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!

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(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!

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(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)

Skied the trails with machine made snow. Hats off to the groomers, best conditions all year! Classic track is set.

(Darren Neuman)

Natural snow has been groomed, and is skiable, but definitely recommend B skis if going off machine snow. Approx 2k of machine snow groomed for skate and tracked for classic. Grooming plans: Machine made snow will be groomed several times over the next few days, including Tuesday evening. Will be groomed Friday and Saturday evening for biathlon races on the weekend. Note that the course will be closed from 1-3 pm Saturday, 10 am-12 Sunday for biathlon races, otherwise open for public skiing.

(Jonathan Arntson)

We survived the thaw, and most trails are in pretty good shape. 1.9 km snow-making loop is in fine shape. The upper part of our 2.5 km loop took a beating after the CXC races last weekend, and it will probably need more snow before it is in good shape again. Someone skied up the 3.3 km loop when snow was softest and sank to the bottom of the base. Please do not do that! It's tough to groom that back out after the snow has refrozen, but we've done that, and now it's in good condition (until you get back onto the 2.5 K loop). The Bittersweet Loop at the top of the hill (Grant-In-Aid trials) is in best shape for natural snow, and the service road is also in good shape. Widow's Run/Black Widow is in good condition as is Main Street. The intersection between Main Street and Exit Ramp has dirt patches because we widened that intersection this fall and did not get the dirt clumps well raked out. Also, Exit Ramp has some rocks peeking out of the snow. Watch out for them if you ski over there (most people don't). Otherwise, the natural snow-covered trails have about a 3" base on average. Hope that sticks around with no further thaws.

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)