Fantastic day of skiing and grooming. Hard to top days like today. Today we finally hit the outer trails Island and Bullhead/Bootleg paths. These two trails probably see the most drifting and finally were able to get to them after feeling comfortable with the conditions of the other trails. National Weather Service out of Grand Forks has issued 11 blizzard warnings this winter. Although we have only had two legit blizzards here at Maplelag, gives you an idea of the windy conditions this season. Thankfully the wooded trails makes it another day at the beach and daily grooming keeps conditions skiable. We also touched up the skate decks where needed and renovated the challenge hill. Brilliant sunshine highlighted the day before clouds moved in late afternoon. Grooming plans: We will be out in the morning refreshing select singletrack trails. We are not powertilling the snow with the Pisten Bully. We are using the front end renovator with a compactor bar mixing the snow, and more lately, the Ginzu groomers. The method provides a more natural skiing experience. Especially noticed now when our signature dry snow is sun kissed and transforms to a creamy silky goodness which isn't always possible on powertilled snow. This is a observation from grooming and skiing the past 40 years at various places across the country.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

February finishing out about as good as it gets. Temps stayed in the mid 20's and the dry snow is starting to transform to a silky goodness. Early this morning around 3am a new track was cut on the double track classic trails Sap Run and Sukkerbusk. Late this afternoon tracks were reset on Sap Run and touch up in the start area for a therapy groom. At dusk, Jonell and I skied Sap Run and Sukkerbusk. The temps, snow and conditions were all perfect. Reports from skiers from the other trails were all good. Grooming plans: We will work on the two outer trails, Island Lake and Bullhead that haven't been groomed since the last blizzard to have groomed out with a single track by the afternoon. Touch up on other trails as deemed fit.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Blessed with another spectacular day. The brilliant sunshine the past few days much welcomed and made for another fantastic day on the trails. Little touch up grooming on the beginner trails otherwise a light day of grooming. Trails holding up well from what I could tell and reports from skiers all most positive. Fat bike trails seeing good action today and the more used segments groomed at dusk. Grooming plans: Touch up grooming on select trails planned this evening/early tomorrow morning.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Another spectacular day on the trails. Excellent conditions. All skate only trails renovated and combed, select singletrack and double track trails reset and 18km of fat bike trail groomed. Great weekend of winter play on tap! Grooming plans: Touch up grooming on the weekend as needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Spectacular late February day. The intense sunshine took the edge off the cooler temps and if you weren't wearing sunglasses, you'd be sun blind. Skied bits and pieces of all the classic trails over the lunch hour to check conditions and found really nice skiing. Formulated a grooming plan for tomorrow. All skate trails were combed this morning than the Twin Lakes fat bike trail was groomed out.Ride at dusk was good. still a bit spongy in spots but considering how much snow and drifting, to be expected. In the evening cut new track on Sukkerbusk and Sap Run. Only got stuck twice which was a lot less than the past week were we are getting stuck in deep drifts 5-7 times a day. Grooming plans: Much of the classic trails will be reset tomorrow and all skate trails will be combed out and the 18km of fat bike trail we have been working on will be groomed again.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Pretty epic day of grooming today. So nice to have the wind lay to rest and the late February sunshine is tops. Machine Moors and I traded runs on the Snow Dog groomer hitting the fat bike trails while the other was ski trail grooming. I have never seen the fat bike trails like they are now. With all the snow and our method of grooming there are some seriously crazy whoops that have formed that are going to be super fun to ride once everything sets up. Regarding ski trail grooming, we set all the singletrack classic trails and reset track on one side on the Pisten Bully groomed double track trails. Everything is grooming out nicely and looking pretty good. Still a bit soft here and there. Grooming plans: We will be combing out all the skate only trails and continue work on the fat bike trails. Friday we plan to reset all the classic trails again when the temp is forecasted to be below 0 still to set everything up proper for the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Couple more inches of snow after grooming yesterday bringing total storm total to around 8". Today we packed the singletrack classic trails Loon Return, Wavy Gravy, Rootin Tootin and Roy's Run. Skate only trails also were packed. The Pisten Bully was out setting double track on Sap Run, Sukkerbusk, JibFly and Twin Lakes. The evening I skied all the double track trails groomed today and found nice conditions considering all the new snow and drifting after grooming in the few open areas. Still some finger drifts here and there but not as bad as I expected. Finished out the ski on the solar lit trail Sap Run. Temp was -10 and windchill was reported at -30 but didn't really feel that cold. Grooming plans: Remainder of the double track will be groomed tomorrow, skate only trails combed out and singletrack trails packed today will be cut with a track. At this time we do not plan to groom Island or Bullhead Lake trails. Yesterday talked to a skier that bushed out Island and said they stuck their 157,5cm pole down on the side and went all the way to the grip.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

6-8" new snow past 24 hours as of 11:00pm. We worked on the fat bike singletrack in the morning with the Snow Dog then had the Pisten Bully out working the drifts and pulling up transformed snow deep in the base with the renovator on the double track classic trails. Grooming plans: We'll be back out mid morning, mostly packing on the trail system and setting track later.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Fantastic Presidents Day weekend Sunday! Scattered lingering flurries leading to brilliant sunshine. The wind wasn't as bad as forecasted and temps in the upper single digits provide good action on the snow. All double track classic only trails reset today and Rootin Tootin singletrack cleaned up as well with new track set. The adventure trails Lucky's Loype and Bullhead lake trail seeing skier good traffic this weekend. Impressive with such deep snow out there! Grooming plans: Groomers are ready to groom any new snow with the much hyped about storm coming.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Last night grooming was pretty incredible after the wind settled down and the "SnowMoon" came out along with some amazing ice crystal refraction. We groomed all the double track again, finishing up around 1am. Groomers were back out at 5am, resetting and cleaning up the singletrack and combing out the skate trails. Twin Lakes double track was also reset. The snow is skiing a little slower this morning but warming temps are welcomed and good reports from the trail. We did not groom Island Lake or Bullhead. Big time drifting there but still have 57km of groomed options. Grooming plans: Touch up grooming through the Presidents weekend as needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)