We were able to enjoy a few more hours of  fun skiing in the Blue Hills this morning. The weather forecast suggests we are done grooming for the winter of 2011-12.Here's a bit of a recap:

1. We started grooming on December 4th, & have skied in the Hills regularly since then (a total of 98 days on groomed snow).
2. We groomed a total of 39 times.
3. December was dry, allowing only 5 opportunities to groom - but we kept skiing on our rock skis.
4. January snowfall picked up, groomers worked on 17 days that month.
5. February was drier again, requiring 11 days of grooming.
6. March produced our only decent snowstorm - & another 6 days of grooming.

We owe a big thank you to our groomers. Equipment break downs and mechanical problems were handled efficiently & never compromised the grooming. Thank you to Dan Bartels, Steve Gest, & Jesse Wimer for capturing every available snowflake & saving the winter of 2011-12! It certainly was an unusual winter (warm & dry). Fortunately, we were lucky to receive just enough snow to enjoy fun conditions for most of 3 months. Welcoming the many happy skiers that traveled to find snow in the Blue Hills was very rewarding.

‍Recent comments from the logbook in the warming house

• 3/8: Great ski today all alone!  Thanks to the groomers for all the great work this winter.  Hate to see it end. --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/9: Awesome! --author's location unknown
• 3/10: Got going 7:30 a.m. when "the window" was still closed & locked.  Thanks to yesterday's grooming (by Dan the man) we threw the window open 'til it started to get slow ~9:30.  What fun! --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/10: Another fabulous year in the Hills.  Thank you to the crew! --Barron, WI
• 3/10: Great spring skiing.  Thanks. --Minneapolis, MN
• 3/11: Great hike thru woods.  Stayed off trails.  This is what makes real outdoors men & women. --author's location unknown
• 3/13: Just checkin' out old playground. --author's location unknown
• 3/13: I was able to ski out the 'gravel road' about 2.5 km, crossing two short bare sections. to a wide melted out area then returned. --Ladysmith, WI
• 3/23: Snow completely gone - can you believe it! --Rice Lake, WI

Great fall hiking is available right now. 20+ miles of trails carefully maintained by our many volunteers.

Many thanks to the crew that turned out for the annual work day on October 15th.  On that day - and on many days in the past few weeks - volunteers have liberated most of the trail system from encroaching branches, briers, and rocks; bridges have been reinforced; creeks have become more passable; & the warming house received a good dusting.

The entire system of Westside trails was cleared on November 7th (a huge thank you to Dick P, Steve G, and Tom P). All of the remaining downed trees on the Eastside were cleared on November 8th (major thanks to Jerry W and John Z).

Earlier this summer, one of our major challenges was repair of our most important bridge. It's on the East Side of the trail system, and allows multiple trails to interconnect with the East Side Core Loop.

The following pictures are from spring/summer/fall 2011 on the Blue Hills Trail.

The winter of 2010-11 was a roller coaster ride from a weather standpoint. Temps fluctuated widely, precipitation was variable, and periodic warmups and meltdowns added to the mix. But along the way, there was abundant snowfall, great grooming, and loads of happy faces from cross country skiers on the Blue Hills Trail in northwest Wisconsin. To top it off, winter hung on and provided great crust skiing in mid/late March.

This was a great winter for snow enthusiasts, the following pictures tell the story.