Four inches of snow made a huge difference. Not 100% sure all trails are open. But the snow filled in low and bumpy areas and covered nearly all of the fallen debris. Good skis are very do-able. Tracks appear to be a bit wind-blown on hilltops and bumps. Skied on Tuesday, photo is from Wednesday morning.

Photos:

(Will Andresen)

Great grooming today with fresh snow. We did pick up about 4-5 inches and it is still snowing. Four roomers were out from 8 AM when it started snowing until 2 pm. The new snow has really made skiing back to great conditions. The offer is still open for skiers to shovel in the exit hill, it is thin. Recreational skiers will be happy. Grooming plans: We are planning on opening the Highlands up in the morning. I hope to have 80 km open for skiing tomorrow, 95 km for the weekend.

Photos:

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

It was pretty good, much better than Saturday. The 3" they got Saturday night made a difference. It was a beautiful day out there. There were a few bare spots. One had some gravel that caught my wife's ski and stopped it cold. She went down. Another grass spot caught mine and sent me sprawling. As long as you are careful, it is definitely worthwhile.

(Stephen Smith)

We had a groomer team of three this morning at 6 AM. I was lucky enough to be included. Wully Bully and Honey Badger took care of Blueberry and Bards and to the south and then the Highlands. Pig Heart took care of the old ABR. We concentrated on texturizing the skate lanes and shoveling thin areas and picking sticks (no new classic tracks today). We all met up on Turkey Hill and the Highlands exit hill and shoveled for an hour to beef up the base to get it skiable -- this is the weak link for 20 km of great trails on the southlands. We left a snow rake and a shovel for any “overly” ambitious skiers to enhance the snow cover with moving additional future snowfall on to the trails. Due to the usage and hills these two hills make the Highlands bottle neck and they are closed now for that reason. Wully Bully and Honey Badger cut in and shoveled in a connector for the #2 River Trail bypass. This by-pass is very similar to Pit Point by-pass it bypasses the steep climb descent on River Trail “High Rock” the scenic overlook to Wisconsin. It is a better by-pass for those that want the mild terrain from River Trail by-pass #1 by Sulos. to by-pass #2 and the steep climb descent is avoided using Tamarack 2 track backwards for a short distance. Ski trails groomed up ok but there still are many thin areas where you can damage a good ski if you are not careful. We are getting steady skier use and we are trying to keep up on weak areas with shoveling and daily grooming. Best classic skiing is on the “Trees” Tamarack Hemlock and parts of Jack Pine and White Pine and all the combo trails. Grooming plans: With snow in the forecast, a full groomer team coming is in. We are excited for any new snow!

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We had a great morning of grooming: just three of us out on lighter equipment, but we groomed 72 km in an early morning 3 hour shift. Yesterday's snow groomed up quite well and conditions were much better today from yesterday. "Widetrack" set some pretty good classic tracks on Tamarack 2 track, we left the other tracks alone since the two day old tracks were firm with a few washouts; the new snow skied in well and covered some thin areas under the conifers. We groomed the Highlands and the black diamonds but we kept them ribboned off and closed until we get more snow to make them safe. It won't take much new snow to reopen that 40 km, but meanwhile we are enjoying 55 k of trails. We just completed the new map draft and it should be online soon.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Skated a good portion of the trails today, the lake effect yesterday evening seemed to have freshened up the skate deck in most places, it was certainly better than the classic tracks yesterday. Some places were becoming boilerplate by the end of the day, and there are icy spots, but overall not bad. I used rock skis and hit a few things that I didn't see coming on some of the steeper climbs, but would have used B skis if I had them with me, and been a little more careful.

Photos:

(Paul Belknap)

A heavy dusting overnight has rejuvenated the skate lane and classic tracks. Some of the newly groomed tracks were in great shape! Icy spots are fewer and farther between. Still a few thin areas, but overall good shape.

(Jonathon Rulseh)

Just coming in from checking trails: I am very pleased to find two inches of snow that fell this afternoon/evening. Skiers were quite pleased with the improvements in the trail from yesterday. The base is there, we just needed the new snow to cover some of the thin areas. Grooming plan: Groomers will be back out in the early morning to regroom the majority of the trail combination trails. We will most likely let the 2 inches get skied in on classic only trails that we retracked yesterday but we may reset classic tracks on combination trails.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Another good day of skiing. Skate deck very firm with a little snow overnight helping out. Tracks surprisingly good, but not perfect. Fair amount of debris easy to get around and getting better every day. The big news is snow is coming down now.

Photos:

(Will Andresen)

We skied all day today (after the big storms and the "big melt"). Kudos to Eric and his grooming crew for terrific trails given the circumstances. The skate deck was firm and fast with good edge (the 2-3" of snow after the thunderstorms helped a lot). We used our good skate skis (cold CarbonLite) with Toko blue liquid paraffin and the glide was stellar. There were ice patches and some grassy exposure here and there but easily navigated around. ABR sets the standard in grooming and is always reliable. It was a cold but idyllic day with light lake effect snow all day and beautiful vistas. Thanks very much for an absolutely terrific week of skiing!

(Luke Fortney)