Mashed potatoes on top, ice underneath. Uphill sections are soft; downhills are fast and very icy in the corners where the trail has been scraped clean.

(Quentin Tschofen)

Skied lower Spirit this morning. Excellent fresh grooming. More loops added up top. