A very pleasant day with good weather and good conditions.

Went classic: P9 => #32 => FP => CP => Huron => #1 => Blanchet => #1 => Champlain Lookout => CP => FP => #32 => P9

With one exception conditions were quite good with a dusting of new snow over recent tracksetting. The tracks were fast, straight, & firm with the new snow giving good grip. The skating track looked to be quite good - even, fast, with good control. On #1 the tracksetting was as good as it could have been given the low snow coverage: the skating track is still showing the shape of the ground underneath; and, there are places in the classic tracks where grass is still showing.. The tracksetting after Blanchet still looked good; however, a reliable source who went to the tower told me that some of the downhills are still nasty and dangerous. At #1 Western (#9) looked to be in great backcountry shape with tracksetting having been performed by legions of “real” skiers. On the ridge there is about 25 cm of snow off-track.

The one exception was #1 between #3 and the lookout. The web-site reports that it was trackset four days ago but that the condition is “unkown”. Here is the report of one who now knows it. It does not look trackset. It is compacted either by snowmobile or skiers or both without any track. It is bumpy and uneven with lots of surprises - it is so bad that at one point someone had taken his skis off and walked a hill. It’s doable but not pleasurable.

Paul and Jo-Ann have made some meaningful comments on the new, unimproved NCC web-site. Daring to join such impressive company I’ll offer my opinions on the site. The “precipitation in the last 24 hours” entry has been removed - this was important information. The tracksetting standards have been removed and the trails are no longer grouped by priority. Since the tracksetting standards were defined relative to priority it is no longer possible to know what level of tracksetting can be expected .