Fair to poor. Mid to high 40's degrees, sunny with brisk west wind. The Nature Center, Lake, Sky and Grimm had been recently groomed. Avoid the south side of Lake where it it intersects with Hill. There is an extensive bare spot as is the case on both sides of Hwy 11. I used FastWax Yellow LF Conditions were highly variable. There was reasonable glide in shaded areas; in the consistently sun-exposed (if it wasn't bare) it was a real slog. Much of the 10.2 miles I skied over 2.5 hours was the later. Fortunately, the hills on Grimm could be safely transited as long as you were ready for the rapid de-acceleration when you hit the soft snow on the bottom. Compounding the soft, slow conditions was my sweat washed the Neutrogena suntan lotion I was wearing into my eyes, badly stinging them and forcing me to repeatedly wash them out with my squeeze water bottle. Finally got them all the way washed out but I was miserable for ten or more minutes. Not a great ski but at least I got out and skied in tolerable temperatures.

(Keith Carlson)

Grimm freestyle lane destroyed by snowmobiles. Classic looks okay. Ice patch at bottom of first hill. King is bare and has old grooming. No classic set. Lake has old grooming but as I left at 10am groomers had begun. Looks like the snowmobiles came up from the lake. A possible solution would be a fence or maybe move the trail away from the lake.

Photos:

(Kevin Wendland)

Lake, Sky, Sugar, Bush. Groomed for skate and classic. Just finished at 3 PM, so very soft still. Should be better tomorrow.

Photos:

(Kevin Wendland)

Here we are skiing without a coat in January! Carver was a mixed bag of conditions, trails are rolled but no classic tracks are set. Skied towards the Grimm trail but came upon the first downhill section and found too many small rocks poking thru. I could see a few skiers had wiped out so turned back and headed to the lake trail and woods. Much better conditions, in fact some areas in the woods are ideal. If your willing to do a bit of picking around the exposed areas, there is enough snow to have a really nice ski.

Photos:

(Kris Diller)

Three Rivers website had the trails reported as poor, so went in with low expectations. Was pleasantly surprised and would loosely classify as fair. Have been stubbornly avoiding man made for the last few days and Carver was better than Hyland natural Saturday. Skied Sugar Bush, half of Lake (trail turns to gravel at lookout point), Sky. Spoke with Classic skier who hit Grimm and he said it was soft and no tracks but he did the whole loop. B skis for the brave, Rock skis for the cautious!

Photos:

(Todd Huotari)