Goldstream Sports Fairbanks Alaska

We finished cutting about 4 additional km of ski trail today. It will be a blast but we do need another foot of snow before we will have it dialed with the grader and tracksetter. We should have a detailed map with accurate distances by Ski Fest. For now it is passable on rock skis but very bumpy with lots of sticks. Back Country skis would be best now, race skis when we have enough snow will work great. Thanks to Tyson, Kai and Lorien for  all their hard work.  Joel

Birch Hill Nordic Area has a 1-2 inch packed base.  The skating is amazing considering the thin snow cover. I skied most of the trails yesterday and felt my skies hit some thing only a couple times. I would recommend rock skis. Time to ski, winter if finally here. Joel

Ski Trail work day Saturday Oct 24th at 11 am. We will be clearing trail that Tyson and I have marked out this week. We will be brushing with chain saws and a brush mower. We have 4 Km flagged that needs clearing. some of it is on existing trail that needs clean up and some is though birch that just needs some dead fall cleared. We also have some areas of small dense spruce that will be the most work. When completed and we have good snow cover we will have about 8 km of trail with a set classic track. Bring work gloves, if you have a chainsaw that you can bring the would be great.

We are building more classic ski trail this week. Last year we built and groomed 4 km. Our goal is to have 10km of trail right from the shop. We will see what we can get done before the snow comes. We will be marking new trail Tuesday and Wednesday and will start brushing it out Wednesday. We keep the trail as narrow as we can and still set a quality track. Joel

We groomed the trail on Friday afternoon. It is in great shape and will be good till we see more snow.

I skied the trails yesterday and it was great. The new track setter makes for smoother cornering. We are working on one last detail. When we lift the track setter because the corner is to sharp for a track the trail is left quite rough. We are putting a comb mat of the back of the track setter to smooth out the trail when the track setter deck is lifted.  The track currently has just a light layer of snow in it.  I would recommend Start Tar Black this morning and Blue this afternoon for kick wax. Tar waxes are designed for fresh snow.

We groomed the entire ski trail on Saturday and is in great Shape. We continue to add and improve our grooming equipment and the trail gets better every time we groom. With the latest equipment improvements we will be able to regroom on a more timely basis

I have been enjoying skiing on Ester Dome. I usually start from St Patricks Rd and ski up.  I have skied to Ester,  The base of the Alder shoot and just exsplored the trails. I found some new trails that will be fun on the mountain bike as well. It is a great work out and has been a good diversion from serious training and driving to Birch Hill.  The trail has been used by snow machines just enough to make it fun to ski On my Nordmarka light touring skis.  I am considering setting a classic track on the trails where I can set it off to one side leaving room for the snow machines to avoid it. Would it last? We would find out.