Skied classic from P6 to Huron & back. This should have been a great day with new snow - it wasn’t.

It was old fashioned skiing all the way - slogging through new snow - the problem was that I don’t have my good-old wooden skis and gaiters anymore. Demsis decided that they couldn’t trackset this morning because the snow was too dry and the base was too icy. The classic tracks, where they existed, were skier set and quite wobbly; the skaters were having a real slog. The excuse doesn’t hold water: the snow depth varied between 10 - 20 cm and could have been easily trackset - at least compacted. The ice base was there but was well covered.

The previous contractor looked on difficult conditions as a challenge; I have memories of him turning ice into magic conditions. Demsis looks for excuses.

There were no machines of any sort in evidence today. Yesterday, when compacting should have been done, Demsis approach was too use what Jo-Ann called the “magic carpet”. This device beggars description - it consists a large metal frame to which two monster drags (carpets) are attached - it is then towed by a maintenance snowmobile. It smoothed out the snow but didn’t compact it.

Today was another example of Demsis shafting both the skier community and the NCC.