Party games are rather out of fashion but I remember one that I think was called telephone. Everyone sat on the floor in a circle and one person would whisper a phrase or sentence into the ear of the person beside them. That person would then do the same to the person next to them and so it would go around the circle. When the message got to the final person they would speak it aloud. The fun was in finding out how much the message would get messed up by the time it went around the circle.
That is a little like what happens with misinformation in this community. One person will theorize, the next person will broaden the theory and the next person after that will state the theory as fact. The “fact” is often far from the truth.
One such fact making the rounds concerns the ski trails on Finlayson island and it isn’t the first winter rumours have developed around the City’s failure to set the trails as soon as the snow flies.
Anyone who takes the time to ask someone who can provide the facts will learn the reason the trails aren’t set is because there still isn’t enough snow.
That was Director of Leisure Services Bill Samborski’s response to my query about the rumour I had heard. He says the trails are packed but the snow cover is still inadequate for track setting.
“We need at least one and a half inches of snow packed on the ground in order to set the tracks, this has not been the case this year,” Samborski explains.
“When we choose not to pack or groom we do this knowing there is not enough snow on the ground and that we can do significant damage to the landscape and equipment if we rush the process.”
He added two pieces of equipment had been damaged so far this season, confirming in part one aspect of the rumour I heard, but the damage wasn’t to the snow machine that pulls the equipment. That is fully operational.
It seemed to those wielding shovels that the Jan. 2 snowfall should have been enough to get the machines rolling, but Samborski says it was fluffy and less than ideal for packing ski trails.
Samborski says they were hoping for delivery of a new rolling packer Thursday and with more favourable weather conditions the setting crews hoped to pack and groom Finlayson Island and Holy Family starting Monday. Other trails to be groomed are North Shore Trail, King Hill, John Paul II and Centennial Park.
Samborski says many environmental challenges — rain, melting and little snow — are adding up to make it a short skiing season.
So when the stars align and the trails are set we skiers will have to get out there as often as we can to take advantage of them. And we will be ever so grateful to the walkers who walk between the tracks and not on them.
Last word to Samborski: “We have a good ski community and so far they have been more than understanding.”
