Well it was a heck of a

9 day season!

Unless “miracle March snow” comes we are done grooming for the season after multiple 50 degree plus days.

It’s great time to find your road bike or …your paddle board?

2/24/2025;

Grooming is underway Monday morning- but we lost a lot of snow coverage in the last two very warm days.

We anticipate suspending grooming after today. What a great bit of skiing after the Valentines Day storm!!!

Lots of folks were out enjoying the last days of grooming at Vallecito yesterday !

Thank you to all the groomers and donors who supported wonderful skiing at Vallecito this too short season!!

Grooming report 2/23/2025:

The road to Pine Point and south beach are good skating. The snow is thin and there are many emergent rocks - it’s another day to leave your World Cup skis at home.

Two groomers have you a combined 7 hours of the Sunday morning.

2/22/2025: Grooming Report:

After 6 combined hours from 2 volunteer groomers the road, beach and campgrounds were freshly groomed this morning for skating. Multiple skiers reported great skiing! And really good cinnamon rolls and coffee!

What.. free homemade cinnamon rolls in the middle of your ski??!!

Here is a note from one of our membership drive sponsors, Vallecito Huts/ Croll Cabins: “Stop by after [while] enjoying the trails of Vallecito Nordic Club [Saturday 2/22] !!! We’re located just past the gate at the end of the trail [~3 miles from the trail head at the end of the FS road by Burnt Meadow] .Come under the gate, past the yellow Vallecito Huts sign, and walk down around the hill.  You’ll see a cabin on the right with purple trim. 

Come enjoy homemade cinnamon rolls and a hot drink. Hang out with fellow skiers and share some good stories!!”

Grooming Report: 2/21/2025:

Grooming is complete for this morning after 6 combined hours from 2 volunteer groomers. The road to pine point and the beaches were groomed for skating. The classic tracks on the road are still good. Watch for rocks! As yesterday’s report below shows, we are losing snow coverage .

Enjoy the last days of skiing at Vallecito for February and likely this season.

Grooming Report: 2/20/2025:

After much shoveling and a combined 10 hours from two volunteer groomers, the Road and the south beach are good skating. Temperatures ranged from 17 at 7:15 to 44 by early afternoon.

Get it while it lasts !

Grooming Report: 2/19/2025:

The road and beaches were snowmobile groomed for skating this morning over the course of 5 hours by a volunteer groomer 🙏!

Recommendations: best skiing - the road at 10:30 ish, 11 for a sunny slow ski on the beach.

A note from our our grooming team:

“The handicap parking spot is used by sit skiers; if dog poop gets on their equipment, it gets transferred into their car.  Please take pride in your dog ownership skills.”

Grooming report 2/18/2025:

Good skiing on the beach ( beware of emergent rocks!) and in the campgrounds today after snowmobile grooming for skate skiing. The road has good classic tracks to Burnt Meadow and the skate lane was “chunky” in places as we learn to deal w freeze /thaw conditions w the Snow Rabbit. We did not groom East Creek as there are too many bare spots.

Two groomers gave you a combined 12 hrs of their Tuesday - because they are generous - and they love skiing at Vallecito!

Ski it while you can!! ( mornings are best) ….if the predicted highs in the 40s to low 50s arrive late week, it will be time to find your road bike again.

Grooming Report 2/17/2025:

Great skiing today!

All trails groomed w snowmobiles as the Snow Rabbit has compacted the base well. So there are bare spots and rocks to miss hear and there- the best sking is on the road and before 1pm.

Lots of folks out enjoying skiing at Vallecito!! A combined 7 hrs from two volunteer groomers 😇

grooming report 2/16/3025:

By 8:15 this morning our Snow Rabbit team wrapped up 4 hours grooming all trails for skating except the beach and campground( which were later groomed w snowmobile ). Classic tracks are set on the road to Pine Point. Two groomers gave you a combined 12 hours today!

GRooming Report 2/15/2025:

The Snow Rabbit hopped on it today! ( with the help of our volunteer groomer! )

The road, Pine Point, Graham Creek, East Creek, Burnt Meadow where tiller and groomed for skating by the Rabbit!

The Rabbit set classic tracks on the road - and we decided the coverage was too thin on the other trails.

Our other volunteer groomer ran the snow machine and groomed the beach and campgrounds for skating as the snow is also too thin there to set tracks.

Grooming Reort 2/14/2025!!

After a 15-16” dump and a long day from 2 groomers using both the new Snow Rabbit and snow machines we have the beginnings a base for Nordic skiing!

Tomorrow (2/15/25) we anticipate grooming the road early with the Snow Rabbit !!!! The reservoir is very high so the beach trails are on new areas and are more rough than usual and will be snow machine groomed.

So come enjoy the skiing! And maybe don’t bring your World Cup skis since 16” compacted is still a we tad thin!

2/14/25 morning update:

A Valentines day dump!!

We are working on compacting the snow and hope to get our new Snow Rabbit out!

Check back later today for updates.

The best bet today is to wait for the storm to finish and stay clear of our grooming team.

Your snow dances worked!

Whoooo hoooo!

Vallecito Nordic

The Favero Snow Rabbit 3X - our dream machine!

We did it!

