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)

Conditions: Wow - storybook conditions on Sunday! Skate and classic trails perfect.
Woke up Sunday morning to a fresh hoar frost covering the trees and brush, just gorgeous. Around 11 am the sun started to break through the clouds and it became stunning. The trails were fast with a light dusting of snow overnight making everything look brand-new. Skate trail had been regroomed overnight and set up nicely. Classic tracks were great, especially considering all the skier traffic. Good skis, no problem at all. Great weekend for all of us!

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)

Conditions: Perfect!!
Skating lanes are firm and fast! Classic tracks are set up great.
Overall beautiful skiing!

(Jack Ellefson)

Conditions: Light snow/blowing snow less than an inch new accumulation. Sunrise temp at 30 falling to 0 at sunset. Ski conditions rated good to excellent. Snow blowing into tracks with some scattered organic material from trees and critters.
Tracks set on 35km of trail today. Total km trackset now up to 40km. Skate only trails (16km) groomed yesterday and will be touched up tomorrow as well as new tracks set on about 8km of trail and tracks reset on 12km of trail bringing total classic only trails to 46km. Bullhead lake trail only trail not tracked and will try to groom that tomorrow. Otherwise entire trail system will have been groomed before the weekend. Some trails are skiing better than others and this information will be listed on the trail report board in the main lodge. Should be a great weekend of skiing.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Beautiful. Snow starting to break down to frozen loose granular (sugar) making for silky-like conditions.
We had the lingering frost most of the morning making for a gorgeous day on the trails. Reports from folks on the trail were good. Grooming the past few days has focused on the skate only trails, leveling and smoothing. About 70% of the trail system hasn't been skied on yet so the snow is skiing fresh-like. About 4km additional tracks set today for a total of 13km of trail with tracks. More tracksetting on Thursday and Friday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Packed powder. Recent morning lows in the -22 range rising to single digits during the day. Sunny, light winds.
Finally got out for the first ski of the year today. Joined Jake for a couple of laps on Skaters Waltz. Conditions were great. Snow was faster than I expected, considering I hadn't waxed my skis since February and the cold temps. A few bumpy spots but we will get those scratched down this week. The plan is to have all 64km regroomed by the weekend with around 48km tracked for striding.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Packed Powder. Single digits most of the day. Morning lows negative temps and currently running negative temps this evening, light winds, clear skies. 1km groomed with tracks, 63km roll packed and ginzu groomed.
After today's grooming, the entire trail system (64km) has been packed and groomed the past four days. The trails are now prepped for tracksetting which will begin tomorrow. The key trails have been packed up to 10 times, pulling in snow from the sides and building and compacting the base as much as possible which ranges from 3-6" compacted. Just two short sections of trail (photos attached) that are rough but after tonight should freeze down, be in better condition and skiable throughout after next snowfall. Note: Two weeks ago we were skiing on Ruthefords slough and after the heavy snow this week, the snow has compressed the ice and 4-5 basketball size holes have opened up with water coming up rising to the surface. Point is, stay off the ponds and lakes.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Powder, packed powder.
Packing continues. Took out the Ginzu groomers today and leveled some of the bumps from roll packing. Set a few tracks, more or less to test the sensations and the sidekick said it was okay but a bit more snow would make it better. Hopefully tonight/tomorrow.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)