Conditions: Good to Excellent. Clouds giving way to sunshine, single digit temps. Winds picking up in evening. 52 of 64km fresh groomed. Beautiful day in the woods.
Skate trails groomed up very nicely today. Classic trails with better snow to work with groomed up just about perfect. Faster, but not icy. Enough texture for edging and what not. Some trails a bit more crunchy. All trails groomed today except for two and those will be groomed Saturday morning. Fun to see what critter can stay on top of the crust and which cannot. Should be a great weekend of skiing.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Good to Excellent. Early morning low of -28, warming!! to a high of -12. Beautiful sunshine, light winds. Frozen granular, dusting new.
Once the temp climbed to -20, I set out grooming about 6km of double track for the skiers today. It was tough grooming for sure, erasing concrete tracks and re setting new but it went much better than expected and the little snow we did received helped out with the mixing process. The new tracks were 95% complete on average. Later afternoon I skied those 6km times three and thought it was great, despite the cold. Skied a few sections of the windblown and it was very, very slow. Grooming will resume tomorrow on as many trails as possible including the skate lanes which should groom up quite nicely.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Blowing snow. -18 at 5pm. Inch or so new accumulation on top of firm 4-7" base.
Great skiing on the weekend leading into Monday afternoon, even after the warm up. Was able to ski each afternoon to check things out and everything is holding out nicely and in great shape. The snow was relatively dry yesterday afternoon before our almost 60 temperature change in 24 hours. Did not stop "Monte's Movers", Bob Montebello and the Bemidji area groomers who are here for a few days from skiing this morning. We did not have any rain before the cold front came last night and about an inch of new snow accumulation the past 24 hours making for slow conditions with the extreme cold. Hope to begin grooming tomorrow afternoon otherwise Thursday morning. Plan to have all 64k re-groomed before the weekend. Skate photo from Saturday, classic from Sunday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent. 40 of 64km groomed this morning.
All skate trails groomed and new tracks set on about 25km of trail this morning. The outer single tracked trails groomed up real nice, using the inch or two of fresh snow from earlier in the week with the granulated stuff. Remaining tracks are in great shape and will be left alone. Found this guy throwing sticks on the trail but he had a pretty cool hat on so I didn't say anything (see photos).

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent. Dusting of new snow past 24 hours, -3 air temp at sunrise.
A great MLK weekend of skiing. Among the crowd was the North Star ski touring club back for year #32 who impressed me, but not surprising, out skiing the trails before breakfast when morning lows were at -30. Skied late afternoon yesterday hitting quite a few trails to see how things were looking and check out the skier flow for grooming purposes and found the trails/tracks holding up great. (Setting tracks at -13 degrees always helps). As we all know, skate a little draggy and dusting didn't help the cause but still some great skiing. Trails will be touched up this week as needed with most tracks re-set before the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent.
After a morning low of -33, the temp shot up nicely to the negative mid-teens. With almost no wind to speak of, and bright sunshine, it felt quite fine. I skied North Loup late afternoon and I feel the track is in the best shape it has been all year. Last grooming it was set a bit more over the skate deck and its bomb proof. Given the cold temps, skating is about as good as it can be with solid and firm base and the tilled surface providing adequate glide. All ages out on the trails and even the locals out with the woodies.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: A bit cold, but beautiful. -12F for this morning's ski session, clear skies, bright sun, and little wind.
The dreaded arctic wind blast didn't come true. Sure it's cold, but the popular classic tracks are buffed out and quick. I skied 20k this morning, and other than cold cheeks, was very comfortable in my normal ski kit. The western trails (Twin Lakes and Wavy Gravy) are fantastic. The weather is no excuse not to get out and enjoy great snow, impeccable grooming, and lots of sunshine.

(Peter Wilborn)

Conditions: -23 to start the day climbing to high temp of 10 with sunshine and light winds. Snow this evening accumulating to an inch or so. Sugar keeping skiing fast in cold temps.
All the skate trails groomed this morning putting a little sugar with the shredded wheat. New tracks on 25km of trail the past two days. Jake and I have been classic skiing after school skiing the fresh groomed and found the best skiing on tracks set yesterday. Today's tracks were good but erasing old track at -23 degree snow temps and setting new track was a bit harder and not complete all the way through in spots. Tracks on other trails not recently groomed past few days still deep,defined and recent dustings have been skier packed. Ginzu 108 working recent dustings in nicely on skate trails with one pass making for awesome skating conditions on firm and level skate deck. Grooming will continue as needed on through the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent. No wind, around zero. Trails are firm and picture perfect.
This is our fourth annual trip to Maplelag. Here with my wife and little boys (4&6) since Saturday. The conditions are the best we've ever had. We are from South Carolina, and this cold snap with fresh snow has been lovely. It was -15 on Monday, and the boys went out skiing/sledding with lots of smiles and no complaints. Jay always grooms well, but this week nature is making it easy. Fast Wax Extreme White has worked great.

Photos:

(Peter Wilborn)

Conditions: Windy, 17F, Great snow cover. Excellent skate and classic skiing.
Headed over to Maplelag this afternoon for a ski with Jay.
As always the trails were top notch, some of the best skiing this year. Skated North Loup and Skaters Waltz which were nice and packed in. Classic trails looked great as well.

(Lars Ellefson)