Cross Country Skidays
Bloomington Indiana 2005 / 2006
Ski days this season:
 Seven
  As always, remember...  Don't be a jerk.... Don't ski across the greens. 

You identify the greens as the flat raised spots without the red polls.  The red poles  indicate tee off spots. Those are ok.  Sometimes the Greens have flags, but usually not this time of year.
Monroe County's Karst Farm Park. 
Staff photo by Chris Howell from an article about this web page published in The Herald Times online and printed  on Feb. 15, 2004.

We expect more and better pictures this year with our new pocket sized Nikon Coolpix 4100.

Think Bloomington doesn't have enough snow?

Snow days '97 /'98 Snow days '98 /'99 Snow days '99/Y2K Snowdays'00/'01  Snowdays '01 /'02 Snowdays '02/'03 Snowdays '03/'04  Snowdays '04/'05

2005

Early, 2005 The Second 1/2 of the 2004/ 2005 season had no skiable snow.  The whole season was only nine skiable days.  That was not the norm.  Click on our links to years past.

Here is our only report from the  first half of 2005:
 The first 5 days of 2005 where above freezing or else this would have seem like the Colorado Rockies.  The 6 inches of rain that brought record flood waters to the area would have been 60" of snow.... is that right?

We are hoping for better in 2005/2006

December 8, 2005  This is looking promising.  Snow came up from the South west beginning about noon and snow fell hard and study beyond nightfall.  I didn't get out this night, but I talked to Corbin Baird who did.  The snow was excellent, but without a ski mask, Corbin found the night wind cold and brutal.  All roads were very snow covered as we got 6 or 7 inches of light but still slightly wet snow.  We had several days if not a week of 20ºF below normal temperatures coming into this snowfall, so sticking was not a problem for this first snow.  I encourage you to try night skiing.  The reflective nature of snow makes a little light go a long way.

December 9th, 2005  Area schools were closed for snow.    At 9 AM, our thermometer read 4ºF.  On my day off work,  I headed for the IU Golf Course.  This was perhaps the best first snow ever.  I only remember one other year where sticking was no problem at all.  The glide was great, the sun was out... I don't know how it could have been better.  My camera batteries were dead as I tried to shoot pictures of others skiing. There were lots of tracks set already.

There was plenty of snow, I wondered if it was skiable in the woods, so out by the path down to the IU Golf Course lake, I took to the woods, cutting my own path, when lo-and-behold, I found a trail and followed it.  The trees are painted with a green spot every so often to mark this "long trail".  There were several stream crossings in ravines.  I had to take my skis off for  about 1/2 of them.  If you try this trail, be very careful it is hilly and narrow, but it was relatively clear of debris, so if you like  skiing in the woods and you are not to particular about the bottom of your skis, this is a new dimension to the IU Golf Course.  I took it almost to lake Griffy.  I am told that it does join the trails there now.  It might be better for snow shoeing, back country skiing or just a summer walk, but you might want to check this out.

December 10, 2005  We got up before sun up this day and drove to New Albany Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky.  We fully expected to ski there because when this storm was coming in, we noticed the predictions were for even more snow there than here.  It turned out that the snow reduced in depth as we drove south east.  When we arrived in New Albany there was enough snow to ski, but barely.  I did not get out on this day that would have been fantastic in the Bloomington area.

December 11, 2005  We returned  home to Greene County at about 1PM Sunday afternoon.  Greene County was beautiful.  Our county road was still fully snow covered.  We had a light rain for much of our return drive, but here it was a light snow.  Our driveway suggested that there had been a light dusting of snow on Saturday and some mild drifting.
At 4PM I went out to Karst Park. Since I suspected that I might stay past sundown and the park is only open sun up to sun down, I parked in the school parking lot just North of the park and skied in through the nature walk area.  In the park, I found fewer tracks set than I would have expected.  I skied most of the perimeter of the park quickly.  This snow is for the most part fun even when setting first tracks.  There were some places drifted deeper that were a little slow going, but still sticking was almost non existent.  I combined using the walking trails, going through deep snow and using persons set tracks to lay a base for future outings if this snow stays put for a while.  Karst is a cool place to go if you are tired of too many tracks going every which way, which seems to be more the case lately at the IU golf course.

December 12, 2005  Skiing would have been better in the morning this day, but I got out from 2 to 3 PM.  The sun was bright all day and the south facing slopes were melting.  I had a bad case of snow build up in the middle of the golf IU golf course and had to take of my skis and take off the ice twice.  After that I stayed closer to the woods, in the shaded areas and returned to the driving range/ parking along the trees by the fairway.  There the snow was deep and good.

December 13, 2005  We have lost some snow, but there is still plenty to ski.  This day is better than yesterday only because the cloud cover is keeping the snow a little harder.  I got out a Karst park at 5:30 PM.   Wow much better than expected, especially the nature trail.  If you think there is not enough snow... you got fooled again! 

December 14th, 2005  AM It's snowing again... not predicted here, but I'll take it!.  OK it is supposed to turn to rain, but that's ok too:  I mention again here;  Get out in that rain.  All skiing is water skiing and nothing is faster than snow with rain on top if the temperature is even near freezing.  Waterproof/ breathable pants and jacket and a hat complete the picture. The ground under this snow does seem a little warm right now in low spots, so I am not sure about Wednesdays rain skiing, but give it a try.  It rarely disappoints  me but this year it did.

January, February, March and April 2006.... This year was such a disappointment, that I didn't even try the few days when, maybe, just maybe there might have been some skiable snow.  To have done any skiing seemed so unlikely that I did not try.  The same was true for the winter of 2006... We had many very warm days and enough cold days, but no snow!



Where can you buy cross country ski equipment? : 

Our sponsors


Our snow history:

Snow days '97 /'98 Snow days '98 /'99 Snow days '99/Y2K  Snowdays '00/'01  Snowdays '01 /'02  Snowdays'02/'03  Snowdays '03/'04 

Snowdays '04/'05

Back to:

e-mail us at info@bikesmiths.net