Night prowl to Willow Falls under a full moon. Skied classic from the 300 camp entry to the Falls. Took rock skis. No track and no chance there will be any. The base is very shallow. Pole baskets were useless. B skis would be okay on the firm base. Wax is Fast Wax Sport Blue. Its cold enough for Green. Skate marks indicated a gentle stroke yielded 10-12 feet of glide on the flats. Its the usual early season stuff: sticks, lumps, gravel, all easily seen and avoided. The campground loop is as good as it gets for early season grooming. The Blue trail is a mixed bag of all of the above. Remember the crews doing brushing work? That stretch of the Blue has gained three feet of width. The grooming team grabbed every bit of it. Best guess is its a full 12 feet wide. Willow Falls under a full moon is kind of hard to see... Ski gently at Willow this week and enjoy this early season!

(Jeff Bolte)

I can tell you that as of 9pm all the trails have been rolled. All are snow covered but a bit thin under some of the pines. Not bad though. We will make a decision in the morning on whether we can track or not. Happy skiing.

(Ted Bliven)

Ungroomed. I skied short on the widest woodies I own. The route was the Purple Trail. I walked the small hill out at the end since it has pebbles to rocks year round. The skis took minor, easy to fix scratches in the kick wax area. Toko Binder worked fine for grip. Remember, most trails have gravel. Classic rock skis suggested.

(Jeff Bolte)

The park received around 6 inches of new snow overnight on top of bare ground and all 26 km of trails are snow covered and skiable. However, both our snowmobile and tracked vehicle are down with mechanical issues. Therefore, no grooming will take place until at least Monday. Ski trails are open to hiking until we are able to groom. Also be aware that today is the last day of the firearms deer season. You are advised to avoid trails open to deer hunting and wear blaze orange if you are in near areas open to hunting.

(David Thofern)

Pre Season Trail Prep Saturday. There will be a large crew cutting dead buckthorn along the Blue trail. We will work between the culvert and the junction with the hill trail. You will hear us before you see us. We will idle it down to a dull roar as visitors pass by. Groomers Dave and Rita treated the buckthorn some time ago. They are on the crew. A small crew started this job last Saturday. Last week's results: the droopers are gone, we gained room for a wider skate deck, and clear poling for classic on this narrow two way stretch. Park staff does the wide cuts and rough cuts with the Bobcat. All the rest of the ski trail prep is done by volunteers.

(Jeff Bolte)

Pre Season Prep: Hunting open till mid December; trails open to all. Wide cuts / rough cuts in. Some trails are rough cuts. These take time for snow to fill in. Purple Lowland probably not ready till mid season. Lowland will get left side track I hope. It will ski better left. Health issues are limiting my ability to prep trails. I tried things never done at Willow as follows. The Red main stem was blown reasonably clean of leaves. Parts of the Orange had the rough cut mowed down to trail height. I liked the results of the tests but weather has probably shut this down. Trail work will continue as conditions allow. I will get that huge rock out of the Green.

(Jeff Bolte)