The course is in great condition right now. The weather forecast is on our side for the early part of the week, then gets a little less favorable - so the Birkie skate and classic trails will close starting at 11:59PM Wednesday night (closed Thursday/Friday). Please be respective of your fellow skiers - this is for the benefit of making Saturday the best possible experience. Skiing at Birkie Ridge is still open. Thanks for your cooperation.

(Chris Campbell, American Birkebeiner)

Conditions: Excellent for skating and classic. A little leaf litter starting to collect in places where the tree line is right on top of the course.
Completed my weekend tour of the trail by skiing from OO to hwy 77. Firm skate deck with no thin spots anywhere I could see. Of course that could all change when they throw 10,000 skiers on the course but right now the skiing is awesome.

(Andy Schwartz)

Conditions: Excellent for skate and classic. Consecutive nights of near minus 20 temps have really hardened the course up. Super cold wind blown snow is lots of work even with plenty of green wax in my skis.
Skied from McNaught road to OO today. Hard work but a good day on skis. There's some snowmobile damage early in the power lines that should get fixed easily once they get in there again with the Piston Bully. Otherwise, the trail is in great shape.

(Andy Schwartz)

Conditions: In a word, wonderful. Recently groomed. Looks like they're widening the trail to full race day width now.
Skied from OO south to Gravel Pit late this afternoon. Trail has firmed up nicely since Tuesday when I skied it last. So it's skiing much faster despite the cold. Also groomed to it's full race width. So they're deep into race day course prep at this point.

(Andy Schwartz)

Conditions: Excellent for both classic and skate. Fresh corduroy as far as the eye could see and a solid full depth classic track.
Fresh, cold snow made pushing the skis a little work but the trail is in about as good a condition as I've ever seen it right now. Well worth skipping out of adult responsibilities for a few hours in the middle of the day.

(Andy Schwartz)

Excellent conditions and grooming for the Pre-Birkie today.

(Louis Muench, CASTA)

Skied from North End TH to OO and back on skate trail and classic trail. An adventure in skiing icy conditions; kind of treacherous but fun until my kick wax was totally worn off. Then anything uphill was just hard.

(Scott Everson)

I skied the Birkie Trail skate lane today from OO up to the power lines and back. Skate conditions were a bit sticky and slow when I started at around 2:00 pm. The more recently groomed trail between High Point and OO was in very good shape, and the glide was excellent towards the evening. North of High Point was an adventure with ruts frozen in from heavy traffic Saturday. It was still skiable, but icy and kind of treacherous. All in all, the trail held up well to the warm conditions this weekend. Full coverage everywhere. The only issue was that some of the snowmobile crossings are getting a bit dirty, but not bad enough for me to take off my skis.

(Mark Luehring)

Conditions: Good coverage, 2-3 inches on new snow, groomed Friday from OO to High Point, both Birkie Classic and Birkie Trail.
We skied yesterday from OO to High Point and then down to Timber Trail, going out in the morning the glide was okay but as the temps warmed, the skating slowed down. The hills were starting to break down with all the skier traffic. The skating provided a hard workout but lots of skiers were out, there was plenty of sunshine and overall it was a great day to be out in the fresh air and the north woods.

Photos:

(David Martin)

Conditions: Fresh corduroy, level, good coverage, great control and glide. New classic track set as well.
I skated from Mosquito Brook north to OO on the Birkie trail, new grooming was found both north and south of Mosquito Brook, including the lighted loops at OO. I also skated south a few kilometers toward Fish Hatchery, where fresh corduroy could be found. All trails had a new, firm classic track set. The trails offered great control and coverage, plenty of happy skiers out and even a few happy fat bikers riding the single track...thanks groomers!

Photos:

(David Martin)