Snow arrived late at Greywolf this winter, but when it started to fall, it came down in a hurry. Our first snow fall that stayed with us, arrived during the evening of November 15th and dumped 20 cm in 24 hours. The next night we received 17 cm. To date we have 80cm of snow and there is more in the forecast as the ski hill opened on Friday.
What does all this snow mean for the turf conditions at Greywolf? Snow has never been an issue for our turf. Ice and low temperatures have been the challenges over the last two years.
Up until the snow arrived, the turf had a chance to harden off and all of the greens froze before the snow arrived. Those are both good things, and the freezing on the greens was not sudden or harsh. So I suspect there has been little low temperature damage in the early winter. Also up until now, there have been no early rains and therefore no ice on the greens. Ice has been the biggest challenge over the last two winters.
The extra time before the snow came also allowed us to get our new tarp system in place. There was a large learning curve with the tarps but they are all in place. I will post some pictures and video of the installation of these tarps and an explanation about the science behind these tarps in future blog post.
The grounds crew is also transitioning into Nordic mode. The snow cat is now up and running and we moved it from the shop to its winter home at the clubhouse. The Turfcare crew has track packed all the trails as well as run the compactor bar around the trails. This process takes the air out of the snow and gives us a good base on which to establish trails. Trails were set on the off course trails on Friday and this was our first chance to experiment with the new tiller that was purchased this year. There is some tweaking to do with the pans but everything should be up and running for Nordic opening on December 17th.
See you on the hill and on the Nordic trails
Snow Pole at Shop - Recording First Snow Fall
Toro 3500 Rough Mower After First Snow Fall
Snow Cat on Way To Shop
Eli Repairing Window Heaters on Snow Cat - Going to Need Them
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