Stepping off the snowmobile would not create footprints in the snow. We could walk on top without making prints. The ride was bumpy off the trail because the freeze/thaw cycles cause those little valleys every 6 to 12 inches in the surface.
The snow had sagged and refrozen between the trees reducing the depth of the tree wells but creating 1 foot high bumps where each little tree was buried. The Cascade Concrete did not give very much so the ride was extremely bumpy through the trees.
The traction was excellent because the track would grab everyplace there was an edge on the track. It was possible to climb nearly verticle hills. We saw no one stuck all day.
90% of the hill was inaccessible due to the torrential rains we had two weeks ago destroying the road beds. Several places in the trails had already been repaired by the groomer pushing snow into the washouts. There were 3 to 9 foot drops into the creekbeds within the grooomer tracks.
The groomed trial was very good in the morning. It was possible to go 80 MPH on the straight sections before lunch. In the afternoon it got rather rough because there was only one groomed trail up the hill. The other trail that was open had not been groomed and had 10 inch deep moguls across the entire width. That is way too bumpy to go fast on our vintage sleds.
The cloud level was about 3200 feet at noon. In the fog, it was 23 degrees. Above the fog, the air warmed up to 45 degrees causing the snow to soften. The cloud level was lowering about a hundred feet an hour. The trailhead never got any sun.
Here are two pictures I took at the end of the trail where we turned around.
