Conditions: All trails were skiable, could use race skis on Skater's Waltz.
Highland Park high school's Nordic team enjoyed around 6 inches of snow at Maplelag Resort this weekend. We skied around 75 km on 7 different trails and we even pulled out racing skis for 2 time trials. A huge thanks goes out to Jay and the rest of the Maplelag staff for excellent trails this weekend!

Photos:

(Erin Moening)

Conditions: 1-3" compacted base. 1" light fluff snow overnight, 3 day snow total 6". Grooming on 35km of trail. Fair to very good early season conditions. No tracks set. Areas of thin cover and few rough spots.
We had a nice first day for the HS Ski camps. Falling temps to the single digits made it a bit chilly but the trails held up well and set up hard at dusk. All the kids I talked to were having fun despite the adjustment to cooler weather and happy to be on natural snow. Touch up grooming on select outer trails in the morning and shoveling on some thin areas. Use caution on the downhills on the outer trails and best to avoid Kamikaze hill section on Skaters Waltz.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: 1-3" compacted base. 2-3" prairie effect snow past 12 hours 5" total snowfall past 38 hours. 25km trail groomed. No tracks set. 6 am temp 22.5, falling to 12.7 at 6 pm. Good early season conditions.
We woke up to 2" of light fluffy prairie effect snow this morning. We roll packed on 20km of trail than roll combed. We had a handful of skiers out and groomed some other trails while skiers enjoyed the fresh snow. After skiers were off the trail and the dew point started to drop, we took out the Ginzus and combed Suicide Hill, Skaters Waltz, Sukkerbusk, Twin Lakes and JibFly trails. The trails groomed are starting to set up and should be a nice weekend of skiing with the snow that we have. There are some rough and thin spots to exercise caution but overall things are starting to take shape. A few more inches and we can start setting track on select trails.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: 1-2" compacted base, 2.25" new snow as of 10am. Grooming on 20km of trail. No tracks set.
We were out grooming early this morning after 2" of snow and unfortunately not much more snow after that. The sections of trail that had coverage from before groomed up fine and should be ok early season rock skiing once it sets up and cools down a bit. A 4km loop consisting of Skaters Waltz is the best trail but still some rough patches within that loop. We are packing a few more trails this morning than waiting to see if any more new snow before continuing with grooming.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: 0-2" hard frozen base. 30 degrees Monday morning. Overall 60% coverage on trail system, early season trails 90-95% coverage.
Another warm weekend with forecasted snow missing us. However, we are still hanging on to some coverage on the trails with the early season trails, Sukkerbusk and Skaters Waltz in the best condition. The back side of Skaters Waltz has been some nice skiing personally and thankful to have the opportunity to ski every day in December so far.
We continue to work on some vulnerable areas on Skaters Waltz, recently hauling in snow from a local ice arena which is really nice material to put on the trail while soft and before it freezes. We will continue patching thin areas this week.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: 0-2" transformed base. 75% thin coverage on trail system. Mid 20's for lows this week, highs near 40.
We have been focusing our efforts on a 4km loop this week mainly trying to protect a 300 meter section of this loop. We have hauled in 13 pickup loads of snow in effort to get through one more day of warm temps and possible rain. A ski at dusk today still found good coverage on 70% of the loop, fair coverage on 25% and poor on 5% of the loop. As far as the skiing, it was the best out of the last three days. Still some very nice sections on the east side. The surface was starting to glaze making for decent glide and the base was compacted thanks to timely grooming last week preventing sinking and not crazy icy fast like the past few mornings. We have been freezing down at nights which has been key to keeping the snow we have. If we can hang on to the coverage we have, freeze down, it won't take much new snow to have good skiing again. We are hopeful to open the trails again to the public on Sunday, possiblly Saturday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: 0-2" transformed base. Morning low of 20, rising to high point of 40 before cooling down and freezing again in the evening.
Trails froze down hard last night and the morning ski was icy fast. Softened late morning for sweet spot skiing. We did warm up but snow melt wasn't too bad. Although 70% of the trail system still has fair to good coverage, we are closing the trails to public skiing until more snow. Overall it was a great week of skiing and looking forward to the next batch of fresh snow!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Springlike. Early morning temp of 43 degrees falling to mid 30's.
Instead of cooling down last night it warmed up with snow eating wind! Ugh! Despite the unfavorable conditions, the surface did glaze, more so on skaters waltz which has been packed a bit more and we had skiable conditions. Moorhead Nordic ski team along with a handful of other skiers out enjoying the available snow this morning. We have gradually cooled down and should be on track for a good freeze tonight. We will attempt to groom out Suicide Hill, and parts of skaters waltz later this evening if it freezes down proper. We will have the trails open again Sunday morning from 8am to 12noon. Not recommended for beginner skiers, skate skiing best bet. The start area is thin cover but once you get back in the woods it is worth it for the better sections including Suicide Hill which is holding out fine. Might be icy like in early morning than gradually softening. Spring conditions.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Spring Conditions. Morning low 13, mid day temp of 43, cooling down to 30's at dusk and glazing over.
A very nice morning of skiing then we closed the trails because of warm temps and softening snow. Good to see a handful of folks out enjoying the beautiful morning. A check of the trails around noon (when photos were taken) found the snow holding out well. A quick check at dusk found the trails glazing over. Skaters Waltz super fun! Trails open from 8am to 11:30am tomorrow. Best skiing will be skating on main loop of Skaters Waltz. (bypass Kamikaze hill using Sap Run connector) Classic skiing poor to fair on Sukekrbusk with some sections very good for technique work. No services in the lodge. Park and ski! Trails closed in the afternoon and will post 24 hours from now if open Sunday morning.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Packed powder. Good to very good early season/rock skiing conditions. 30 degrees high temp today.
Another beautiful day on the trails. Skiing was great all day. Got out for a lunch ski and hooked up with Denny Barry who was throwing sticks off the trail. Thank you. At dusk we were out building up the base on the southern exposed sections on Skaters Waltz and combed and packed a couple times. Since it didn't get as warm as forecasted today, we will have the trails open in the morning than closing at 11am. Please respect the closure so we can have the trails in best condition possible for Saturday morning skiing. Will update if anything changes. Thank you.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)