40km of trail groomed and open for weekend. 25km classic only, 15km skate only. Watch for overhanging branches on the skate trails, better on the classic since we are setting best line but branches continue to fall as more snow falls. Over 15" total since Tuesday. Grooming plans: Touch up grooming on select trails over the weekend depending on additional new snow and skier traffic.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

12" of new snow the past 48 hours. With the downed branches and and overhanging limbs making for slow going, we focused on 30km of trail today, 15km skate only and 15km classic only. Classic trails taking shape after the third pass, setting best line. The remainder of the 25k of fat bike trail was groomed today as well. We skied at dusk, clearing sticks and releasing snow off the limbs and skiing was almost surreal. Best line classic skiing on normal double track trails enhancing the experience. The tracks are firm and gliding great. Jonell said the solar lit trail Sap Run was magical. Grooming plans: We plan to regroom the same 30km of trail in the morning and also track a few more classic trails and touch up the fat bike trails.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

7" of mixed precipitation the past 24 hours with 5" of fresh snow overnight. We were out early this morning packing and will continue through the day, including grooming out the 25km fat bike trail. Grooming plans; This afternoon we will track select inner trails and Twin Lakes to the west. Lot of branches and small trees folded over from the heavy wet snow, use caution. Plan by the weekend is to have 102km of trail available for groomed classic, skate, fat biking and non groomed backcountry skiing and snowshoeing.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Fabulous skating in the morning hours - and I am not even good at that style. 2x Skaters Walz and North Loop = 16.5 K. Then a bit of classic on Sukkerbusk and Jib Fly. I wish I could have stayed a bit longer. Thanks for opening the Brant Cabin for that sandwich break and changing clothes. Hope to be back soon. Enjoy your weekend on the trails!

(István Gombocz)

45km open and recently groomed. 30km classic only, 15km skate only. Good early season conditions. We opened up a few more western trail this week after 3" of new snow and subsequent grooming. Recent ski outings including a incredible moonlight ski last night, have found the best tracks on Twin Lakes and Rootin Tootin. All skate loops are skiing well, still a few rough spots on North Loop in the middle section. Grooming plans: We'll finish tracking the western trails and hope to open up Roy's Run to the north. the entire 25km "FatLagChilada" fat bike course on tap for grooming tomorrow as well.

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(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

For this early stage of the season, I would call trail conditions excellent, particularly on Mother North Star and Sukkerbusk - fresh and crisp classic tracks set. Also skied sections of Twin Lakes, Wavy Gravy, and Island Lake, respectively - total of 20 K in the afternoon. Come out and enjoy!

(István Gombocz)

Skied Sunday, noon-2pm. A little new snow made for better skiing today. Many trails recently groomed. The few remaining accumulations of leaves from the deer, previously seen on the trails, are now gone. The early season skiing at Maplelag keeps getting better.

(Glenn Gifford)

We had a nice weekend of skiing on 35km of groomed trail and fat biking on 25km of trail. Sunday was about as good as it gets for early season skiing and weather. We have been grooming daily including new trails this morning: Poki Loki, Mother Hen and Loon Return. 20km of classic only trail groomed, 15km of skate trail groomed. Grooming plans: We will comb out the outer trails to the west to prepare for the next snowfalls and tracking and patch up a few thin areas on the inners. Operating plans: Tuesday will be hosting a meet from 10am to 3pm on the classic trails Poki Loki, JibFly and Sukkerbusk and skate trail Skaters Waltz. All other trails will be open for skiing on Tuesday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Went out for a skate ski as the high temp of 28F (no melting or softening today) was starting to fall to eventually the single digits. Skated all the skate trails, really nice skiing and better than expected conditions on North Loup. Still some rough/bumpy spots in the middle segment and rocks skis were in order. Back on Skaters Waltz and found a real nice glide with good edging on good coverage. B skis fine. We shoveled on all the thin areas this week and a dusting of snow and daily grooming paid off. Late afternoon started snowing and after a inch of new had fallen, groomer was out packing and combing on Skaters Waltz again. Just in now from more packing and setting double track with the 9' Ginzu on Sap Run.
Grooming plans: We will be back out in the morning packing and combing the 15km skate only trails and setting additional track on 15-20km on the classic only trails.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Classic tracks were still in generally decent shape especially considering the early season. Need to be cautious of leaves intermittently grabbing skis on any descents. I found the trails (Sukkerbusk and Jibfly) had more than adequate coverage with tracks set. I used waxless B skis. Good afternoon to be out... appreciate the early season grooming at Maplelag. Snow was falling as I left the parking lot Friday.

(Glenn Gifford)