This morning I tried out my new "mohair" no-wax classic skis. Starting from P10 I climbed the FP, went west on Ridge and 1B to the snowshoe trail from Blanchet, then back on Ridge to the top of Penguin, finally returning via the FP. There was excellent fresh grooming everywhere. The snow was of the clumping "snowball" variety, but I didn't find it wet and unlike Karl didn't encounter suction (probably because of the higher elevation compared to P17). The temperature was almost exactly 0C and there was some drizzle at times, glazing the tracks. The no-wax skis worked perfectly, providing good grip on all but the most glazed, steep sections. They also gave remarkably good glide. It was a great ski, but I have a couple of minor quibbles. Demsis seems to be eliminating classic tracks wherever they can. I've heard that it takes more fuel to put in classic tracks, which might be the reason for this. Today's missing tracks were on 1B, which now has only one classic track, and it switches from one side of the trail to the other. There were also long sections that were flat enough to warrant a classic track, but didn't have one. The single descending classic track on the FP was quite shallow and in places had been covered by snowspray from the adjacent snowmobile lane. I think putting a separate snowmobile lane on the side of the parkway is the best solution yet to the problem of service snowmobiles shredding the skate lane. However, the service crews still have to back off the throttle to avoid obliterating the adjacent classic track. The crews were doing a really good job of driving slowly earlier this year. They seem to be back to snowmobile racing of late. I guess time is money...

Get out and ski this afternoon or evening if you can- conditions are currently great up on the ridge, and the forecast calls for some freezing rain tomorrow.