This is likely the last trail report as we’ll be out working on course tonight…we have had a lot of snow melt over the last 24 hours. The base is holding well in some spots and not so well in others. There are areas where things are really thinning out – we will attempt to address as many of these area as best as we can with shoveling (mostly at the top of steeper hills/kickers and on tighter turns as you might expect). There are some places with dirty snow that the tiller kicked up in prior weeks…again, we will address as many of those as we can. With temps above freezing, and, overnight temperatures hovering at or just above freezing things will continue to soften. The key message is to ski with caution and smile. Good skis can still be used as there’s plenty that great, but if you’re worried about the rough spots, perhaps use your B skis especially if you’re in later waves. Things look like spring skiing.
New adjusted course information is now published – we hope to have some better maps to share soon.
Course signage will go up tomorrow in preparation for Friday nights groom. The weather was maybe a bit warmer than forecasted – despite a cloudy day, there was quite a bit of melt. But, the base at Forestville is consistently groomed and it’s holding up pretty well so far but we’ll continue to see melt occur. We will address any thin spots that are identified as best as possible.
Some keys to the maps below – the box goes around a short section that will be two-way traffic. This area is a powerline section so it’s wide open with big sight lines. We will mark it well and keep people on their correct side of the trail. The “X” marks the location of the 12K merge onto the 50K/24K course (which is now 23K total in length). There will be an aid station at this location.
We’ve had some questions about conditions – we have one wax recommendation so far that is Toko based and provided via our friends at Downwind Sports here in Marquette. You’ll find this in the wax recommendation section of the site. We’re getting the sense there will be a variety of things tried so best of luck in your selections. Plan for temperatures in the morning hovering at about 32 degrees, transformed snow with high humidity. Temperatures are forecasted to get up to around 36 – partly cloudy conditions.
IMPORTANT – COURSE CHANGES IN EFFECT!
Our top priorities as a race organization are making the Noquemanon both a safe event and a high quality event. Despite our maximum efforts, and our own stubbornness, we have determined that putting on a near-normal length event with the current conditions would mean we could not deliver on either of those priorities. Unfortunately the snow base is simply not deep enough to support quality grooming capabilities consistently across the routes we use, Deer Lake and other major water crossing conditions are deteriorating rapidly, and above freezing temperatures will remain all week along with the added possibility of rain/freezing rain that will further degrade an already thin base. Given all of these factors we have decided to concentrate all of our efforts on race routes that will have the greatest potential to hold up to the current (and upcoming) conditions, and, will provide a safe and enjoyable ski experience.
Below are a summary of the necessary changes at this time:
- All 50K event starts will move from Al Quaal Recreation area to the NTN County Road 510 trailhead and finish at the NTN Forestville Trailhead (finishers will be bused back to the Superior Dome)
- The 24K event starts will remain at the NTN County Road 510 trailhead and will finish at the NTN Forestville Trailhead (finishers will be bused back to the Superior Dome)
- The 12K event starts will remain at the NTN Forestville Trailhead and will finish at the NTN Forestville Trailhead (finishers will be bused back to the Superior Dome)
- The Junior Noque will go on as planned for Friday at Al Quaal Recreation Area
- The 3K and 1K adaptive events have been moved from Saturday to Friday and will start at Al Quaal Recration Area at 3pm with course lengths adjusted from 3K to 2K and the 1K will now be 600 Meters
- No events will finish at the Superior Dome – all Saturday events will end at the NTN Forestville Trailhead (finishers will be bused back to the Superior Dome)
- Event distances will be shortened – distances and all other important event details will be made available soon
- Due to limited parking at Forestville no spectator vehicles will be allowed at Forestville – spectators will be required to utilize bussing from the Superior Dome to Forestville and back
- All services will continue to be offered at the Superior Dome as normal
Thank you for your continued support, and patience, as we pivot all of the necessary pieces needed in order to provide a safe and high quality event. Given most ski events in the mid west have either cancelled completely this year, or, been significantly adjusted to be held on small man made snow loops, we are committed to working hard to offer a quality event of significant length on natural snow. It may be the only, or one of the few, that can make it happen in such a low snow/warm winter. Stay tuned for more details – our website will be updated with pertinent details as we have them.
We had hoped to have more definitive information today, but, the weather forecast this week is throwing a wrench in to those plans. We are in a low snow year and the warm temperatures forecasted for mid to late week, along with the possibility of some rain and mixed precipitation, are concerning. These factors could wreak havoc on the base we have. We need a little more information before making final plans – our priority is making a safe and quality event.
What we know right now:
- We will not be able to have a Dome finish line – all Saturday events will finish at the Forestville Trailhead as there’s not enough snow to create a base that will hold up to a volume of skiers. The Superior Dome will still be used for packet pickup, expo, busing, and awards as normal. We will bus participants back to the Superior Dome from the finish line.
- Work on the marathon course between Deer Lake and the Dead River basin set up nicely. Because there was no snow, and it was warm before the very cold temperatures moved in, there was no opportunity to create a base before last week’s snow. We had to make a base out of the sugar snow and once it was compacted we were left with a fairly thin base – although quite nice in many spots.
