Great first day of ski camp at Rainbow. Surprisingly good coverage, especially with little to no snow in Park Rapids. Fast, fun trails, nice to be out on natural snow. Skate deck is covered but thin in some spots; classic is tracked but shallow and icy.

(Brian McCollor)

20* F above early am, now 28* F above at noon; trail base spring time conditions after thawing and refreezing past 3 days; have renovated and combed 6k loop, bucks run, rabbits trail, cougars run and ridge run. No reset of track sets do to minimal base depth average of 2". Renovations produced some nice combed surface and granule ice chips in more frozen areas. Existing track set icy and washed out in short areas where exposed to south sun. Recommend B skis due to grass, some thin areas, and twigs. All things considered rate as average ski conditions. After three days of day time temps reaching thawing temps and refreezing overnight I was surprised actually how much was left for snow. Any sections that have south sun exposure and low spots in those areas have frozen ice spots from water migrating there. We are skiable and with sunshine and 28*F above now would suspect the skiing surface will get better. I did not groom any of the big hills on Eagles Run due to icy conditions.

Photos:

(Douglas Schumann, Rainbow Resort)

20F, mostly cloudy, no wind. Went out grooming the trails with Doug on the first pass from trailhead to Top of the Rainbow on Black Bear, 6K easier rollers then down from Top of Rainbow around Wolf trails, and back up to the Top, then down to South Junction, back to East Junction and Deer View, Bottom of Rainbow and back to trail head. The hard packed base is well covered with loose layer on the top. The base makes the skate fast! Grooming plans: Doug is still out there after a short break and will report the second part of the grooming later. Glad to see ski teams and guest skiers are out there skiing.

Photos:

(Amy Xu)

Cloudy, 36F for high, 26 F for low. No wind. I took out my classic skis (fish scale waxless skis) and skied about 10+ km at Rainbow Resort xc ski system! The tracks are very fast and fun! While we definitely can use more snow, the trails are covered with a solid base of packed snow. The highest temp of 36F thinned the base a bit compared to yesterday, particularly on the southwest side of the 23km trail system. I removed a few sticks and noticed a few thin spots and one bare spot which I easily skied around. Up to the Top of Rainbow, there are a few icy spots but very manageable. It was very quiet and beautiful in the woods, and it felt like I was the only life on earth! All in all, it was a very gorgeous day of xc skiing!

Photos:

(Amy Xu)

Sunny, no wind, 36F. I Classic skied at about 1:30pm-3pm today at the Rainbow Resort trails. Trails are holding very well for skate skiing and the tracksets are very nice. I am very surprised by how good the trails are after the warmup the last few days! Plan to ski more as the temps drop! Big kudos to Doug, the magic groomer of Rainbow Resort! Thank you!

Photos:

(Amy Xu)

Trails are looking good for the weather! Doug has taken great care of them. Very soft and slow today. Some spots of the trail do have debris/grass sticking up. Great hospitality (free cookies) and great people.

(Caleb Osterberg)

First time to Rainbow and won't be the last! Skied Black Bear, Brush Cat, and Deer View trails. The classic tracks are pretty skied in, but holding up well considering the limited snowfall. Very minimal debris on trails - you can easily use good skis, maybe dodge a stick here and there but easy to avoid. Overall a beautiful place to ski, worth the drive.

Photos:

(Amber Glawe)

Skied 13k classic. Set was still good and glide was nice with wax-less skis despite warm weather. What a great set of trails - excellent trail marking - timely grooming. Never been to Rainbow before but definately going back. Doug and Leah will take care of you!

(Troy Trygstad)

Trails holding, snow is settling with fast conditions for good skis. Lots of skied in sections so being vigilant and having quick feet is helpful to avoid catching a groove. The 10k loop for hill intervals is in great shape and I recommend doing the segment from the start to junction 8 backwards for a great hill interval workout. Skied at 11:30 and conditions were blue wax and fast.

Photos:

(Jill Troutner)

Trails same as yesterday, warm up had minimal effect if any on conditions and cloud cover helped immensely. Between yesterday and today I think my skis covered 80% of the trail system.

(Jill Troutner)