Thanks for joining ANSA – we received your membership information and want to make sure you know you are all set to enjoy the trails. If you are a new member, welcome! If you’re a returning skier, thanks for joining us for another season. Below are a few tidbits about how the club functions that will set you in the right direction.
- Using the trails is on the honor system. We’ve decided as a club not to spend money on passes or tickets, but as a result we encourage honesty to all who use the trails. We hope that people will pay what we hope is a fair fee to support these great trails, and we appreciate your support.
- Friends can join you for a ski or two, but beyond that we encourage them to join ANSA.
- Others who come to ski the trails for a day should go to Lost Valley and purchase a day use pass.
- Trail maps are available online, and on the kiosk at the parking area.
- Green signs now mark all intersections with a letter and give the shortest and easiest routes back to the Lost Valley lodge.
- Communication:
- We use a google group to send occasional messages including grooming updates and club events. The ‘group’ is set up as a one-way communication from us to club members, but does not allow members to post back, to avoid cluttering inboxes. If you don’t want to receive updates, you can unsubscribe. If you want to communicate back, note the auburnnordic@gmail at the bottom.
- Our web page auburnnordicski.org includes grooming updates, trail maps, club news, and more.
- There is an ANSA facebook page that we encourage you to follow. This is a forum for posting photos and updates on how much fun you’re having skiing and snowshoeing.
- We're going to experiment with an Instagram account to see how that might help us share information.
- Safety plan:
- Call Lost Valley 784-1561 for any emergencies or injuries on the ski or snowshoe trails, any time of day or evening.
- Lost Valley will deploy ski patrol if available, or coordinate with Auburn rescue if needed, providing trail access with snowmobiles from Lost Valley.
- If there is no answer at Lost Valley, then call 911.
- We suggest that you enter the Lost Valley number into your phone contacts right now, before you forget.
- Grooming
- A Bates student described our grooming succinctly – “your grooming is the best – not the first, but the best.”
- Our grooming is done by volunteers, and with tracked ATVs rather than Pisten Bullies. As a result, it can take a little while to dig out after a big storm. We also avoid over-grooming, so that our snow lasts when other places nearby are done. Patience wins.
- Grooming reports will be provided on Facebook, the ANSA web page, and google group updates.
- Please avoid skiing right behind the groomer. The snow at first is very soft and you’ll leave deep ruts. Soon, in 20-30 minutes, the snow crystals freeze to each other and set up to form a firmer surface.
- Parking:
- Please avoid parking on Perkins Ridge Road if at all possible. Cars come fast and aren’t always looking for roadside pedestrians.
- Parking is available in the trailside lot (1465 Perkins Ridge Rd by GPS) or across the street in front of the apple pickers’ bunkhouse.
- In the spring when the sun turns the parking lots into mud, favor the lot in front of the bunk house. If both lots look dicey and you need to park along the road, please park as far off the road as you can.
- A port-a-potty is in the parking lot for pretty much the whole season.
- Trail etiquette
- We encourage you all to please read the trail etiquette section. https://auburnnordicski.org/rules
- Please please please don’t walk on the trails even by the parking lot. Our coverage is often thin and the divots you leave take a long time for the volunteer groomers to smooth out. If you must, for some emergency reason, please stay to the very edge of the trail or just off it.
- Pets are not allowed on ski or snowshoe trails. They will also leave marks and poops that take a long time to fix.
- Fat bikes are not allowed on our trails. Our trails are groomed by snowmobiles, so they are too soft to be fun for fat bikes, and the ruts you leave… you guessed it!... take hours of volunteer groomer time to smooth out and are dangerous to skiers.
- Do not snowshoe on the ski trails – stay on the snowshoe trails only.
- Student skiers: Part of our mission is to support youth skiing in our community.
- Sunday afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30 is the Bill Koch ski program. Although there is a certain entertainment value in watching these kids on skis, parking is at a premium, so please plan accordingly. You may want to ski a little earlier on Sundays.
- Club activities and camaraderie
- Please say hello to your fellow club members – we’re a nice bunch of folks all out here together to have some fun on the snow.
- We try to have a moonlight ski during the season to enjoy one of winter’s great joys – night skiing without a headlamp! Magical.
- ANSA has a volunteer board, looking for new directors to join us. We meet twice a year and provide guidance to club functions.
- Remember that we are a volunteer organization, so everything that you are enjoying has been done by club members. If you see something that needs doing – from a downed limb to a new bridge, please pitch in! If it needs more than you've got, alert us at auburnnordic@gmail.com.
- ANSA works in partnership with Lost Valley to maintain these trails – most of the land is theirs. Please support Lost Valley whenever you have a chance. Make it a destination, and ski over for a cup of cocoa or a burger and a beer.
- Snowshoe Trails: There is a network of snowshoe trails that are another fun way to get out into the woods.
- Trails are marked with orange blazes and diamonds, and numbered "you are here" maps are posted at each intersection, and on the web page.
- Snowshoe trails are not groomed except by our own tracks.
- Please do not snowshoe on the ski trails. Please. Thanks.
- Days are short, so many members ski before dawn or after dark by headlamp. This is allowed, and actually pretty fun with the current generation of headlamps, but we encourage you to take precautions like skiing with a buddy and having a cell phone available.
See you out on the trails!
Bruce Condit, President
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