11:00 AM Saturday February 4th
This morning volunteers shoveled snow onto the areas of the trail where the sun had been melting the snow.
The trail is covered with base layer consisting of an inch of ice on the ground covered with a layer of compacted frozen granular snow.  

The temperatures last night dropped into the low 20s which froze everything solid. It is sunny today with a high temperature of 40 expected. This is creating spring like skiing conditions in the afternoon, loosening up the frozen granular on the surface of the trail. With temperatures dropping below freezing in the evening and a trend towards colder temperatures starting Tuesday we should be able to hold most of the snow cover on the trail between now and next weekend.


6:00 PM Thursday February 2nd
The VASA Board met this evening and decided that the 50 K race would be a two loop race held on the VASA Pathway. The section of the race course that is groomed only for the 50 K race is questionable and rather than have marginal conditions the board decided to concentrate its resources to make sure the race can be held on the Vasa Pathway that has been groomed regularly this winter.

With the VASA Pathway being mostly in the Pere Marquette State Forest the race course has held up fairly well to the recent warm temperatures. The race course has a good compacted base of 3 to 6 inches of refrozen granular snow with thin spots at the power line crossings and under spruce and firs that didn’t let all the snow to fall all the way to the ground.

To make sure there is enough snow on the race course, volunteers on Saturday will be moving snow and stockpiling it near sections of the race course where the base layer is thin so it can be moved on the race course if necessary.


.
Traverse Area Recreation & Transportation (TART) Trails Inc. grooms and maintains the VASA Pathway as part of the TART network of recreation trails.
Updated grooming reports are available on the TART website:  www.traversetrails.org
Any questions about skiing conditions on the Vasa Trail should be directed to TART Trails Inc.
Phone: 231-941-4300

TART Trails, Inc.
PO Box 252
Traverse City, MI 49685
email: info@traversetrails.org.


The following link will take you to the TART website where they post updated Grooming Reports:
http://www.traversetrails.org/blog/grooming-report/

While the North American VASA race organization doesn't groom or maintain the Vasa Trail it supports TART Trails Inc. in their effort to maintain high quality skiing conditions on the Vasa Pathway.


Skiers can also get "FIRST-HAND TRAIL REPORTS" posted by skiers who have recently skied on the Vasa Trail on the Nordic Ski Racer website.   www.nordicskiracer.com/cgi-bin/Trails/TrailReportView.asp?range=1

The North American VASA has decided to use this webpage to post information and updates regarding conditions that affect the VASA race course and discontinue posting daily updates on skiing conditions.