Crust in a.m., corn in p.m.?

[jeff potter]

Here in mid-Michigan we now have GREAT CRUST in the open areas. My
poles broke thru in shady places. We had 40F sun yesterday and today
it's 25F still.

I usually switch over about now to pure crust skating on the more
picturesque of local golf courses.

In the morning the tracked trails would be boilerplate death ice. But
I have a question: is the idea that later in the afternoon, after it's
thawed awhile, that the tracked trails will get their own Sweet Spot
and be great, fast corn for awhile (with enough softness and texture
on top to quiet the skis and give control) until it's been warm for
too long and they turn to slop?

This time of year can be kinda short for us, so I want to shorten my
learning-curve and not miss out or mess up. I have friends who prefer
trail skiing so I'm thinking we can go out in the afternoons but I
didn't want to screw up and send them out to their icy doom or get
their poles sunk halfway to the grips. : )

I just had a great blazing fast half hour golf course crust skate --
maybe 15mph on some of the flats!

--JP

[gr]

In my neck of the woods (down in the hills of the New York State Finger
Lakes, a special spot exists that has 2200 ft altitude and gets much
more snow than anyplace within 100 miles (Harriet Hollister NYS rec
area). I find that in spring there is about a 2 hour window where the
snow softens up from ice before is gets too soft. Depends how fast
things are warming, but 10-12pm is typical in later spring.

[Steve]

A little further east in Upstate New York, we've been waking up to
super crust-skating conditions in the valleys. Higher up, it hasn't
been thawing enough in the afternoon to make for a solid re-freeze
overnight.
On one ridge, last week's 30" of snow has been compacted into 10+
miles of great skating surface by the local snowmobile club's
groomers.
Classic tracks alongside the Chenango River are surviving, with
universal klister a good compromise for both the icy AM and slushier
PM conditions.