Vallecito Nordic Club is now the proud owner of a Favero Snow Rabbit 3X snow cat. This machine will make wonderful skate and classic tracks even in conditions that our snowmobiles struggled with.  Expect great skiing (once we figure it out!). 

This happened thanks to almost 100 (and still counting) different donors.  Thank you all so much for your support.  Local businesses and foundations really stepped-up and helped.  We want to give a huge shout out to:

• Community Foundation of Southwest Colorado

• Pine Needle Mountaineering

• Backcountry Experience

• Alpine Bank

• Round Up Foundation (LPEA)

• Tailwind

• Kennebec Wealth Management

What happens now?

We are waiting until there is snow to have the Snow Rabbit delivered.

In the meantime, we are continuing fundraising to cover our annual operating expenses and establish a Snow Rabbit maintenance fund (Take Care of the Bunny).  Please join Vallecito Nordic and also consider supporting the Snow Rabbit maintenance fund.

To join and/or make a donation, you have four options:

1. Go to our Membership page ( HERE ) to donate online directly

2.  mail a check to us at PO Box 4431, Durango, CO 81302

3. drop a check off at Alpine Bank (any branch) and say it is for the Vallecito Nordic Club Snow Rabbit fund. If you drop off a check please email and let us know so we can better track donations.

4. Or, you can Use the Colorado Gives website ( CO Gives ).

 The Snow Rabbit will be on display at our Demo Day, January 19th!

Thank you So much for your support.

Please thank our Business sponsors

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Grooming Reports

NOAA Point Weather Forecast for Vallecito Nordic Trails

Cross Country skiers, snowshoers, and well behaved dogs are welcome on the trails beyond the gate at the trail head!

Bicyclists and those walking or running, please enjoy other areas in our region. Our beautifully groomed nordic and snowshoe trails become rutted and cratered from bicycling, walking and running. When we can repair this damage (some ruts we cannot smooth out with our grooming equipment), it adds many hours to our volunteer grooming efforts. Please respect this request.

GROOMING #1!!!!! 2024/25

Sometime in December, 2024- The season will begin (we hope)!

We look forward to skiing with you again at Vallecito!

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2023/24 was another great season at Vallecito!

By the numbers:

87 days of groomed nordic sking this winter (23-24)!!

952 hours of volunteer grooming- total heroes!

176 round trips of those volunteers driving out to groom our trails Vallecito

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Thanks to the generosity of skiers and several large donations we we were able to purchase two new snow mobiles last season. We had to switch snowmobile brands - there is only one company making groomer style snowmobiles now - and the new ones aren’t quite as durable as our previous machines. Also, Doug Allen - our grooming guru - has repaired all the grooming gear for this year. We are ready for to go!

In the mean time… Please renew your membership to Vallecito Nordic Club.

Everyone becoming a member by December 17th at the $75 or $100 level, is automatically entered in a drawing for a Rossignol skate ski package donated by Pine Needle Mountaineering. If you join at the $75 or $100 level and make an additional donation to either our Snow Rabbit 3 fund or to the ski club, you will receive an extra drawing ticket for each $50 of additional donation up to a maximum of 8 tickets for the drawing. This has to be done by December 17th! Early support helps us budget for the ski season. The winner will be notified/announced December18th afternoon.

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For the 2024/2025 ski season we have two events planned:

• January 19: Demo Days with Fischer and Swix, definitely attending and Salomon and Rossignol have been invited.

• February 1: Ski clinic - classic and skating

• Check back for more information and other events.

For past grooming reports and season summaries please click on Grooming Report Archives below

About Vallecito Nordic and what makes it unique

1. Our grooming is all done by volunteers. Express your gratitude when you can.

2. We depend on your support. Join/donate if you can. Membership

3. We allow dogs, but ...

   -They must be kept under control. That is your responsibility.

   -Aggressive dogs (to people, other dogs or grooming equipment) should be left home.

   -You need to clean up after them. No one likes brown wax.

4. No bikes

5. Walkers and snowshoers should consider using our dedicated path.

Vallecito Nordic PARTNERSHIPS

In 2021 we welcomed an additional partner the Pine River Irrigation District (PRID), which expanded our longtime collaboration with the Columbine Ranger District of the US Forest Service. Partnering with PRID opens up skiing on the beach and PRID has helped with trail preparation, plowing the road and graveling the road near the trailheads. PRID requires trail users to purchase a PRID Recreation Permit. You can purchase an annual PRID Recreation Permit or a Day Use pass at the PRID website using the links below. These permits are for a vehicle, not per person, so carpool and save!

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ANNUAL PRID Permit:

For annual passes for the calendar year 2025 ($60 plus a service fee) will be available the first week of January 2025. At that time go to: PRID Annual Recreation Permit

Your 2024 pass is good for December 2024. All money from PRID recreation permits goes to the Pine River Irrigation District.

In case the link doesn’t work the URL is: https://www.pineriverirrigationdistrict.com/recreation-user-annual-permit-per-vehicle

PRID Day-Use Permit:

If you choose not to get an annual pass, daily passes are $6 (plus a service fee) and are available here: PRID Daily Recreation Permit In case the link doesn’t work the URL is: https://www.pineriverirrigationdistrict.com/recreation-user-day-use-permit-per-vehicle