Thursday's snowfall was good enough to move ski conditions at Maplelag from good to excellent. Bring your good skis and have fun. Jay was out grooming this afternoon, keeping the trails fresh for their guests. Temps were -7F this morning but warmed up to about 10F for the afternoon. Great skiing today!

Photos:

(Glenn Gifford)

6" of new snow as of 7pm. Machine, J-Goat and Birdman spent the morning roll packing on much of the trail system. Over lunch I skied one lap on Skaters with J-Goat. So fun skiing in the fresh powder! Start Green glide was perfect. Afternoon the crew was back out setting tracks on all the double track trail, mixing a little of the old frozen and loose transformed snow from the old base in the process. The skate lanes were also roll combed in the afternoon. Grooming plans: The crew will be back out in the morning doing pretty much the same thing as today as well as packing the single track classic trails and setting track after.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Another enjoyable day on the trails. Mother North Star and Sap Run twice each, then North Loop and Wavy Gravy, total of 22 K. The flurries made conditions even better. The renovated Hygge cabin, as its name suggests, is a pleasant and comfortable place for a sandwich break. Lucky those who live closer to this great resort. Enjoy!

Photos:

(Istvan Gombocz)

Fresh powder on the hard base, ideal combination - fast, but not really dangerous. Caution is in order, though, when going downhills. Sukkerbusk, Sap Run, Twin Lakes, Island Lake, and my favorite: Roy's Run, 22 K. A fun afternoon on the trails. Enjoy!

(Istvan Gombocz)

An inch or so of new snow today. We spent most of the day working on the course for the DL Invite tomorrow. The new snow worked into the rock solid frozen transformed base groomed out nicely. The classic trails have fair to good set tracks with the dusting of new snow to be skied in. Early evening I skied the course and conditions were some of the best of the year.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

We wrapped up our fourth weekend of skiing and grooming of this season with the final day of the St Paul Highland Park Ski team ski camp today. Mild temperatures and fast tracks made for a fun morning on the trails. Skied with the boys on Roy's Run and Rootin Tootin before heading west to Wavy Gravy to check conditions over there. Full depth tracks with scattered thin spots on both Roy's and Wavy but very skiable and great rock skiing conditions. The crossing between Twin Lakes is still needing more snow but I skied through with no issues. Overall the entire trail systems is holding up well, definitely worn and well used in ares but still nice early season skiing. Grooming plans: We will be focusing on Skaters Waltz on Monday, farming snow (watch out for mid to large size equipment) and grooming after. Scheduling: Tuesday we will be hosting one the longest running ski meets in the State, the DL Invite. Trails will be open but will be very busy at the resort.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

It was a good ski day at Maplelag. Two high school ski teams were out today, taking advantage of Maplelag's snow cover and groomed trails. Roy's Run had a fresh classic track and looked as if only 2-3 skiers had been on it, while Sukkerbusk and Jibfly looked like popular choices today for other skiers. Very small and intermittent thin patches remain, making B skis a good choice on the trails I skied today. The base looks solid.

(Glenn Gifford)

A much warmer day today with temperatures in the mid teens and welcomed sunshine. Good to very good early season conditions reported by the day skiers. Grooming this morning we combed out the edges on the skate lanes and cut track on Roy's Run for the first time this year. We are now up to around 35 km of track set on the classic only trails. 15km groomed skate only trails. I skied Roy's Run at dusk and found a fast track on a frozen granulated base. A few thin areas and some grass poking through but considering first tracking of year and time of year nice B ski conditions. 25km fat bike trail groomed with dusting of snow on top. The only ski trail left to groom is Bullhead Lake trail. It is open for adventure skiing. We had the Snow Dog groomer out today packing snow across the lake to access the Bootleg singletrack for fat biking and also a path for the Bullhead ski loop. Grooming plans: We plan to groom the Bullhead loop either Saturday or Monday. Touch up grooming on other trails as needed through the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Sunshine, light winds morning low temperature -22F. Early to mid season conditions on a 1-3" compacted frozen granulated base with dusting of fresh snow mixed in. Snow depth in woods 3-6", Snowfall year to date: 11". 45km of trail open. 15km for skate, 30km for classic skiing with 20.5 km thin to medium machine track set. Remainder of classic trails snowmobile packed with crust layer/fresh snow. Comments: Once the temperature warmed up to -10F we were out grooming combing the skate lanes on 15km of skate trail and setting track on the west side of the trail system. We set a thin/shallow track on Twin Lakes and a full depth track on Wavy Gravy minus the "Mac's Mess" segment. Also the first part and last part of Island Lake trail a track was set to make a nice loop on the west side. A few spots the tracksetter touched the ground otherwise should be very nice early season/rock ski conditions on Wavy Gravy and Island Lake trails. Late afternoon went back on Skaters Waltz smoothing out the deck after Moorhead HS team practice was completed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Dusting of new snow past 24 hours. Early to mid season conditions on a 1-3" compacted frozen granulated base with new snow on top. Snow depth in woods 3-6" Snowfall year to date: 11". 40km of trail open. 15km for skate, 25km for classic skiing with 13.5 km thin to medium machine track set. Remainder of classic trails combed. Comments: The temperature dropped fast overnight and we hovered around -10 all day with frontal passage frost snow and a little wind. We still put in a full day of grooming, rolling and resetting and setting new track on 13.5km of trail. I classic skied at the blue hour as the moon was rising checking out a portion of all the classic trails that had a machine set track. It's a hard base and soft track but considering weather on Sunday pretty darn nice skiing. The wind had settle down and was a beautiful evening in the forest.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)