Trail Report 1/23/17
We seemed to have made it through the warm-rainy weekend. Temperatures are expected to drop modestly over the course of the week with freezing at night. The entire course was reviewed on Sunday and we have determined that the snow has held up quite well over the majority of the course. However, we have lost a significant amount of snow in the last 3 km of the race course.
At this point, unless we get a few inches of snowfall by Thursday morning we will be planning on a 42km race finishing at the Forestville Trailhead. The half marathon would end up being approximately 18km. Trails in the Forestville area would be used at the tail end of the Noquemanon Trail to extend the total distance of each race with the removal of the last 10K to the Superior Dome. This will be a fun twist on an old classic…albeit a bit shorter than the full course. Anyone that has skied at Forestville should be pleased with this as an option…it’s wonderful northwoods skiing. Any skiers that have not had the pleasure of skiing at Forestville would be in for a real treat.
That said, if we DO get the now expected snowfall of 2-5 inches on Wednesday, we may have enough snow to finish at the dome. We’ll keep the finish line fluid at this time but we plan to make a final decision on Thursday morning about where the finish line is. This gives us time to make all of the finish line preparations, prepare a safe course of good quality, and adjust the bus schedules etc. The moving of the finish line would not impact the use of the Superior Dome for the Friday night expo, awards, shower facilities, etc. That would all remain the same.
Thank you to all that are staying up to date on conditions and providing encouraging comments along the way. We regularly hear “hey, that’s just ski racing…you can’t control the weather” from people. While that doesn’t bring more snow, it does show appreciation for the many, many, many hands it has taken over the last 12 months to get to race day.
Be sure to continue to follow the trail reports and let your friends know as well too.
Thank you for your support of the UPHS Noquemanon Ski Marathon.