The Birkie has issued a missive that you are not to ski on the Birkie Trail after Wednesday night.

This is really important.

The trail has good cover on it, but the weather on Thursday and Friday is iffy. It is going to be above freezing on Friday, and may not go much below freezing on Friday night. I would assume that they will groom the trail when it’s still cold on Thursday, let it set up and then leave it be. If they groom it on Friday when it has moisture in it, it might freeze in to ice, which is bad. If they leave it be, it will absorb the moisture and might freeze it in to it (the snow can store a lot of latent cold in the snowpack) and we’ll have decent conditions.

But if you ski the trail, you will put ruts in to the snow. And if those ruts freeze, we’re all in deep trouble.

There are other places to ski in the area, including the Birkie Ridge trail up to the Birkie Trail and back, check out Skinnyski’s reports here. These trails will not damage the race course. But don’t even think of skiing on the Birkie Trail on Thursday or Friday. Not even a thought. Mmkay?

10,000 skiers say thank you.