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)

Conditions: Excellent. Windy, 20's for temps, felt colder though.
Set fresh tracks on 1km of trail this morning and tilled skaters in the morning to set up some texture and what not. Skate skied with Lars Ellefson in the afternoon on North Loup, Skaters Waltz and Suicide Hill doing some intervals. Was about as good as it gets. Should have the entire trail system groomed before the weekend once the weather settles down.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent. Firm base with a skiff of fresh fluff on top.
We enjoyed the pristine trails at Maplelag today. The tracks were firm and a light snow was still falling during the day, just enough to keep things fresh. The trees once again had that magical frosted quality, making for a beautiful view against the sky. A spiky friend was hanging out in the treetops of Sap Run, leaving his breakfast bark scraps on the ground. Tracks were fast and skate lane looked well-set although we did not skate today.

Photos:

(Margaret Adelsman)

Conditions: Thick frost, light snow accumulating to an inch or two the past 48, and mid teens making for dreamy conditions over the weekend. 54 of 64km groomed the past three days, mixing the sugar with the fresh. -8 at 10pm.
Another fantastic weekend of skiing. Snuck out with the Oftedal brothers for a classic ski on Saturday morning which was great and one lap on skaters waltz late afternoon that was splendid. Grooming this week on various trails as needed. Photos from Saturday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Good to excellent for classic, very good to excellent for skate. Morning temp of 28 falling to 20 at 3:3O PM. New tracks set on 12km of trail today.
Grooming today saw full depth, clean and relatively crisp tracks reset. We did not have a meltdown so to speak and with the snow already transformed to frozen granular (sugarlike) erasing the old track and setting new has gone great. I took a quick ski this afternoon to see how the new tracks were skiing compared to the old ones and the skiing was very,very nice. Fast, but cozy feeling for good kick with hard wax and plenty of give between the tracks for edging for those that need to wedge. (waxing bit warmer then air temp) Skate lanes are in great shape and Jake reported the best skate skiing of the year yesterday afternoon. More tracks (around 25km)will be re-set early Friday morning and the skate lanes will be touched up early Saturday morning. Should be a great weekend of skiing.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)