Happy Winter Solstice from Maplelag! A fantastic day on the trails! Kicked off the day flooding the ice rink before jumping on the VK Pro to comb out the skate lanes on Skaters Waltz, the extension, North Loup, Single Green, Kristin's Kutoff, and Eira Bikwadinaa hill. Bumped into a skier who was skiing Roy's Run for the first time. Good stuff. Ended the grooming session packing and combing out the last part of Bullhead lake trail for the first time this year. Right now an out and back ski from the skinny field. A fun gradual rolling descent to the north end of Bullhead lake, turn around for a rolling climb back to skinny! Tracks are holding form nicely so no tracks were reset today. At dusk to celebrate the shortest day of the year, skied with sons Jake and Jens on Skaters Waltz and the inner loop. Although it was dark and we were not using headlamps, the level and smooth deck made the night ski much more possible. Grooming thoughts: Thinking about grooming across Bullhead lake to pack and groom out the rest of Bullhead lake trail and the bootleg extension now that the last part is groomed out.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Fantastic day on the trails! Sunshine and crisp start to the day with morning low checking in at -12F. Grooming crew was on trail from 6am to 6pm working on the entire trail system. All skate lanes roll combed, all double track trails reset and all single track trails tracked. Full depth classic tracks. Lots of smiling faces today. Grooming plans: Track to be reset on Rootin Tootin and skate lanes combed on north skate trails. Bullhead Bootleg is last trail to be packed and groomed, maybe tomorrow.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

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)