Good. It looks like the groomers were able to till up some of the ice and the small amount of snow that Duluth has received since this weekend has made the trail very skateable. No classic track but skating is definitely not bad considering the weather. Some debris but no rocks.

Photos:

(Jakob Wartman)

Swung by Lester late in the day Tuesday to scout out the best place to fit in a longer ski after work. Surprised to find the Lester trail had been tilled. Not enough snow for tracks, but I didn't see any rocks in the few km I skied. My description of the snow: like the man made snow I grew up downhill skiing in Southern Michigan. I'm headed back, expect to ski farther under the lights/with a headlamp after work.

Photos:

(Kristin Riker-Coleman)

My first time out this year on Lester so I don't have earlier skiing experience on that trail to compare with, today after the sun and warm weather surely melted some of the coverage. All the loops have been groomed for skating but not tracked for classical. The big hill on the "N" loop had several bare spots of grass and I would not advise taking that hill unless you are very brave. Other areas of the trail were very thin - avoidable rocks popped up in a couple of places and quite a bit of debris from leaves to twigs and pine needles. It's ski-able but would be much better with more snow - keep your fingers crossed that we get some in the next couple of days!

(Nikki Norland)

Upper Lester: Very Good; Lower Lester: Fair to Very Good Wow! Hats off to the City of Duluth. When I walked over to the Lester Amity Trails this afternoon, I never expected the entire system would be Pisten Bully groomed. I if I was lucky the trails might have been snowmobile "rolled". In addition, the City did done a perfect job of clearing the storm damage. In fact, the trails have fewer miscellaneous branches which might whip / whack you during an unsuspecting downhill. Just so everyone understands, while trail running after the storm, I often had to crawl in spots to get through phenomenal tree blow downs. Back to the ski conditions. If you stay on the upper system feel free to bring your good skis. Coverage is excellent. For the classical skier like myself very shallow tracks occasionally appear. This is not the fault of the groomers. We need a deeper base for tracks. On the lower system (from "The Deeps" to the "Lester Amity Chalet") I was happy to be using my B skis. The coverage was thin with avoidable bare spots; however, I never caught a rock. It was a mistake to ski down the hill from the trail to the parking lot at The Deeps. I did catch a rock or two on that 100 yard stretch. My advice is to walk up to the trails, and walk down after your ski.

(Rich Hoeg)