Conditions: Good to very good for classic and very good to excellent for skate. Morning low of 13 degrees, dusting of new snow, light winds, sunny skies. Feels and looks like winter!!
Its hard for me to curb my enthusiasm because the conditions that exist right now are perfect in my book. Keeping the beginner/first time skier in mind, classic is good. A bit of crunch in the middle but the dusting last night really helped take off some of the hardness on the tracks from the cooling last night after previous days warm temps. Skating was phenomenal this morning. Had to take a quick lap after grooming skaters this morning. Suicide Hill was mint. Also set new tracks on the beginner trails, about 3km, and left the rest alone as the tracks are in great shape, all things considered, and should be some dandy skiing today.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Good to excellent. High today 36 degrees....27 degrees at 5pm. Tree litter here and there.
A fantastic weekend on the trails including some gorgeous frost Saturday morning capped off a incredible 2 week Holiday season. Days like today you just need to throw the thermometer out the window, don't analyze the weather on the internet, make a few adjustments and just ski. Snow loss was minimal after three days of near and slightly above temps. Today the southern exposed areas were the only spots to get a bit cheesy, really. I took a check on the trail system late morning while Rochester Area Ski Club was doing a time trial on Skaters Waltz and everything was holding out great. After lunch the temp dropped a few degrees and the snow did just fine. Grooming the past few days occurred between 10pm and 2am. Scratching just enough of the surface to open up the freezer door below and let the cold help set things up making for fantastic skate skiing conditions. No tracksetting last night as it didn't cool down enough but enough km on the system to spread things out other then the main trail, Sukkerbusk. Grooming this week on inner trails then the entire trail system will be conditioned if no new snow by next weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Very good to Excellent. 21 degrees at 5pm after a hi of 25. Yesterday early morning low of -17 set base nicely.
Comments: 30 of 64km groomed today. Skate only trails have been groomed 12 of past 14 days making for excellent conditions. North Loup now has a track in addition to skate lane. Track is very good, few soft spots on side etc. Classic trails groomed today skied pretty nice, some tree litter from wind last night and one of the local pileated woodpeckers going to town on trees on Twin lakes and Bullhead lake trails and porcupine dropping scat and twigs on Sap Run. Classic tracks groomed 3 days ago are holding up great, considering the high volume of skier traffic, and will be left alone another day or two unless new snow before the big storm next week. Skate lanes will be groomed daily on until the weekend. Classic trails will be groomed if track can be reset that equals the existing. Ice rink is in great shape and we have been flooding at late night when temp in single digits and lower. Terrain park snow features will be built next week.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Postcardlike.
Another nicely frosted day. Can't remember the last time such good conditions the last week of December. Perfect temps, no wind, little bit of fresh snow today...humidity is dropping this evening. Tracksetting in a few hours here should produce good results. Skate lanes have been fast, firm and the right amount of loose on top. Classic has been great too.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent.
Another frosty day with absolutely no wind making for a great day on the trails. Early afternoon I ski checked the skate only trails and caught up to the Highland Park and Eden Prairie teams that were out on North Loup having fun. Daily grooming on skate trails has firmed things up nicely but still some silk on top making for ideal conditions. Tracks not setting up quite so hard on some trails with the high humidity and what not but still some fantastic skiing. Trails being groomed daily where needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Powder/Packed Powder, areas of drifting. Calm, 7 degrees at 11am. 40km groomed this morning. 15km skate only and 25km tracks only set. All 64km open and groomed past 48 hours. 1-2" new snow past 24 hours.
Ideal grooming conditions this morning in the early hours with the full moon and clear skies and then sunrise to follow. Tracks are setting up nicely and skate lanes relatively hard and faster today. Grooming during the wind yesterday didn't make much sense as everything seemed to blow over but it payed off today. Trails groomed yesterday are skiing nice with a few areas of drifts and dusting of snow on top. Trails will be groomed daily this week as needed. Pisten Bully joining forces with the Ginzus yesterday and ready to do the job when needed. Merry Christmas!!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Excellent!! Powder/Packed Powder. Clear, light winds, temp at dusk around 0F. 45km of 64km of trail groomed today.
The snow stopped mid morning after the morning grooming was completed. Total new accumulation around 3". No rain or thawing temps before. This was the perfect amount of new snow to work into the base and really enhance the conditions. All skate only trails (15km) groomed today. Skating was bit soft and slow but better with afternoon pass. Tracks set on about 30km of trail today. Excellent classic skiing reported today. The remaining trails will be tracked early Sun am bringing total trackset only trails to around 50km. Some trails tracked today will be touched up tomorrow to tighten things up and skate lanes will be refreshed as well. Full moon skiing should be fantastic tonight with clear skies on skis!!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Snow and 15 degrees. 2" fresh snow.
After a light coating of freezing fog yesterday afternoon that made for some fast and fun skiing, it started snowing last night around 10pm. Woke up to a couple of inches this morning and looks like maybe another inch. The new snow will be worked in this morning with the older sugar snow and should be some great skiing once the wind settles down a bit. The plan is to have all the trails groomed by Christmas eve.

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Perfect!
Beautiful early season conditions! Emma and I enjoyed classic skiing for an hour before the highschool races. Later we hooked up with the Roberts family for some fast, fun, conditions on Skaters Waltz.

(Anne Ellefson)

Conditions: Fantastic! I skied the western trails late this afternoon and the tracks were in much better shape then I expected. The frost from Sunday had fallen in the tracks and the particulate matter in the liquid droplet form at the snow surface made for a nice surface which to ski upon. Tracks were deep, firm, and pole plants solid. Sunset and moon rise was bonus.
After skiing almost the entire trail system the past few days, have found the conditions very good to excellent, both skate and classic. Grooming on Skaters Waltz, Mother North Star and Suicide Hill tomorrow afternoon for ski meet on Thursday. Remaining trails will be touched up as needed Thursday night and Friday for the weekend. Thanks to skinnyskiers Bruce and Margaret Adelsman, Josie, Dave and Grant Nelson and John Munger for their assistance this past weekend with the ski camp. And thanks to the headlamp skier Saturday night who was enjoying a "skiing behind the groomer" experience but graciously switched to classic so the skate lanes could set up level, firm with no ruts for skiers on Sunday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)