News from Nordic Center at Purgatory

The Nordic Center at Purgatory will be holding a women's skate clinic Saturday, January 1st at 1pm. There will be classes for all levels of skiers. Equipment rentals are available on site. The cost of the clinic is $15 for Nordic season pass holders or $25 for other skiers. For more information please call 385 2114.

Frozen Chicken Report

This morning we had 2 brave volunteers willing to freeze their tail feathers off for your skiing pleasure. Alan and Peter fired up the sleds to pack down the additional 5-6 fresh inches of snow on the Bauer loops.

CONDITIONS: Only the Little Bauer Loops are groomed, but they are Finger-lickin', stick clickin', pole-diggin' good. Really quite nice; a tad soft, and it will take a little while to level the trail out, but the snow feels Great! Cold and forgiving, but firming up fast as the temperatures head for the south side of zero.

We are anticipating some assistance from the Forest Service early next week so we can open up more terrain. Please check back often to see where we're at with that.

Get out the COLD snow wax

The entire Bauer loop is groomed and ready to ski, and at least part of it has a classic track set as well. With so much snow falling all at once it may be a little while before we can fully groom more terrain, but we are working on it. Anyone out there have a snow cat they're not using at the moment?

Our groomers (all volunteers) report that there are about 24 new inches of snow at the Bauer Loop. There is probably substantially more at the upper reaches of the area.

Many thanks to our groomers today for a stellar job; John, Tom R., Brad and Andy - a job well done!

Ketchup on your Chicken?

My dad always used to repeat this little ditty when the ketchup (catsup?) bottle made an appearance on the kitchen table

Curses on the
Ketchup bottle

None will come
and then a lot'll

This ketchup bottle, posing as a winter storm, has unleashed its load on the ski area. This is only a preliminary report, more details to follow. But I wanted to let all you anxious skiers know that yes indeed, the groomers have been busy grooming the ski area. My understanding is that the Little Bauer loop is track packed and groomed, and I believe that is all for the moment.

I will provide more information as updates become available. Please check back for further updates. And please, no catsup on MY chicken, please; I like chicken.

Monday Grooming Report Nov. 29

Snow. Cold. I think it's winter. Chicken Creek Ski Area received about one foot of snow from these last two storms, and there's substantially more than that up higher.

Hank, John and Peter got on it today and started track packing with the snowmobiles and even laid down a little corduroy.

Lower Little Bauer Loop is groomed, and should be good for skiing, though perhaps a bit choppy in spots. The Upper section of Little Bauer is "roughed in," meaning it was tracked packed and rolled; but the deeper snow and quick job means it is noot as finished as the lower loop.

Rush Creek Loop, including the road, got track packed and rolled. The road is in pretty gnarly shape though, as someone put foot-deep ruts in the mud this fall. It will take some time - and lots of snow - to iron that mess out. The rest of Rush Creek Loop should be pretty decent though.

This week will be a kind of calculated gamble, as far as deciding how much grooming to do. There are warm, sunny days lurking in the tail end of the week which could easily melt quite a bit of this snow. We will watch closely and groom prudently. But the limited resources we have must be utilized to maximum benefit for the duration of the season.

We will keep you posted...

Trail Work Day Highlights + news and a question...

Thank you John Gilbert, Gary & Jackie Smith, Cap Allen, Michael Nusser and Hank Taylor for clearing trails on Saturday, October 16th. This energetic crew cleared trails on the upper and lower Bauer Loops and the connecter trail to Rush Creek. Yeah!

Chicken Creek has bought a much needed 20” wide snowmobile which will enable groomers to do a better job. Exciting!

Question: Does anyone have a barbell weight larger than 25 lbs??? Please leave a comment if you do. Thank you.

Trail Work Day on October 16th

A message from Hank Taylor, President of Friends of Chicken Creek

Help! The oak brush is taking over parts of the ski trails.

We need to trim many places that have mostly small oak that can be cut with pruning shears or loppers.

We could like to have a work day on

Saturday, October 16th.

Please meet at the main gate at 9am.

Bring any cutting tools that you have.

We have one brush cutter.

If you cannot be at the Work Day, it would be helpful if you can carry shears or loppers with you when you hike the CC trails.

You can take out clumps of oak as you hike!

Thank you and please help out.

Hank Taylor