There are many exciting things that are happening now that we are two weeks away from the 22nd annual Noquemanon Ski Marathon.
The new PistenBully is here and getting broken in – it will be ready to go and has already been out prepping some of the lower parts of the course on the way to the Superior Dome.
Speaking of trail prep – this is the time when that really ramps up. If you are new to the Noquemanon course, you should know that half of the 50K course is located on private land that is not accessible to skiers apart from the Noquemanon weekend. We work with approximately 30 different land owners, and land owner groups, to bring this course to you. We are grateful for their support and we also try to honor the fact that this is their land. That said, our preparation doesn’t being until after hunting seasons are over. The terrain is rugged, it is remote with few access points for equipment (or people for that matter), the snow is hip deep (or higher), and there are creeks and rivers to cross. We make a point to point trail cut through the deep woods of Marquette County. It’s spectacular…but it is also a lot of work.
This year, there is extra clearing needed because of the heavy wet snow events that happened at the end of November and beginning of December. That means we are needing to be out putting in a lot of hours prepping the course this year. Because of that, the parts of the trail that are typically difficult to get packed in (prior to grooming) are being wonderfully packed in and it is firming up tremendously. We are very excited about that and the fact that the course deck should be as firm as it’s EVER been. And, there’s good snow across the entire region right now…so no worries there.
Now…on to the weather predictions.
We are supposed to be seeing more normal temperatures with regular intervals of snow over the next week of 1 to 3 inches here or there. There is then the potential for some more lake effect snow here and there. There are early indications of perhaps one bigger snow event next week of 6-12+…that is somewhat normal for us. Then the indications are that the temperature trends very cold for the end of January (as opposed to moderate to above normal temperatures we saw all of December and early January). It is too far out to know what that means, but colder air typically means heavier lake effect snow. These are good things as the extra snow on top of the good packing should level things out nicely…unless that snow drops after grooming and before the starting gun goes off of course. Talk to your local Noque veteran about how to prepare for that (and about how to wax for conditions that change several times along a point to point like the Noque).
We will keep watching and provide more weather information as we get closer.
We are really excited about this year!