Trails are closed to skiing due to ice on all of the trails. Wednesday, Dave and I toured the entire system. We cleaned up the larger sticks and the left overs from the chain saw crew. The smaller twigs and such was left. Some were already sinking into the trail. These should disappear beneath new snow. We were out for over four hours on this clean up. Ted and Janet were out later on a couple of trails with rakes. Dave and I found every trail condition from skiable trail to dirt. Walk in on an ice covered trail to ski a hundred yards of marginally skiable snow? Write Willow off your ski destination list until the next snow event that produces more than a nuisance amount. There will be no attempt to restore skiing until then. The grooming team has decades of experience and knows when to not try it.

(Jeff Bolte)

Willow trails are not skiable so consider them closed. Trails are sheet of ice. There are no gates to shut. All the signs say "open." Volunteers will not be switching the signs. Park staff are telling people not to ski.
Park staff did the heavy lifting; taking out seven down trees today. These created full or partial blockage on various trails. Tomorrow, Dave and I will be out to clean up the aftermath. I spent two hours on snow shoes with the leaf blower on trails today. I moved around to various forest types. The blower was quite effective in moving the small stuff off the trail. What is left is a much cleaner surface ready for the next snow. Today was a test run with the blower and I like the results. There will be more blower work as my time allows; it goes very slow. There is zero we can do to put skiing back on. All we can do is prep for the next snow event.

(Jeff Bolte)

Grooming plans (if any) are under discussion at 10 am. Blow downs are a constant issue that may affect any attempt to fix trails. This much is settled, the classic track is beyond help. The only possibility is to scratch up the skiable areas of the skate deck. That attempt will not go until the wind lets up. There is a large area of mowed grass between the beach and the dam. That is one of my low snow skiing areas on classic. You can find that at your local school field and no sticker is needed. More to come later from the grooming team.

(Jeff Bolte)

Looking at a previous report about a down branch, I loaded up the snowmobile with the saw and rake to go clean up the mess. I did not find it. What I did find was a wide variety of track and skate deck conditions on a very hard trail at 22 degrees. The snowmobile left little evidence it was there. The Red trail system is still okay. The Orange trail south of the road is not skiable until after the lowland turn. Take the skis off and walk. Track is burned out. Dirt is exposed on downhills on the skate deck. Those are the only places observed from the snowmobile.

(Jeff Bolte)

Skied classic Bs on the orange and red, tried the prairie loop but turned back as it was too thin and squishy. Very mushy today with the warm weather, track depth varies, there's a lot of grass sticking through in the open areas. I left a rolling body print on the bigger downhill on red working around a downed branch. Brown and yellow more of the same - good but soft under the trees (very light under the pines), and light in open spaces. A few others who were out echoed the slow ride conditions but everyone was just happy to be outdoors and on skis.

(Sarah Hartung)

I skied the Purple and part of the Silver Trails today. The skate deck and the classic track both had set up well after yesterday's grooming. The base is still thin in spots, especially in the classic track where you will find places where the tracksetter dug into the dirt. The skate deck has a few dirty spots as well and I suspect there are places where you could punch through and hit some gravel. Overall, the skiing was most enjoyable in spite of the cold. Bright sun and no wind go a long ways in mitigating the below-zero temps.

(David Thofern)

All of the trails were groomed and tracked this afternoon and into the evening. Hopefully the snow will firm up with the coming cold weather, it's pretty soft right now. Although everything is pretty well covered, there isn't a lot of base so there are spots where you might encounter underlying gravel. As usual, areas under the pines are thin.

(David Thofern)

Happy to be out on cold day. Skied orange, red with prairie loop and had a ball. Thanks to the Willow groomers!

(Michelle Aaron)

There is maybe 6-7 inches of snow down in the area. The roller is out this morning with the plan to pack only to capture as much new snow as possible. Jeff was out early and reports packing the Red and Purple. Dave should be out by 10 am to do the rest. The general plan is to pack trails first, let it set up, then assess the results for track setting. Cutting a track now would likely leave decent looking results but the side walls would be mush. Mushy track track has a tendency to blow out, especially when you need it in a downhill turn.

(Jeff Bolte)

Cold. Thin base. No track. I skied out the Orange to the Red Prairie and back on the Orange. Yes, one link of that was wrong way to stay on turf trails. Skis were wood touring width. Glide wax is Start Black Tar roto-corked in. Kick wax is Toko binder. It was fast today on the woodies. The rolled and combed base has firmed up well in all areas skied. I wanted the open area route since the wind was down. The sharpened edges on the wood skis bit in and made the turn when it looked iffy in down hill turns. Anything spooky was easy to avoid. Obviously the Prairie held more base than in the trees. The base is excellent for the snow to come. There is still time to hit it tomorrow. One more. The base I skied today is still base; not boilerplate. It looks like one skate skier was the only other to ski the Red Prairie.

(Jeff Bolte)