Just like heaven. Silver, Gold and Cedar Trails all nicely groomed, plenty of snow for good skis. What a day!

Photos:

(Steve Squillace)

I took advantage of the sunny, warm weather and skated the Summit and Bronze trails at Giants Ridge. The link from the lodge to Summit was pretty beat up, but very skiable, although a snowmobile had been on and across the trail in several locations up to the short bridge. Once on Summit proper, the corduroy reappeared and the skiing was wonderful - firm skate deck with edgeable snow. The deck was noticeably slower in the shade than in the sun, where the snow was much faster, making it less work to get uphill glide. Bronze was also in similarly good condition from the top all the way to the "foot" of the trail, from where it was seriously churned up full width by tracked equipment most of the way back to the lodge. The snowmobile and equipment damage notwithstanding, it was my first ski this season at Giants Ridge, and it was the best skiing this season, so far. The groomers have done an excellent job with minimal snow.

(David Sonnenberg)

Only had time for summit and bronze-very good snow coverage! A bit of tree litter but snow pack very good with no rock heads nor ruts. Very smooth trail.

(John Witzmann)

Skate skied the silver and summit trails, all trails groomed today. Great conditions! Didn't see classic tracks on silver but summit had classic tracks which looked very good.

Photos:

(Joe Medlin)

It was snowing as I skied. Deck is still soft but more trails had been groomed since yesterday. Coverage is perfect everywhere except Wynne Creek trail segment which was a bit bumpy, waiting for more snow to smooth it out. I skied Silver, Laurentian, Wynne Creek, Summit and Bronze and it appeared Gold and Biwabik Spur were groomed.

Photos:

(Cheryl DuBois)

Skied Silver, Summit and Bronze. Coverage was awesome. There were no bare spots. All three trails I skied were freshly groomed. Soft because of new snow. Tracks were set on Summit and Bronze.

(Cheryl DuBois)

All the early season lumps and bumps have been smoothed out. All the boiler plate ice has been covered. The Ridge is skiing great! Skied bronze, summit, and cedar tonight and would have no concerns using good skis. I was skating but saw a fresh track set on everything I skied. The rest of the trails in the network were in varying degrees of groomed from not at all to groomed with 2-3" of snow on top.

Photos:

(Tony Norland)

Beautiful new snow, and still falling! Trails were pretty soft and wind had blown new snow into the tracks. Looking forward to coming back when it has had time to set up a bit. Laurentian was not recently groomed but had a nice set of skied-in classic tracks. Wynne Creek was not groomed yet, I skied it but next time will wait until it is groomed. Summit and Bronze was tracked on one side and was soft but pretty good shape. Great coverage everywhere, no concerns using good skis!

Photos:

(Ellen Thompson)

Good to excellent conditions for skate skiing. B skis to good skis. Mesabi East and Giants Ridge Invite was very organized and many happy skiers. New snow was falling on some of the icy areas.

(Lisa Martin)

Skied bronze and summit trails as they are supposed to be in the best shape. Tracks are mostly ice with grass and rocks popping through occasionally. Skate deck is icy and a bit uneven. Every once in a while was a stretch of decent coverage.

Photos:

(Andrew Hansen)