Our trails are beaten-up, the base too thin to groom, but most coverage survived today’s 43 degree high. We will be Spring Hours again on Tuesday: Closed between noon and 4 pm. Members are always welcome to ski before we open at 8, but the chalet may be locked. We will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll evaluate the damage once the trails re-freeze, and see what we can do.

(John Graham)

We are operating all trails, Skate and Classic, but with a pretty thin base. Trails have 99% snow cover, but too thin to use the Ginzu knives, so it’s bumpy and a bit icy. We won’t be able to groom or reset tracks until we get more snow. This week’s forecast requires that we go to Spring Hours on Monday: We’ll be open from 8 am - Noon, closed from noon - 4 pm, and open 4 - 8 pm. The lighted loop will be on until closing. Check Skinnyski or call for changes to the Tuesday hours, as this warm-up evolves. The photo is from our Friday night grooming, but we’ve had heavy use this weekend. Think snow!

Photos:

(John Graham)

I got out at sunrise at Snowflake and as pleasantly surprised to have basically first tracks on the 8K. They groomed and very little traffic on the trail. The 6K was more skied-in but still early season good. As always, it is an early season balance challenge at times with the bumps and unevenness of some of the trail but coverage was very good. Use your B skis confidently but watch out for a few rocks/roots here and there. Thank you soooo much to John and crew for turning last weekend's underwhelming 6+" into a very enjoyable ski. Pray for snow!

(Thomas Heinitz)

First time out this season. Very solid early season conditions with no bare spots and very few leaves and twigs. 5 and 10k loops groomed and hard packed with significant waviness on the skate deck. Awesome afternoon.

(David Mortenson)

When we started skiing it was like stone washed denim. However on the second loop around the 5k trail the groomers came around and we had fresh corduroy and they smoothed out a lot of the bumps.

(Rick Agar)

Great early season skiing at Snowflake! Tracks on the 6k were much better than expected, with full depth through most of the loop and just little patches of grass here and there. Unfortunately a furry friend did manage to put their paw prints right into the tracks for a good length of the whole 6k loop, but at 10º it's hard to lose kick. Impressively firm tracks for just being put in today. No tracks on the 8k as mentioned by the groomers but coverage was pretty good throughout - I have to imagine this is in part due to all the hard work put into these trails this summer and fall (Thank you Snowflake trail crew!). Very lumpy as early season skiing tends to be but no downhill lumps bottomed out in dirt or rocks. Thinnest areas were on uphills, especially where skiers had dug in down to ground. Did my best to flick off any particularly egregious sticks (and one lone rock) from the skate deck on the 8k.

(Ketzel Levens)

Today we Skate groomed all trails. The Sunday snow has compacted to a 2” base, and is not yet transformed, so a bit soft. We set a Classic track on the 6K, which has not yet set-up, but looks good considering the base. Some small debris on the trails. Our “new” 1.6K / 1 Mile lighted loop is on from 4:30-8:00 pm, and the chalet is open 8 am-8 pm. Non-vaccinated folks please wear a mask in the chalet, and during East HS Nordic practice (3:45-5:30) all folks are asked to mask-up in order to comply with high school protocols. A Grinch Warning: cars parked in the two lower parking lots were broken into last season. Don’t leave valuables in your car, park in the upper lots if possible, and note the make and model of any suspicious vehicles in the lots. Welcome back, Skiers!

Photos:

(John Graham)

We had 4-5” of snow thru 9 pm. We ran the compactor and 2 Ginzus over all trails. Compacted base is about 2”, so the trails are soft, bumpy, some covered rock, and too shallow to set a classic track. That said, we have 99% cover and rock/B-ski skating on all 14K. Classic skiers are welcome to ski the right side of all trails. We have 1.6K of newly lighted trail within the 5K, trailhead-to-trailhead. The chalet is open, please sign-in before you ski, and non-members please pay on the honor system. Welcome back, Winter!

(John Graham)

27F. The groomers had just finished rolling the trails. I asked if we could classic the 5km trail. They said yes, just hadn’t set tracks because there’s not enough snow.
Excellent skiing. I was using wooden skis with tar base and four-year old kick wax with some silver klister left on one ski. No grass or rocks at all.

(Louise Levy)

I savored skate skiing the Special K on four inches of ungroomed new snow at Snowflake late this afternoon. The snow had a fairly substantial crust, but not enough to prevent skating, and a classic skier was just finishing as I headed out. It was my 23rd consecutive day skiing and 165th day skiing of the calendar year. If I can ski every day until May 14, I'll break my personal streak record of 182, and if I can go until June 1, I'll top the longest-known streak of 200 days. So far this season I've skied 17 days at Snowflake, three on the Grand Marais golf course, and three at Grand Avenue Nordic Center. Snowflake never disappoints, and with the newly-installed 1.6K of lighting, a great ski spot gets even better. Thanks to John Graham and the rest of the grooming crew. Cheers, skier friends!

Photos:

(Lane Ellis)