Snow, glorious snow! Took a quick ski later in the afternoon and the snow had covered all the thin spots on the trails I skied. It was luxurious to feel the powder fluffing over my boots in the classic tracks. By the time I went skiing, most of the out-of-town visitors were gone, and I had the trails pretty much to myself. Very peaceful.

(Sue Schroeder)

Even with just the first couple inches of today’s anticipated snowfall I was skiing comfortably on B classic skis, looks like skate deck is back to good skis, early season bumps going away.

(Will Andresen)

We had a great day of skiing today. The base is holding up fine. We groomed about 60 km of skate lanes this morning, and we skied on 30 km of skate trails and had 47 km of classic tracks set. With the snow forecast for Sunday I hope we can open all 94 km for skiing next week. Groomers are coming in at 6 AM and we will continue grooming until noon.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions were great for the amount of snow in the area. Lots of variety in terrain and more than 45 km open to ski. All natural snow. Few thin spots here and there, but trails I skied were good for early conditions. Skied 29 km classic, with set tracks on all the trails that I skied. Definitely coming back. Thank you to the awesome grooming team!

(Kevin Grand)

Good News: The warm temps did not melt the base! The main trails were very skiable today. It is 30 degrees and the base is freezing. We have a three person groomer team lined up for early morning grooming. Flat trails with limited hills are listed in order: Deer Trail, Jacks Flats, Cherry, Blueberry 2 way, Warm up Loop. River Trail w bypass, PitPoint with bypass, Memory Lane, Jack Pine. That is about 45 km.
Bad news: I do not see us opening the Highlands for the weekend. We are closing the Peltonen Passout expert trail and we are closing the Blueberry big downhill until we get more snow. We will not be resetting tracks until we get more snow. Tracks could get slick without resetting them. I will report back about 10 AM after we return from grooming.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Four groomers in early morning groomed 52 k of skate lanes and set another 15 km of classic tracks on combi trails. Tracks reset on Pelty, Dog Trails, and Jacks Flats. We are skiing are on 55 -65 km of trails. We still hope to groom the Highlands this weekend and Puumala Trails to get all 94 km open.
I am just checking trail conditions in a few spots tonight. The base held up well today even with temps above 32 F. Groomers are on call for Thursday morning, looks like a good forecast for the weekend.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

40-plus fantastic K: good ski skating on manicured corduroy; very nice and deep tracks - would recommend B- skis, but 99% of the time you’ll wish you had your A-skis.

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(Will Andresen)

What a great day of snowfall today. The snow started at 8 AM and is still snowing! We picked up about 4-6 inches and the groomers were out until noon. No new tracks set today but we will regroom in the early morning and reset classic tracks. The skiing has been really improving on a daily basis. Full groom crew out in the morning.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

ABR provided some fantastic November skiing today, pretty good coverage for both classic and skate. It was nice to have classic tracks that were generally pretty decent. Don’t use good skis quite yet, as there are still quite a few areas of dirt/rock exposed.

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(Levi Smith)

Well worth the drive. Skied 2 hours without skiing any trails twice. A little lumpy as early season skiing usually is, but no bare spots and the scenery beautiful as always. Some trails had tracks set, which I would rate as good.

(Tom Detzner)