Conditions: 30 degrees, freshly compacted, pristine corduroy on a 10" base.
We skied the entire Pepsi/GRE race course Wednesday after Pisten Bully grooming of Tuesday night. Skate deck was flat but a little draggy with all the new snow on top. The trails should be absolutely perfect after next tilling and track setting.

Photos:

(Tim Salo)

Conditions: Warm with 4+ inches of fluffy snow.
Nothing like a morning of powder skiing! Skied the recently groomed beginning 1k of the Pepsi Challenge course in continuously falling snow to Summit and Gold. Cloud like powder skied remarkably well which will provide a perfect base for Saturday's races!

Photos:

(Tim Salo)

Conditions: 1/2" fresh snow over solid skate deck - fast!
A rainy start to the weekend turned to snow and finally dropped well below freezing this afternoon at Giants Ridge. I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions. The summit, Bronze, and cedar trail were freshly groomed for skate and classic this morning. Classic tracks are deep, a bit icy, and punched down in various places from the traffic yesterday during the heat wave. Overall good classic, but the skating was much better - deck is solid but not icy thanks to the fresh topping of snow and grooming. Enjoyed a great ski with few others on the trail today... their loss!

Photos:

(Shawn Callahan)

Conditions: 36 degrees, foggy, solid, remarkably solid.
Skied late Friday afternoon and found Cedar, Gold, Silver, Northern Lights and Summit trails in great condition after the rain. Skate tracks barely showed. Laurentian and Wynne Creek trails were a little soft for skiing but still look great.

Photos:

(Tim Salo)

Conditions: Exceptional solid flat but cool new snow.
Skied the entire Pepsi Challenge Great River Energy Rush race course. Gold, Cedar, Northern Lights and Summit were superbly Pisten Bully groomed to best of season conditions. Laurentian and Wynne Creek nicely groomed, perfectly flat for a fantastic skate deck. Snow was still a bit slow for skating after the -20 morning low.

Photos:

(Tim Salo)

Conditions: Getting pretty close to perfect.
Snowing tonight but trails have firmed up nicely. A couple days ago the pole plants were a little soft. Bronze was groomed today, silver is fast and solid, gold has a light dusting of snow, Spur and Oslo completely covered, classic tracks kickable all the way up the hills.

(Peter Dahlberg)

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)