The President for South East Sno-Riders says we need more snow.

Though parts of the southeast have received nearly ten inches of snow in the last week, Mitch Gobeil says they still need more in order to have enough of a base to begin grooming.

"Generally speaking we need about a foot of snow because, by the time you compact it to create your base for the winter, that foot goes down in a hurry when you squeeze the air out of it, which is what the process is," he explains.

Gobeil guesses it will not be long before they begin grooming, yet he reminds us that it is nothing unusual for trails to still be closed on December 29th. Gobeil recalls last year they did their first grooming around December 20th but adds that was earlier than normal.

"Generally speaking it's the first week of January, second week of January before we can really get out there and get grooming properly," he says.

In the meantime, Gobeil says they have volunteers that are out clearing trails in anticipation of the sledding season.

"We've got the majority of our trails cleared and the majority of them signed," he says. "They are not all done but we have a limited amount of volunteers, we always need more volunteers."

According to Gobeil, the weather this fall has been favourable for freezing swamps and bogs.

Meanwhile, Gobeil says they put up a new warmup shelter between Woodridge and Badger. The old shelter in that general area was removed a few years ago because of vandalism.