MAT-SU SKI CLUB’S GROOMING CAMPAIGN of 2020/2021.
The just-eneded Nordic ski trail grooming season was seven and a half months long: 216 days of groomed-trail skiing. Starting two weeks later than last year but ending 5 days later, this season was 10 days shorter than last season,.
Volunteers spent 1394 hours grooming and training, and maintaining machines, during the 2020-21 grooming season. This was our second season with the PistenBully in our grooming fleet, as well as the second season in which we groomed throughout the winter at Independence Mine. We put a total of 5814 miles on our grooming fleet this season.
This was a solid winter with no trail-closing winter warmup at GPRA. A large wet storm cycle at the beginning of April produced historic-scale road-closing avalanches at Hatcher Pass. The Hatcher Pass road was closed for ten days in early April. The avalanches paused Independence Mine grooming and brought Archangel Road grooming to an early end – we did not resume grooming at Archangel after the road opened, as it was deeply buried in debris. Grooming hours increased at the Moose Range and decreased at Independence (by 50%), relative to last year.
Independence Mine: Oct 19 to May 22. 40 grooming days (50% decrease from last season)
Archangel Road: Oct 28 to March 19. 37 grooming days (26% decrease from last season)
GPRA: Oct 27 to April 21. 84 grooming days (35% increase from last season)
Moose Range: Nov 22 to Apr 9. 79 grooming days (15% increase from last season)
