In talking with Paul Olson, we will call at 10:00 AM to check the weather before we agree to groom Saturday - the First.

Wednesday or Thursday Groom?

John- thanks for the blog invite. Below is a copy of my e-mail I've already sent to some.......

Is anyone interested in getting out to groom Haggin Wednesday or Thursday evening? I could leave Butte as early as 1530. Maybe a Wednesday groom would help the Friday crew get out of the cold earlier? I helped with last Thursday’s groom, but remain mostly inexperienced.

Grooming December 23

Because Friday is Christmas Eve, the plan is to groom Thursday 12/23 starting at 9:00 am. Paul

Grooming schedule for week of December 17th

We'll meet at 9:00 Friday morning.  Crew: Ray, John L., and Mark Switek.  Ray will bring the fuel.  Jim Gleason has had to become a full-time care giver, so we won't have him to hard-ass.  We will miss him!  Welcome Mark.

Start 2010-2011 Season

Note Links list added on right side.  Also note: #3 has a broken brake cable setup. Benny Finnicum is trying to get us a replacement, but in the mean time, the brake doesn't work and may even lock up.  If it does appear to be locked, work the brake lever to free it up, or find the cable stub under the hood and pull it out of the sheath with the vice grips you will find under the seat.

John, Ray and I will be there for sure at 8. John C is going to call me this evening.

Friday, March 19 plan

We plan to meet at 8:00.  If conditions warrant, we'll groom.  In any case we'll end the season by storing the implements and closing up the warming hut.  Paul has repaired the broken compacter and will be bringing it back on his gooseneck flatbed.  We'll load the snowmobiles on the flatbed and haul them to Jerry Creek for the summer.

March 12 Grooming Schedule

Hi Guys:

NWS predicts 47F tomorrow after an overnight low of 17F at Mt. Haggin.  Is anybody game to do it one more time starting at 8:00.  Since Anaconda got 8" of new snow I know we'll have a bunch to knock down.  Paul, if you're available, could you bring your trailer to haul the broken compacter?  Let's get by on the fuel on hand.

Grooming Schedule For Friday, March 5

Looks like Spring has sprung.  NWS is predicting 42F tomorrow after an overnight low of 18F.  Whatever we do, we'd better get at it at 8:00 again.  We'd better open the detour at the lower Li'l Cal trailhead.  Jim:  Let's make do with the fuel we've got on hand for tomorrow.

Friday, February 26th groooming schedule

Hi Guys:

With the forecast for highs in the 40's tomorrow, we had better get started early.  Can we meet at 8:00?

Friday grooming schedule

Hey guys.  The forecast looks excellent for Mt. Haggin.  Friday's temp is to max out at 25F after an overnight low of 11F.  The new snow should be pretty much done with by then.  The Idaho Falls Ski Club will be making their annual visit this weekend. 

Race Day Grooming

The plan is to turn out a 8:00 to clean up at least the skate lanes.  The forecast has a 50% POP for up to an inch.  If there is little or no new snow, a pass or two with the Ginzu, leaving the set tracks untouched, should suffice.  Joe expects there to be some classic skiers, at least "tour" skiers from REC.  In case there is significant snowfall, we might have to compact the two sides and reset the tracks. Who would like to turn out at 8:00 to back up Paul, who is planning to do the Ginzu passes?

I will volunteer to be a backup, but I would be happy to be bumped.

Race week grooming schedule

This is race week and it looks like we've got a short crew for Friday. Jim Gleason has a funeral, John Ericson has a meeting, and John Gillespie has a previous engagement. The other poor souls have to go to work, except for us fully retarded guys: Paul, Ray, and John L. Ray will pick up the fuel from Jim. There should be plenty of fuel in the machines for the Thursday night crew. The forecast looks cool enough that a 9:00 start should be OK. I assume Joe Griffin will be out after lunch to check things out and put out the signs and flags. I called R&M to make sure the Porta-Potti gets pumped on Friday. Dave Williams or Joe might want to leave word with the Anaconda-Deerlodge Road Department about the race, just in case we get dumped on Friday night.

February 5, 2010 Grooming

Based on the last few days it looks like we will have a little new snow to groom on Friday. Start time will be 9 o'clock. I skied Sunday and there was about 1 inch of new snow on top of last Friday's grooming and we had about an inch of snow on Tuesday. We'll see if this next storm late Thursday and early Friday gives us more snow to work with. Our key lock box on the warming hut has been acting up and sometimes doesn't reset so you can not open it. That happened over the weekend with Dave Williams. I checked it Sunday and did get it working again so if it doesn't work try pushing all the numbers and try the reset button.

Paul and I got caught up on chores at Haggin today. We put the carburetor from old #5 in the Bitterroot Alpine II and put the hitch back on the Beast that Paul had fixed. Since there is a bunch from the Club doing the moonlight ski tomorrow night, we went ahead and groomed the lower loops. Paul used the Beast/Ginzu and I used the Bitterroot Alpine II to pull the TiddTech and then the tracksetter. Although the temp got above 32, we made it without serious mishap.
The Alpine II worked fine, although the idle still had to be set high. The primer failed so we replaced it. One fix remains to be done: the fuel line still runs under the engine and is prone to vapor lock. On the other Alpine II's we rerouted the fuel line just inside the cowling on the clutch side with good results.

Who would like to groom on Friday?

Saturday Grooming Plan

It looks like there will be 5 of us for Saturday: Gus, Ray, John E, Paul, and John L. The weather seems to be following the forecast so we should have new snow to work with. Assuming there is a fair amount we'd better plan on using the rollers first. Maybe one guy can work with Paul on the lower loops and be available to help turn the Beast on some of the Sugarloaf fall away corners. The other three guys could drop the tracksetter off at the lower end of Li'l Cal, take the TiddTech, a roller, and an empty machine to the upper end and go around clockwise. Then they could turn around and lead the tracksetter around counter clockwise, dropping down Sleepy Hollow with the implements while the tracksetter finishes Li'l Cal. If there isn't too much snow, maybe the Li'l Cal crew could use a compacter rather than a roller. If there's a lot of snow, they may need to use two empty machines for the clockwise pass. Anyway, the two-way cut/fill should leave Li'l Cal in good shape, even the creek bottom.



If there is enough time, maybe we could reset the Ginzu tracks at least on Crooked John.
 
See you all at 9:00.

Grooming Schedule for weekend of 1/22

Based on the forecast, I wonder if we should wait till Saturday to groom since the snow is supposed to peak about Friday night.  Even though not much is expected, we all know what dustings can be like at Mt. Haggin.  Comments?

Note:

The brake cable on #3 (Alpine II) still locks up periodically.  Usually it will free up if the brake lever is squeezed and released a couple of times.  If that doesn't work then you have to lift the hood and grab the stub of cable on the unused side of the Y and pull it out.  I put a pair of vice grips under the seat to grab the cable with.

We also rearranged the equipment so we could lean a compacter against the smaller container where it is normally kept.

John L

Friday grooming for January 15

We have 2 plus inches of new snow from this last storm earlier in the week, so there will be snow to work with to cover trails torn up by snowmobile intrusions. Start grooming at 9 am our usual time. We'll see what the Thursday night crew reports. I talked to Kim and she indicated that the trails were pretty rough from the snowmobile activity.

Thursday night grooming report

Thursday night crew

Todd, Chris, Nick? - Thursday night grooming could be brutal. I hope everyone is prepared for extreme conditions... There should be quite a bit of new snow, drifts, etc... Any comments from anyone who has been up there recently?