All trails except Rattlesnake were groomed with ginzus and tilled with our Pisten Bully. Overall we were able to break up the frozen snow and some of the ice and get the trails into good to very good skiing condition. We have no classic tracks worth talking about. Icy downhills were tilled but they are still very fast and should be skied with caution. Trail debris from high winds is slowly disappearing. Trails will be groomed again on Thursday afternoon.

(Bruce Johnson)

As freeze up occurred, took the ginzu to the trails this afternoon. Most of the trails I was able to get enough snow/ice to get an edge to ski. A few icy spots but they are easy to spot and be prepared for. Trails might get better with more grooming this week, but be prepared for fast conditions.

Photos:

(Steve Horeck)

Frozen hard packed trails groomed up nicely this morning. Still a few icy spots, and plenty of sticks, and leaves, debris, but still fun. A few tracks are set but pretty dirty.

(Steve Horeck)

We've been grooming every morning and the trail is getting progressively better. Manmade/lighted loop is in very good condition with a classic track. Orchard, meadow, river trail and upper hillside are in good condition. 5 k loop is skiable, but downhills are still icy. Still a lot of twigs, bark and small branches. As you ski, help us by flipping some branches and bark off the trail.

(Gerry Cichanowski)

The groomers at St Mary's have transformed bulletproof ice into very fun skiable trails. Our first couple laps were tough to ski and rather sketchy but after a couple groomer passes things were great. Early this morning the trails were the consistency of a dry sno-cone. No classic tracks were present, skate only. Steve, the groomer, said they had the ginzu blades set to maximum depth and made multiple passes to get is skiable. They will be grooming all week because they get between 70-100 kids out there every night! Amazing place to ski.

(Jack Zabrowski)

We groomed today with both Ginzu and Pisten Bully. The overnight cold dried the snow pack sufficiently to get the skate deck in unexpectedly good condition. The majority of the 5K loop is in good condition with a variety of icy and dirty spots. The wind has made all the trails full of leaves, twigs and some branches. The Lighted loop is very good with only a few icy areas. There are no classic tracks. Caution is highly recommended on downhills as they are icy. Overall we have survived the rain and SMU Nordic trails are ready for skiers.

(Bruce Johnson)

Most of the trails survived the rain. The lighted loop with man made snow has been groomed and is in good condition with some brown areas. The main 5K loop is in good to marginal condition with some corners very icy. Caution is highly recommended. The extremely windy conditions have spread small branches and tree bark on many parts of the trail. Overall you can ski but be prepared for snow conditions to change as you ski to different sections. We are not able to reset any classic tracks at this time. We recommend skiing primarily of the upper lighted loop for safest conditions.

(Bruce Johnson)

Majority of St. Mary's trails are iced over and debris laden. I tilled up the lighted, manmade loop and it's pretty good, also did the small loop at orchard's first cutoff, back to the dike, and the meadow loop across the sledding hill. We'll try and till some more trail, when things freeze more solid, right now ski only where trails have been scratched, the rest would be treacherous! If you ski everything that's been scratched 2 to 2.5 K.

(Steve Horeck)

Groomed and set track mid-morning. We did not groom Rattlesnake again as it still needs better snow depth. The skate deck is in excellent condition with very few thin areas. The classic track is also very good but again there are a few thin areas. I skied between 1-2 PM and some tracks were getting wind blown and some had accumulating leaves from the wind but overall the classic and skate conditions are great.

(Bruce Johnson)

4-5" of new snow overnight. Entire system was packed this morning. Still a little soft but good conditions everywhere except Rattlesnake and Yon's trail beyond the second cutoff. They are still a little thin, good skis not recommended there. The lighted loop is open for evening skiing.

(Gerry Cichanowski)