Yes, it’s mid-January, and we aren’t yet open for Dog Days. Here’s why…
First, please know that providing great skiing is our #1 priority.
Second, pretty much every waking moment, our Trails & Grooming team is thinking about Dog Days, classic tracks, Night Skiing, and all the other fun stuff we love to provide you in winter.
Third, the Crosscut staff loves dogs and loves skiing with our dogs too, so we feel your pain.
Winter 2023-24 has been a low snow year…
Just how low, you ask? 55% of average low as of January 31
The amount of snow needed to ski is way less than the amount of snow required to withstand the damage dog paws do to the trails
Allowing dogs on our trails too early can be detrimental to our trails in both the short and long term learn more
Since dog paws can punch through several inches of snow, we need a solid base for the groomer to till deep enough to wipe out the paw prints.
If there’s not enough snow, the tiller will hit the ground and kick up debris into our snowpack. Not only can this debris lead to scrapes and scraps in your ski bases, but it also leads to a faster decline in ski trails later in the season. This is because the debris that gets pulled up from the ground into the trail accelerates melting when snowpack starts to decline later in the season due to the low albedo of this debris — see the graphic below.
If the tiller is left high enough to avoid the ground, then divots from dog paws are left in the trails, leading to diminished skiing conditions. We like to leave our trails with nice corduroy surfaces, not pockmarked with dog paw prints.
We pay very close attention to the 10-day forecast and it helps us decide when to open dog skiing. When the compacted snow depth is shallow like it is now, we pay special attention to the possibility of rain and its snowpack shrinking properties.
Rest assured, Dog Days are very much on our minds, so as soon as we set a date, we will update our website, Instagram, and Facebook.