturday, February 22. Registration is full (the maximum allowed is 40) and we have a wait list! If you are out skiing that day, cheer on the intrepid skiers who are skiing 18 miles round trip and up 1,715 to the top of Bald Mountain. We could use a couple volunteers if you want to help out! Just email palousedividenordic@gmail.com
Today our incredible grooming team (this time, Jon & Paul) groomed Big Loop, Meadow Creek Loop, and Little Loop. They spent some extra time out there because with all the recent snow some of the grooming had narrowed. So they did extra work widening it for us! Tomorrow, two more fantastic groomers (Jon again, this time with David) will be out grooming the rest of Hume Road and Palouse Divide Road out to Lane’s Lookout. Make sure to thank the groomers when you see them! They do awesome work for us!
It’s snowing at the Divide, and Emily was able to groom the Palouse Divide Road to Lane’s Lookout this morning! Hopefully, tomorrow’s team can get most of the rest… Nice to see fresh snow!