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)

Conditions: Great snow coverage for the first outing. Trails were rolled, with base to only get better as temps dropped last evening.
Anytime you have skis on, it's a good day! Skiing at Maplelag is always a treat.

(Denny Barry)

Conditions: Packed powder.
Not bad for December 2, considering that there was very little snow before yesterday. Looks like about 20km of packed powder trail. The snow was a bit loose, but the coverage is good with no rocks and very few leaves and twigs. All in all, it was great to get out and plenty good to ski, even on the good skis. Looks like the season starts early this year. Come on up to Maplelag and give it a try.

(Charlie Ramstad)

Conditions: As of 5pm around 5" of new snow and still snowing. 17 degrees.
32 of 64 km roll packed this afternoon.
Grooming will continue tomorrow. The sidekick said things were looking pretty good.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Sunny, 0 degrees.
The light snows earlier this week have been left alone. A few more inches and grooming will begin.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Inch or so of snow this morning. Windy and light snow still blowing up, down and all around.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Conditions: Dusting of snow this morning, ponds, sloughs and smaller lakes all frozen.
The clipper "starved for moisture" dusted us with some white this morning. A check on the trail system found Island Lake completely frozen over which I did not expect and some smaller lakes as well. I tried to walk on Island lake.....good thing the canoe was next to me!! Still a nice layer of ice starting to form. The recent cold weather has been good for cooling the ground down. Most mornings the past two weeks the ground has remained frozen until noonish. Trails are in great shape and ready for the big snow 2 weeks from now.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)