6" of new snow in the last two days! Finally, enough base 6-8" to get the Pisten Bully out. The High School classic course had the Bully on it yesterday, and hoping to get the Gold done today with it. The Silver trail is still being groomed with the Ginzu because of shallower snow depth, but is excellent. All 60Km have been groomed and the skiing is the best of the year.

(John Filander)

Conditions: 6+ inches of new snow. Near perfect trail conditions.
The 15 or more inches of snow over the past ten days has coerced the Pisten Bully out of hibernation! Classic skiing was superb on the Cedar and Gold High School race loop, today's first of the season Pisten Bully groomed trail. Skied all of the trails this week and found them in superb condition even with the daily snow events. Weekend skiing should be fantastic!

Photos:

(Tim Salo)

Conditions: Fantastic conditions on Summit, Bronze and Biwabik spur. The lowlands on Wynne had some roughness but otherwise great!
The board said no grooming for 5-7 days but must not have been updated because it was all freshly groomed. I would assume that it is even better now with seven inches of more snow since then. I came up from the Cities so was in heaven. B

(Mark Peil)

5" of fresh snow! Everything (60 km) will be groomed up for MLK weekend, and the skiing is excellent. Bring your woolies, it won`t get above zero for a few days. This is the kind of January we love at the Ridge!

(John Filander)

Conditions: Fully covered! Tracks were invisible and the skate deck was quickly disappearing under big puffy flakes.
4-5 inches of new snow fell throughout the day and greeted us with an (extra) skate work out on the Gold and Silver trails. The trails are in the best shape so far for this season, and you can't beat the beauty of all the snow covered trees that accompanies great skiing!

(Cheri Johnson)

Conditions: Excellent. Solid PB race trails, enveloped in a wintery snow globe type atmosphere!
The Mesabi East Invite, showcased the State meet race courses in its finest wrapping. First class grooming, always meets up with superior race organization for this banner event. Thanks to John Filander and staff!

(Cheri Johnson)

Conditions: 2-3" fresh snow yesterday, excellent conditions!
The groomers have been working hard at Giants Ridge this week, preparing the course for the upcoming race as well as opening up the outer loops of the Nordic trails. We skied several times over the past few days, covering just about everything. The main trails are in great shape other than a few thin/icy spots on the Bronze (although the fresh snow yesterday has topped it off nicely). The Larentian/Wynne Creek, Biwabik spur and Oslo were groomed during the week and are already skiing well (other than a few dark spots at the edges of the bog crossings, the coverage is great). We were skating, but the classic tracks on the inner trails looked sharp. Bring your best skis for the Silver, Gold and Summit trails, or strap on the B-teamers and tackle all 50km at the Ridge.

Photos:

(Shawn Callahan)

2" of fresh today really sweetened up the courses for the Mesabi East XC Invitational. We are running the MSHSL State Meet courses and have a field over 1000. 4" of base, with another inch or two expected tomorrow will make for excellent racing. Giants Ridge has overe 50Km open so there is plenty of skiing for racers and recreational skiers alike this weekend.

(John Filander)

An inch of fresh yesterday on top of a 4" base. 50+Km open. Happy New Year!

(John Filander)

Conditions: Good for both skate and classic. I classic skied 25k, and aside from a few patches, snow coverage and track conditions were good. Could use a new track set in a few places, but it was quite skiable.
Very good trail conditions on most trails. The Biwabik Spur trail did have a few boulders peeking out of the snow and a small sizeable rocks I moved out of the track, along with low-hanging branches. Scattered ice flows across the trail (not bad if going uphill, but I would not want to see those on my way down). The Bronze trail, paralleling the road had a few asphalt patches, particularly under the evergreens, which others in my party mistook for ice. Whoops....

Photos:

(Matthew Daly)