Pretty sketchy. Deck was hard and icy. Little to no grip. Downhills were fast and unpredictable with patches of dirt, rocks, culverts and roots to navigate around. Long downhill of the Chalet loop is mostly gone so I passed. Same with the steep downhill on L loop. Downhill into the lower playground is gauanteed to get you skiing on gravel and the climb up out of playground is about 80% bare. Other than that the trails are great!

(Aaron Miatke)

Bit the bullet and put the sticky red wax on my skis. Worked fairly well. Bare spots on trail and only well-worn short segments of skied-in trail. Still, I was surprised that it was still skiable. Photos show bottom of hill before D-loop and attractive, bird-shaped birch scales, the remains of birch catkins.

Photos:

(Bob King)

I skied the main loop + D and I. Nonexistent tracks, the skate deck is a mixture of icy and soft firm slushy snow along the edges. Many very thin spots and debris along the way. You can get around most of them OK but, especially at the culverts, you just have to go over them. There's still time outside, if you go! Enjoy!

Photos:

(Nikki Norland)

Lester is a lot more fun to skate at 24F vs. 1F, who knew? Lots of thin spots, but if you pay attention you can dodge them. The return from the north unlit loops just before the F cutoff is pretty sketchy—if you're wondering who snowplowed all the way down that hill, it was me and I'm glad I did. Best skiing is the B-C mini loop.

Photos:

(Erik Riker-Coleman)

Went out to the golf course this afternoon because the city claimed they groomed the trail this morning (statement was "packed this morning (some grass poking through)". I think their definition of grass is different than my definition. Some scrub trees poking through the trail in various places, some large enough to use to roast a marshmallow on. Super lumpy, soft. There are some tracks, but actual grass is poking through. Lots of weird bumps in the trail - some from vehicles, some from people, some the culverts the trail crosses. I didn't see anything that looked like dirt or gravel though.

(Kristin Riker-Coleman)

Fast skiing at night. I used my skate skis today, came on Sunday and went classic skiing. Has seen some wear since Sunday with classic tracks not visible. Fast skate skiing with wear and some spots of dirt/leaves showing but able to easily avoid without concern.

(Lindsey Envall)

Great conditions at Lester for skating. Little bumpy here and there, but great coverage. Thank you to the City groomers for making really nice skiing with the limited snowfall.
PSA: Found a car key on the uppermost part of the H-K trail at about 10:30am. Older Toyota key with a Swix pole tool attached. Contact me at [email protected] if it is yours.

(Jacob Morgan)

What a joy to ski at Lester this morning! It was a little bumpy and uneven. The culverts at the bottom of the downhills were bumpy as well. Everything was skiable. The section to the lowest parking lot was thin and had debris (mostly on the uphill).

(Elaine Nelson)

Skated skied this evening around 630pm. No lights on but stars were out! Trail was rolled/packed, no tracks. It was a bit sloppy/loose on up hills and icy at parts. What a treat to get out. Thank you workers!

(Nicole Coleman)

Pretty skiing this afternoon at Lester! Decent skied in tracks on most of the trail, fading away on less popular segments. Skate deck looked a bit sloppy and some trail segments had much less packing but still very skiable. Some of the sloppy/loose sections made steep downhills a little less comfortable on the upper half of the trail system but not horrible. A few little sticks here and there, and the little icy patches as with every year, but I felt perfectly fine on my good skis.

Photos:

(Mikaela Smith)