Click on the pictures for enlargement. These were taken today by Amy and Jesse Heckrodt.

Today and yesterday it didn’t really snow at the Callaghan - at least not much. Pretty much every day in memory before that it has snowed - much. A couple of days ago I went up with Amy and we got on the snow a little after 10 AM. They had finished grooming at about 8 AM, and you could have fooled me. We were skating through snow above our boots. They fired the groomers up again before noon, and by giving the snow-cats a ten minute head start and then chasing them we got some good skiing in.

According to Environment Canada there has been 94cm of snow in the last ten days. It looks like a lot more than that. The day I just described is recorded as 16cm, and they had that between 8AM and noon. Maybe I’m just unaccustomed to the bonanza, but I have seen nearly a meter of snow in a week, and this looks like more.

I haven’t been taking air or snow temperature readings, but my observation thus far has been that the snow falls a good deal colder than the air. The Environment Canada data suggest a high snow volume to moisture ratio (12.2:1 over the course of the ten most recent days) considering that the temperature is quite mild. I haven’t been on classic skis up there yet, but the waxes that are working are harder than you might expect. Amy skied one day at -1C with 99% humidity and had draggy skis and a bit of icing on Rode violet hardwax.

When we came out to visit in April we toured the venue site with Rob Bernhardt - the Chief of Competition for XC for VANOC. I asked him about snowmaking plans. They hadn’t really considered it and I guess I’m coming to understand why. I’ve been assuming that what we’ve seen is out of the ordinary. A couple of years ago they had a much warmer December and it looks like it rained quite a lot up there. I really don’t know what is considered normal around here, but nobody seems too alarmed by what’s been happening.

I haven’t had as much time at the venue as I’d like so far. It’s been busy in the shop, but I’m getting things cleared out and will be spending increasing numbers of days on the snow. I’m eager to see a shift in the weather pattern, and to see what kind of slop the northwest can sling. I’ve heard stories, but never really witnessed it firsthand. In any case, I’m from the East and the weather doesn’t stand much chance of hurting my feelings.