It was beautiful skiing today at Blue Mounds. Plenty of snow in the woods but open areas got skinny for snow. Tomorrow morning should be beautiful again. Go get it now if you can.

Photos:

(Christopher Quandt)

I skated the yellow, green, red, and campground loops, which are the only groomed loops at this time. No tracks have been set. The yellow loop is mostly great, but there's an area right after the steep uphill that is now extremely thin. The green loop is in excellent shape. Both the cutoff and the downhill from the spring house have good coverage. The red loop is good until you get to the steep downhill into the campground, which you will need to walk. The campground itself, while skiable, is rapidly thinning, and there is bare asphalt in many areas. It's a lot better once you hop on the pool trail and head back to the trailhead. Despite the lack of set tracks, I saw a ton of classic skiers of all ages and abilities out and about enjoying the conditions.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Surprising amount of snow. Skate skied the red and green loops but did back track at the downhill into campground where it was coned off. Mostly good cover uneven with twigs and debris- some small patches of ice. B skis for sure. Afterwards did drive over to campground - had snowcover but did not venture out to try out.

(Dan Dudley)

BMSP received about 3" of snow according to park staff. The yellow, green, red, and campground loops were groomed earlier today, but the red loop's steep downhill into the campground is still mostly open, and marked with cones. I skied the the full yellow and green loops, and did the staff-recommended out-and-back to the campground hill on the red loop. Conditions were overall pretty good! Flats and downhills were a bit firm, steep uphills were a bit soft. Very few footprints on the trails today, which is a true miracle. The green loop is in great condition, full coverage throughout. There's an avoidable icy patch if you decide to take the uphill to the spring house at the intersection, but that's the only imperfection I noticed. The red out-and-back was mostly good. There was a bare section you had to walk before that now has coverage, but it's thin. Similarly, the yellow loop is mostly good, and the previously bare spot after you crest the steep uphill is now covered but quite thin.

(Kyle Richard)

Amazing. Skated the campground area this morning. Surprised to find good cover for most of the area. Park near the maintenance area then walk a bit to get to the snow. Managed to ski a 2km loop without hitting any major bare ground spots. Timed it just right as it was 32F so softening up, breaking down the ruts. After a bit turned to slush so timing is everything. Amazing and probably the only spot in the park where the hikers haven't destroyed yet. The only place in southern WI where you can still ski on natural snow!

(Dan Dudley)

Mostly zoomed around on my fish scales and tried a little bit of skating. Conditions were much better today than over the weekend. The groomer really did a great job today. Still no tracks, but great corduroy. The yellow, green, red and campground loops were all groomed, although I didn't bother with skiing in the campground. Given how warm it was today, I was pretty surprised at how excellent the coverage still is in the forest on the northeast side of the mound. No rocks or roots sticking out just yet. There were even a few bare spots that they filled in. However, coverage is thin and sketchy as soon as you get to somewhere with a little more sun, especially near the trailhead. It's no longer possible to do a complete loop without encountering a small bare spot near the trailhead, in multiple places. You can rack up plenty of mileage going back and forth in the forest, which is something that park staff have recommended for Flint Rock Trail/red loop given the somewhat bare hill into the campground.

(Kyle Richard)

Wow is there a lot of snow left at the Mound. Trail was combed out again Monday and I was thrilled with how nice it was mid afternoon at 45F. I skied from the parking lot on the upper section to the campground hill and back several times. Rock skis for sure and there are some bare spots but all in all an amazing outing given the recent rain and record temps. I skated but another guy was going around on fish scales and having fun too. Well worth the trip for hard cores.

Photos:

(Mike Ivey)

Most of the trails have survived the record-breaking warmth and severe weather. Even better, after a nearly 3-week hiatus, park staff made the decision to groom the green, yellow, red, and campground loops on Friday morning. I don't think anyone saw that coming! No tracks were set, but there is relatively fresh corduroy. However, it was quite hard-packed/frozen over this morning, and significant portions of the trails had been hiked over when it was soft, thus creating nasty postholes. There are some bare spots, notably on the big downhill descent into the campground in multiplace places. You will need to walk down it. The campground itself also has some bare and thinning spots, although at this time they are mostly avoidable. There were also large visible bare spots near the trailhead, although coverage got much better once you made it into the forest. Be careful on the descents - I hit a particularly hard/icy patch of corduroy with my metal edges that caused one of my skis to go flying and partially broke my binding. Grooming plans: Park staff say they plan on grooming again on Monday.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

The combination of record heat, some sun, torrential rain, heavy wind, and possibly even hail have visibly taken a massive toll on the trails. While I did not venture onto the trails themselves, what I saw from hiking/road intersections looked mostly awful compared to just 24 hours ago. I still harbor hope that the trails deeper in the forest survived, and I did see some evidence of that on the Pool and part of Ridgeview trails. But some of the loops may become out-and-backs instead. I would suggest staying off the trails until they've dried and firmed up.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Mild daytime temperatures have actually contributed to better skiing conditions for trails on the north/east side of the mound. Coverage there is still essentially 100% and not thin, save for a large rock that apparently tracks were set over on the edge of the trail. Skiing around it is trivial. Softer snow has made it easy to control your descent, and skiing over postholes isn't as bumpy of a ride as it previously was. However, there are now bare spots on the Pleasure Valley Trail (orange loop), one of which you'll probably need to take your skis off for. It's odd because there are still many spots on that loop that are still in great condition. The main campground still has like 90% good coverage, but it is visibly thinning, and patches of asphalt are visible in a few places. Be very careful on the descent into the campground, because that is where I noticed it to be the thinnest. You may want to take a sharp right and head down that little loop by way of the skate deck. I did not bother with the trail down to Ridgeview, since I could see patches of bare asphalt from afar. Shoutout to the skier I talked to who was using 102mm skis in hopes that it would level out a lot of the bumpiness. It worked!

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)