Looks like the wife will be getting a set of 45NRTH Husker Du's! No one in town had the nonstudded Dillinger 5's and the Husker Du is supposed to be faster and also discontinued? but not discontinued because the LBS just got a couple dozen back in stock cause they roll super fast. I don't question it, just handed them my money and told them to make it happen. I decided against carbon wheels for this season, still gotta get a wheel set for her Fuel EX build first.
I have a hard time trying to explain how a 10 mile ride with zero elevation on groomed trails through the woods can be so fun. But I'll give it a try. It was just myself following a single snow machine track for tonight's ride. I was far enough back that the tracks from the walkers, snowshoes, and xc skiers had all turned off and left me this "first track" on a trail All I hear is my tires crunching across the snow and random echos of those crunches off the trees I pass in the dark. It's smooth and fast but even on the groomed surface, pockets of unstable and soft snow exist to disrupt my line. One would think holding a straight path on a smooth surface is easy, try doing it on snow.
It also warmed up to about 0, it's easier to enjoy a ride when I'm not thinking about how I could die if I got a flat tire.