Even with a little snow drifting in some of the tracks, MYXC skiers, coaches and parents enjoyed great skiing in the tracks and grooming. Even the steep downhills were fun and not formidable. 5 year olds mastered Frog Pond. 7 year olds Waterfall. Not all, but some. Recent snow ensured good bite to snowplow if needed, but why do that?! Classic skiers use G2 skis, no wax. Skaters had firm deck throughout.

(Catherine McLynn)

All trails except otter slide pistenbully groomed tonight after the races. Trails look great! Thanks Section 8 with trusting us to host your race! With the added snow, conditions are as good as we could hope for.

(Derek Youngren)

Groomed and tracked all lower trails, service road, bitter sweet and mag view. All other trails were groomed last Thursday and are good to go. Mt Itasca will be hosting a high school race on Friday Jan 24th all day all of the lower trails will be closed to the public but upper service road and the upper trails will be open.

(Derek Youngren)

Scheduling: the races scheduled for this weekend (Jan 18-19) have been cancelled due to cold temperatures. The venue will be groomed and open to public skiing through the weekend. Enjoy if you are hardy!

(Jonathan Arntson)

Conditions are excellent on machine snow, good on natural snow. Track set on all trails. Come ski over the next several beautiful days! Scheduling: Saturday, January 18: Mt Itasca is the site of a large HS race; the venue will be closed for public skiing all day. Sunday, January 19: biathlon race from 10:30-12:30; otherwise open. Race may be cancelled due to cold.

(Jonathan Arntson)

Made another pass with the Pistenbully this evening to further firm up the skate deck and reset tracks after the new snow. We had a total of about 6.5" this past week. Conditions are getting really nice with the new snow! We were able to groom the Service Road and Bittersweet Loop/Magview with the Pistenbully for the first time this season, so those trails should be just as good as the machine made snow loops. Conditions should be awesome!

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)

Packed everything as much as possible before MyXC and set tracks on top (Bittersweet) on the Grant-in-Aid system. Packed as much of the upper biathlon trails as I could, but it will need more work. Enjoy the 5" new snow!

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)

Just over 1" new snow today. Groomed the snowmaking loops and biathlon stadium (about 1.9 km). Hit mostly the skate deck because the tracks were mostly still in good shape, but set new tracks in the stadium and a couple segments of the loop. New snow should make for some really nice conditions albeit maybe a little slower because the sugar snow (refrozen and tilled after the thaw) was really fast. Did not groom natural snow trails because our groomer snowmobile is under repair, and some people like to ski on an inch of fresh snow anyway, even if it's also on the skate deck. We'll get that part next time. Hoping for more snow soon.

(Bob Conzemius)

Groomed man made 1.6k loop. Tracks are good and deck is awesome! Natural trails are still B skis with some of the lower portions rock skis but bitter sweet is about as nice as it's been all year. Do be cautious behind the chair lift as the Pistenbully has chewed up the trail. Once again we are hosting a Minnesota Biathlon race Sunday with man made snow being closed to public starting at 10:45 am till end of race. Natural snow trails will be open to ski during the race.

(Derek Youngren)

Groomed the 1.6 k man made loop with track. Natural snow was groomed Thursday with no track but a great skate deck. Would suggest B skis on natural trails as there are some thin spots. We are hosting a MN Biathlon race Saturday starting at noon and the man made will be closed to public but natural trails will be open.

(Derek Youngren)