Stu E.
Google
Royal Gorge has had a growing problem over the past 10 years—the center of their trails are too soft for skate skiers.
Take it from someone who skate skis between 20-30miles each time I get out there—I’ve seen more trails than most and multiple times per visit.
I’m writing this only because after multiple letters and phone messages to the staff at Royal Gorge, my concerns, suggestions, and solutions continue to be ignored. So let’s give Google Reviews a try. 😉🤞
Royal Gorge is by far the most beautiful place to cross-country ski in California except for Tamarack down at Mammoth. And I used to ski up there at least 1-2x per week for more than 20 years starting back to when I raced in HS and College.
Here’s the problem at the Gorge. Whenever there is a drop in the terrain (a “well” between two bumps in the trail), there is going to be a 4-in-5 chance the trail will not be solid and compact enough to support a skate skier over 200lbs. Your ski will sink into the snow 4-6”, bring your momentum to a sudden halt, and your body, equipment, or both will take the brunt of the fall.
I have two friends who each broke a pole up at Royal Gorge from exactly the same kind of incident I just described. And One even snapped their ski along the Telegraph. And I busted a camelback and a pole more than a year ago when I hit the ground after catching a ski in one of those soft wells along the south side of Van Norden.
DEAR ROYAL GORGE, THE SOLUTIONS ARE SIMPLE:
1 ) Focus on quality grooming rather than quantity: pick 1 large loop and 1 short loop on both the Lake Van Norden and Lodge sides. Always make sure these primary loops are always well PACKED and groomed. Make all other trails secondary. And every other day of grooming, offset the groomer so the center of the trail can get packed down with one of the tracks from the machine, since it is ONLY under the track the snow is packed down and hard enough to ski on.
2 ) After a fresh snow, groom those 4 primary loops-trails twice while offsetting the groomer machine half the width of the trail so the heaviest parts of the grooming machine—the tracks, can properly pack down the middle of the trail used by skate skiers. Those new smaller machines you guys use are too lite to pact down the middle of the trail. Only the snow directly beneath the tracks is getting packed down hard enough to support a skate skier. But you continue to plant two sets of classic trails into the best and hardest snow for the Classic skiers while leaving the softest and worst snow in the middle for the Skate skiers.
3 ) OR, only leave one set of Classic tracks for the Classic Skiers so that Skate Skiers may use the opposite side of the trail (where the better-packed snow is) without having to contend with a 2nd set of Classic tracks. Again, ONLY directly beneath the Groomer Machine tracks is the snow packed down hard enough for Skate Skiers to push-off without sinking 4-6” in the snow while striding.
4 ) PLEASE STOP driving snowmobiles down the middle of the trails…PERIOD. The small groomer piece they drag behind them only camouflages the NOW extra soft snow left behind by the snowmobiles, which only worsens the problem—SNOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAIL IS TOO SOFT.
IN SHORT, I don’t do Royal Gorge anymore because they don’t care about quality skiing let alone the input needed to create a better and SAFER skiing experience. Tahoe-Donner and Northstar don’t always have the snow let alone the kilometers of trail and scenic terrain that Royal Gorge has, but I’ve never hit “soft spots” in the middle of the trails bad enough to stop me unexpectedly the way I do every time I’ve skied at The Gorge. And neither have I ever had that problem down at Tamarack in Mammoth.
Save yourself a lot of money in Chiropractor visits and broken equipment and let’s prompt Royal Gorge to mend their grooming methods to improve conditions for skate skiers. And if you happen to have better suggestions than the four I made above, please feel free to bring it to the attention of the staff at Royal Gorge. Thank you!