- The Dead River basin was crossable and some slush was exposed and re-frozen. Deer Lake will be similar.
Stay tuned for more course updates – website information and all the details will be updated as we are able to make some more decisions.
The forecasted cold temperatures certainly materialized after the big storm end of last week which we are hoping added some ice to the lakes! Rolling and packing of the very soft snow has occurred in several areas and we are very happy for the snow we received. We are still below our normal snowfall amounts but we look forward to some more lake effect snow tonight and Friday (possibly some on Saturday as well) that should help add some much needed snow depth for our most rugged areas. Trail work on the west end of the marathon course will occur this weekend on the usual tougher spots and we will be checking ice depths on the water crossings. We should have more to report on the status of the full course at the end of the weekend so stay tuned.
One possible complication in the near future (and I hate to even type this….) is a forecasted return to above normal temperatures for all of next week with the possibility of above freezing temperatures overnight and possibly rain. Needless to say, things could get interesting mid week, but the positive here is that things are (as of right now) trending towards a pleasant race day temperature.
Stay tuned!
The weekend storm delivered! New snow was added inconsistently but ranged from as little as 6 inches of windblown snow near the Superior Dome (finish line) to approximately 35 inches in the highlands to the West. The further west you go, the more snow there was that fell. At this time much of the main trail is in very good shape although we are still below our normal snow depths and what fell will still need to be packed in more and there will be some settling. The forecasted cold temperatures have now arrived and we wait for that to do it’s thing on the water crossings…ice depths at this time are not very safe. The cold days and nights should continue until next weekend. There are a few clipper systems that might make their way through our area towards the end of this week which could give us some more snow, and, that would be a good thing. The long range forecasts don’t have a lot of certainty of those at this time but that is something we will watch for. More updates to come as we have them!
The first of several forecasted storms passed through the area with, unfortunately, very little impact on current snow depths as the system missed us to the south and east. The next storm system should arrive Thursday night and into Friday bringing a little wet/heavy snow. It’s at this point (Friday night – Saturday) that temperatures should drop to below normal seasonal numbers. This is good for much needed ice cover on our many lake and stream crossings and for lake effect snow development. At this time the national weather service is anticipating significant lake effect snows to be generated when the temperature falls however no weather watches or warnings have been issued yet until there is more certainty that the snow will stay on track. Confidence is high however that we should have some groomable snow by Saturday night or Sunday morning – it’ll be very cold for a few days (daytime highs in the single digits), but, at least we will be (hopefully) skiing! We hope to be able to provide a good report by Monday – stay tuned!
We are, happily, entering into a very active winter weather pattern this week and next week. We don’t yet know what this means for new snow amounts as the detailed forecasts are all over the map and change multiple times a day. Slight shifts in the tracks of the systems, along with other factors, are generating many different scenarios. What we do know is that there are several storm systems that will move through our area and then it will get cold towards the middle or end of next week. These are all very good things and we continue to plan towards race day! We will be waiting to see the results of this stormy weather pattern and then working with what we get. Keep the stoke high!
Like most areas in the mid-west, there isn’t much to say right now as there is no snow on the ground. The one positive was that there was actually decent ice cover being formed on the basin before the recent warm up and rain before Christmas. As of right now, we don’t have a recent report.
The long range forecast at this time is indicating a shift in the weather pattern towards more normal temperatures into the first part of January with the possibility of some clipper systems – that means the potential for lake effect snow increases.
We’ll be watching – if/when the snow comes, we will be ready to go.
We are happy to report that the course is coming along nicely. Coverage is excellent, the base is quite firm, and the lake and pond crossings are starting to firm up a bit too (especially Deer Lake). We even received 1-2 inches of new snow on top of the work done prior. It’s possible we may see 1 or 2 more inches through Friday and Friday night, although reports suggest the wind will pick up so Friday’s new snow will likely be wind blown.
Hour by hour weather forecasts from the National Weather Service are available for both Ishpeming and Marquette. See below based on area:
Ishpeming: https://go.usa.gov/xtBrj
Marquette: https://go.usa.gov/xtBrR
The short version is temperatures will begin to drop Friday night as a clipper system moves in to the area bringing more seasonable cold temperatures to the area for Saturday. It will be a bit windy with the potential for strong gusts on Friday night…by Saturday morning winds will slow in Ishpeming, but remain more steady in Marquette near Lake Superior. Some snow will move in potentially Friday night, but nothing significant is expected – winds will be out of the northwest. The temperature at the start will be about 8F with a wind chill of -4F. As the day moves on temperatures will rise to around 15F with a wind chill of 3F. This isn’t abnormal for our area in January, but, it will feel a bit colder due to the relative humidity (approx. 70%) and the fact that we’ve had such a mild winter so far and these will be the coldest temperatures we’ve seen so far this winter.
Thank you to the National Weather Service Marquette office for their specialized support of our event!