Birkie Trail Manager Chris has opened the Birkie Trail from the OO Trailhead south. The trail is reported to be very icy, thin and has bare spots. They recommend advanced skiers only - be very careful.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Birkie Ridge trail only: Rock hard trail in the morning. Groomer was not out so rutted from Friday skiers. Please ski out North Trail and come in on South Trail - thus all uphills and downhills will be in same direction. Currently South Trail downhills are almost impossible because folks were climbing on Friday and thus extremely rutted.

(George Larson)

The Birkie organizers will be closing the trail this Thursday evening for the foreseeable future as they attempt to preserve the best conditions for the races next weekend.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Skied from Gravel Pit to Fish Hatchery Sunday afternoon on crackly fast corduroy. And one of us skied on to Wheeler Rd, but as reported it was not regroomed after Pre-Birkie and was pretty terrifying boilerplate or frozen bumpy snow. I walked down the last two hills for safety! Today we skied between OO and Mosquito Brook between noon and 3pm. Skate deck is still firm, not icy, and not compressing much despite the sun and 42 degrees except in the open sunny areas and a few south facing hills. Track is surprisingly intact and varies from soft to glazed. Some leaves and pine needles on the trail due to the winds. Skin skis worked well. Beware of grabby slow snow in the sunny areas - good balance practice! Photos are 1-2km north of Mosquito Brook.

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(Carolyn Senty)

Good skiing generally. It got warm on Sunday and then froze hard overnight so it can be hard and icy. But there is still corduroy to be found from Saturday evenings grooming so I would still call it good skiing. This is another situation where better skiers are going to think conditions are good and beginning skiers will need to exercise a little caution. The spouse is in Korte recon mode at this point so we tried to ski the southern part of the trail. It was groomed after the Pre-Birkie as far south as Fish Hatchery but not past. So the section between Fish Hatchery and Hwy 77 is dicey. If you're going that same thing as us, that is, previewing sections of the trail prior to race day, I might suggest waiting until closer to mid day when the surface softens up somewhat.

(Andy Schwartz)

Conditions on the pre-birkie course were good to great. Very impressed with the coverage compared to where it was even one month ago. It was firm in the vast majority of places, with little to no squish. Very clean snow too---little to no dirty spots. Coverage on the lake was sufficient, but you could tell it was thin...maybe two inches. Fish Hatchery was a little uneven with some foliage poking through, but still A ski conditions. Uphills were in fantastic shape, some minor wash-out on downs. All told, I spotted only one pebble over 42k. I would pay good money to have these conditions for a Birkie.

(Joel LaFrance)

It was a short trip at Gravel Pit on the classic skins. I skied north and south. The trail looked prepped for racing; rock solid track and a very shallow combing on the deck. The deck was firm but pliable for freestylers. It was not squishy. It was good on the deck for the classics also. Yesterday's run left enough soreness to limit my climbing ability in track or screamer downhills on the deck. The skins took most of the shallower hills in track well. There were more skiers about than expected. Have fun racers! The trail I saw today was perfection.

(Jeff Bolte)

Purdy nice. Maybe 6-8" new snow in the last ten days. Grooming is fresh and nice. Classic track is deep, skate deck is fresh cord firm powder. Skied Hatchery north. Cold on the downhills! Maybe 10F above in the sun, 10F below in the shade.

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(Joel Harrison, New Moon Ski Shop)

skied north end and a few K's of nearby Birkie trail. North end had just been groomed, Birkie trail seemed to be groomed recently also, but just a little slower(and a lot hillier). Beautiful sunny morning skies. 10 degree temps. Wish I had applied face cream, face felt a little raw afterward. Tracks in great shape.

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(Brian Ciske)

Cross country ski heaven! New snow, freshly groomed, cold 10 F with no wind. Perfect! Both classic and skate trail in excellent condition. Skied 00 to North of Boedecker and back.

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(Ken Kuznia)