We closed today until we get more snow. The thin snow is not safe to ski on and grooming is not possible. We had a good week of early season skiing and had many happy customers. We hope to reopen Friday for skiing.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

The trail froze hard last night, down to 27F. We groomed last night as it was freezing and the trails froze up hard and fast. We regroomed about 1/3 of the trails this morning and waited for the sun to warm the rest up. By 10:30 some of the hills were still fast so we regroomed a few of the hills. The base is getting very thin with many bare spots ...but it is skiable. We are going out with three of us early in morning to regroom again Sunday morning. We expect conditions to be similar to this morning but we will try to make it a bit softer.
We expect to close Sunday late afternoon as the temps warm up and the trail melts out and then we plan to reopen Thursday or Friday when more snow arrives.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: I am just coming in from scouting the trails and doing some preliminary grooming. The low areas were starting to show signs of wet, the up hills are getting chewed up a bit on Blueberry and the River Trail. Tonight's grooming smoothed these out and I expect them to freeze tonight. The bare spots 12 inch by 12 inch are more numerous...about 75 areas in the base 10 km loop....but they are small and you can ski around them easily. I think the skiing at 9 AM will be more favorable for the advanced skiers and the skiing later towards 11 AM  will be better for the recreational skiers. Tonight is forecast to freeze hard and we will lightly groom in the early morning to keep the base firm, it is flat from the grooming tonight and ruts are groomed out. We are grooming and skiing about 25 km for Saturday.
Looking ahead I see that Sunday we are probably OK until early afternoon. We do not think we will be open Monday thru Wednesday based on the forecast.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We groomed up about 37 km  late last night as the temps dropped after another 4 inches of snow fell during the day yesterday. We woke up to another inch or  so on the trails and re-groomed again this time setting about 20 km of classic tracks. Skiers were out today and temps rose up in the hi 30's softened the base and opening up some wet spots. We plan to re-groom in the early morning. I expect some of  the k we groomed today to be deteriorated but am hoping most of the trails will re-groom after tonight's refreeze.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: Lots of Happy Skiers today (and groomers); we had a good day of skiing. The snow pretty much came early this morning but it did not stop all day. We received 3-5 inches of dense snow over our hard base. We groomed 38 km of trails this morning and had 33k open for skiing. At this time there is 2-3 inches of skied in snow and new snow on top of the grooming. We will be re-grooming tonight and in the early morning and we may even try to set tracks on some of the trails. The PB with low profile grousers was out tilling in the practice loop and will be heading on the trails soon. We continue to Ginzu Groom with the smaller equipment in the meanwhile. We are open daily, including Holidays at 9 AM CST. There is no hunting on the property we are skiing on.
Picture of "Honey Badger" grooming with "Pig Heart" on the new Tamarack Two Track Trail. This a double tracked 10 foot wide trail that will be PB groomed with a small PB on rubber tracks.

Photos:

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We had a good day of trail maintenance today and regrooming. The trails looked to be in better than expected shape with the weekend traffic we had. The base is thin but the wet spots have frozen and the snow still seems to be cold dry powder.  We repaired some of the problem areas and we will be back out in the early morning to work on the trails again. We plan to reopen for Wednesday...and if we get another inch or 2 of snow it will be groomed into the base. We are closed for skiing and sales Tuesday, but plan to reopen Wednesday at 9 AM.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We had a busy Sunday on the ski trails. We are planning to close Monday and Tuesday for snow preservation and trail maintenance. we need to freeze down a few key areas.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: Early season conditions with a thin base. No classic tracks set.
We are in the process of grooming 10 km of trails about 10-12 feet wide. The base is thin and soft but skiable with the right skis and attitude. We will be open for skiing from 10-3 today for skiing and with the Ski Shop Sale.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)