Conditions: Good to near perfect springlike conditions. Mid 30's, overcast.
A nice weekend of skiing with a good size group on the trails Saturday. Friday evening Skaters Waltz and North Loup were groomed while the snow was quite soft. Froze hard with great corduroy texture. Saturday sweet spot skiing was extended until past noon on Saturday as a result of the hard surface and overcast conditions kept melting and softening to a minimum until later afternoon. Saturday about as good as it gets for spring skiing. Mother Nature turned the hair dryer on in the afternoon and lots of tree litter came down in the evening. Waited to groom Skaters and North until 6:30am this morning, grating and combing the thin layer of crust. Jake and I skied the above two trails late morning/early afternoon and found just enough loose for good edge control but still fast conditions. Fun ski, good to very good conditions. Used older skis because of tree liter. Temp not climbing much above 35 today with thick clouds so surface conditions holding out most of the day. The kamikaze hill section has been avoided using a connector trail to connect skaters waltz, making the loop 4km. With North Loup full coverage, 9km of complete coverage. The few thin areas have been shoveled on when grooming. Final grooming of the year on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Fantastic. Sunshine, calm and mid 20's at time of ski. Mostly packed powder with a few areas of transformed snow. Just one very very small open area on the 10km most recently skate groomed, otherwise excellent coverage. Compacted base depth on ski trail from 4-10". Up to 18" off the trail.
I didn't think the skiing today could top yesterday but with the sunshine today and the corduroy texture holding nicely from the rightly timed multiple grooming on Tuesday, it was fantastic. Found best skiing on northern loop of North Loup and spent most of the morning skiing it. The structure is holding strong with just the edging from skiers cutting into the cord. I am sure later today we will see more transformation. Plan is to skate groom Skaters Waltz and North Loup late Friday afternoon/early evening and possibly again Saturday afternoon for last weekend of March skiing. No new tracks will be set but classic skiing has been good on Sukkerbusk and other trails in bushwhacking mode. We still are holding on to about 3" of last Friday's snow on top of the base from the winter. Trails remain open at no charge.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Lots of cover, fast snow, great texture on a very wide and smooth skate lane: perfect for any time in any winter. North Loup and Skaters Waltz were groomed yesterday, making my morning arrival at 9:30 an almost "first one on new grooming" experience. I think Jay's tracks were the ones I was trying to match stride length with.
With some luck the snow will hang on for yet another week. I did see two other skiers today(besides Jay), one on the classic trails and the other on Skaters Waltz. The Skater reaffirmed the perfection of the trail conditions and the day. The super skiing won't last too much longer and when it ends it won't return for awhile, don't miss it.

(Denny Barry)

Conditions: Excellent. For this time of year it really couldn't be much better. Most of the groomed is skiing mid winter on dry powder. Just a few areas of transformed snow and one very short open section on Kamikaze hill. Temp flipflopping between 31 and 32 most of the day, falling to mid 20's early evening.
The high temp of the day was experienced at 4am when we hit 37. Shortly after, Skaters Waltz and North Loup were skate groomed as the temp dropped down to 31 and a half inch of new snow fell on top of the fresh groomed. Skiing on those trails mid morning was very nice. The new snow slowed things down just a bit but all in all some fantastic skiing. We had some wind so I was stickflicking while I skied. Jon Sanborn, the unofficial stick flicker recorder should note I raised my success rate a few percentage points. Anyways, late afternoon Skaters Waltz and North Loup were groomed again, bringing up drier snow and groomed out really nice. With temp falling through the evening, tomorrow morning should ski like mid winter on near perfect conditions and probably be the last packed powder day of the year before we transition back to springlike conditions.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Firm base, fresh snow, groomed last evening, temps brisk and very comfortable can't get much better. Although conditions should even get better yet as new snow breaks down and temps hold close to either side of 32 degrees on Skaters Waltz. North Loop was a little slow, but still fun if you enjoy working a little for the enjoyment.
When the last of the sweetcorn season rolls around the sweetness of corn on the cob will be missed for a long time; the sweetness of moving skinny skies on white is passing by. Enough classic and skate trails have been groomed at Maplelag to make super skiing memories, enough to last until next winter. Could be deep into next week before it is the last last time on the skinnies.

(Denny Barry)

Conditions: Powder. Mid-winter. 25 degrees. 5-6" fresh snow as of 9am.
14km of trail groomed this morning.
So much for snowmobile grooming. More snow on the trails then I expected early this morning so Pisten Bully was in action. Three trails double tracked (6km), North Loup groomed skate and classic (5km), and Skaters Waltz (5km) groomed skate only (rollpacked first) Might be a bit soft skiing today but with temps below 32 and cloudy skies forecasted today and tomorrow, should be some fantastic Easter weekend skiing. Excellent coverage, just one small thin cover area on top of Kamikaze hill.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Fantastic spring skiing. Sunny and mid teens early, clouds moving in keeping the sweet spot skiing going almost the whole day at 36 degrees this afternoon.
Recent hard freezes at night, and mid 30's for highs this week keeping the base intact. Tuesday's night grooming held texture for this morning making for some real nice skiing, about as good as it gets this time of year. With slightly cooler temps and snow forecasted the next few days, we should have nice spring skiing on through the weekend. Skaters Waltz will be groomed either Friday night or Saturday morning. North Loup has not been groomed the past 10 days but has been softening a hour or so before Skaters. Tracks on most recent groomed trails holding out just fine and classic skiing has been very good for this late into the year. Crust cruising with the jibskates has been fun on and off the trail.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Springlike!!
Hit skaters waltz this afternoon probably at the slowest time of the day. I put some Fast Wax speed paste on and ran some big rills and that seemed to help as glide was much better than I expected. I saw the turkey tracks that Denny talked about and there were sections of trails that were really trampled. My only explanation is that they saw Denny's tracks and got excited thinking he was some Turkey god since the tracks are fairly similar. Groomed skaters waltz at dusk during the transition period setting up some new texture. Should be some real nice skiing mid morning tomorrow....see you on the trail!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Great fun skiing in new light fluffy snow on top of textured fast base. Sharing the trail with a dozen or so turkeys made for a unique morning skate. Skaters and North Loop are as good as good gets.
Skied from 10 am to 1:30 pm with snow getting a little sluggish towards the end. Took a corner on N loop a little too wide, outside pole sunk and sitzmark was covered! If you look around and don't see snow where you are and still have that need to ski 'one more time', looks like Maplelag will have enough for a few more days. If it does get groomed tonight and gets cooler, it'll be perfect.

(Denny Barry)

Conditions: Within .001 of being perfect. Good glide with some challenging edging creating enough speed to keep your mind from wandering too far from your feet.
There is enough snow on the trails for some extra fun for another week at least: I hope!

(Denny Barry)