Very good conditions for the Section Championship Nordic Ski Meet. Excellent work on grooming the trails, the tracks are set firm, and the skate lane is Wonderfully groomed. Much appreciation for the Maplelag "Crew" to host this Ski Meet in Minnesota. Simple quick ski before the start of the races. For Only $25 you can Ski all day, or stay at the cabins in a warm pleasant atmosphere, in a unique setting in the woods in Minnesota.

(Lisa Martin)

A pretty much perfect winter day capped off a great weekend of skiing with 2-3" of new snow over the weekend. Temps slowly dropped during the day to a low of 11 at 11pm this evening. Completed the grooming of the entire trail system this morning (other than Skaters Waltz extension) with Rootin Tootin, Roy's Run and Bullhead Lake trail and the Bootleg extension being tracked and the skate lane on North Loup was combed. Touch up grooming on the Section Skate course this evening. Grooming plans: Tomorrow we will be grooming on the Section skate course and also groom out Skaters Waltz extension in the morning and groom all Section courses in the evening. All the other trails in good shape and should provide nice Monday skiing.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

18 degrees with a wind but very protected at Maplelag overall. Most of the trails were groomed since the 3" of fresh snow yesterday. Absolutely heavenly. Skaters Waltz was a little soft (expected) but it was so much fun to play in the new snow. With the Hygge cabin available for changing, it feels like home. Right now, the best place I've skied in Minnesota.

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(Jeffrey Quam)

Snow globe Saturday! 2-3" falling throughout the day with temperatures in the mid 20's made for a lovely day of skiing. This afternoon started grooming, working the snow in on the exposed areas and transitioning to the Section skate course. Continued on to classic trail grooming, setting double track on Sukkerbusk, Mother Hen, Sap Run, Twin Lakes and one track on North Loup and partial groom of the skate passage. Switched to the singletrack groomer to groom out the trails for the Section classic course, Mother North Star and JibFly. On to the west to set new track on IslandLake trail and Wavy Gravy trail. Grooming plans: Back out in the morning to set new track on Rootin Tootin, Roy's Run and hopefully Bullhead Bootleg if all goes well and give the Section Skate course another touch.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Morning low 19 degrees, high temperature of 27 degrees, light winds overcast in morning, clearing. 90km of trail open, machine groomed frozen and loose granulated (transformed) snow with 55km groomed classic, 15km groomed skate 25k groomed for fat biking. Good to excellent conditions. Comments: Temperatures below freezing kept the snow dry and snappy today. A few areas of glazing but were groomed last night and today, skiing was excellent. Fat biking on the FatLagChilada course was good to excellent and yesterday's grooming definitely improved the conditions. Today new track was renovated and cut on Sukkerbusk, Bullhead Lake and Bootleg trail, North Loup, Sap Run, Section Sprint course and Section Skate course was gently renovated and combed. Grooming plans: Grooming planned on western classic trails in the morning. Scheduling: Local guitar artist will be playing his guitar in the Hygge day center from 3-5 Saturday, February 1st.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Morning low 11 degrees, climbing to 39 degrees for high. Sunshine, no wind. Temp falling fast mid afternoon, 22 degrees at 9pm. Comments: Possibly the best day on the trails this year. Despite the warm weather, the snow and trails are holding out great. Grooming at the transition time when the snow starts to freeze down again is keeping the skate deck fresh and the tracks in good shape. There are areas where glazed etc, mostly on the extreme south facing areas but nothing to serious. I skied the Section classic course this morning inspecting the best line setting and taking inventory where to make improvements. Was hard to get off the trail and had to ski one of the trails on the western side because conditions were so good! Mid afternoon and into the evening groomed the Section classic and skate courses. The temperature dropped a bit faster than I liked but no complaints, trails groomed out fine. The 25km Fat Bike look was also groomed this afternoon. Grooming plans: We will resume daytime grooming on select trails, most likely Bullhead Lake and new track on North Loup.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Maplelag's classic trails today were incredibly nice! It was a bluebird day for skiing, with calm winds, sunny skies and temps reaching into the 30's. The tracks at Maplelag were in great shape for their current guests and the groomers were busy preparing for the high school Section meet next week. Skin skis worked well today. If you're looking for natural snow, check out Maplelag.

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(Glenn Gifford)

Absolutely wonderful day to be skiing. 28 degrees. The deck was very solid until after noon when it got a little soft in the sun. We skied Skaters Walz, with extension and North Loop. Whoop! Looks like it had been groomed within the last 2 days. The classic trails looked marvelous from our Vantage point. It's amazing the snow there and the meticulous grooming - Kudos!

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(Jeffrey Quam)

Morning low of 12 degrees, high temperature of 30. Overcast, light winds. Most reports from skiers Wednesday were "better than expected" and overall the skiing continues to be very nice. Comments: Finally got out for a skate ski, checking out the Section Skate course and also part of the northern loops. Deck was firm and surface was silky thanks to grooming the night before during the transition time from softening to freezing. Hopped in the tracks in a few spots to inspect. Everything looked good I checked. Later morning groomed Sap Run, Mother North Star, and JibFly, renovating the snow and setting track. These trails are part of the Section classic course and the middle three km was set best line singletrack. The trails groomed out well and are recommended trails to ski tomorrow along with Roy's Run, Rootin Tootin and Twin Lakes. Grooming plans: We will be grooming the skate trails in the late afternoon as well as resetting the track on the Section classic track. Depending how warm it gets tomorrow will determine if more trails are groomed in the evening or Friday morning instead.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

After yesterday's warm up I wasn't sure what to expect for classic skiing this morning. The snow had transformed very little making for great hard wax kick and even better glide. I skied some of the north, west and middle trails. Conditions were excellent throughout the trails I skied!

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(Tom Dooher)