In my last post I wrote that I would wait until Thursday to decide on the Curly's race. Given this set of icons from the NWS,

and a forecast that calls for temperatures rising to 45 deg with a southerly wind of 10mph this evening, I have decided to cancel the race.

I've been in contact with Tim Van Orden and he is working on putting together a race for this Sunday up in Woodford. Keep an eye on http://dionwmacsnowshoe.com/ site for information.

A big thank you is in order for TiVO. Tim knows where the snow is and has boundless energy for making these events happen.

I had my local crew go out and check the Shadow Trail in PSF today. This is the descent that makes the race. There is snow on the trail as you can see in the photo but it isn't deep enough to cover all the roots and rocks. It also hadn't seen any foot traffic. Try and picture this after a few dozen snowshoers have run over it.

The mid week forecast for Pittsfield from the NWS looks like this:

My gut reaction is to cancel the race at this point but I plan to wait until Thursday when I can get a first hand look at this and other sections of the course in PSF after the precipitation event.

Well that old "hoax", climate change, has reared it's ugly head once again in the Berkshires. (Yes that was sarcasm if you had any doubt.) As a result the Curly's race scheduled for Sunday 1/29 WILL NOT HAPPEN.

There is a possible make up date, 2/12, available in the schedule. I'm waited to hear from DCR to see if PSF will be available that day.

If by some miracle there are two storms with a total dumpage of 18" or a single 24" event between now and the second week of February we will try to make it happen.

remember when

 

 

I was out Sunday (1/15) afternoon scouting the course for the Curly's snowshoe race. Here are a series of photos taken along the route. Obviously we need snow, at least 12-18". This is New England so anything can happen but long range forecasts aren't in our favor. 

looking toward start area

bridge before Vousberg intersection

looking up the Hawthorne trail

on the Hawthorne

heading toward the Shadow trail

top of Shadow (the record run)

on the way down the Shadow trail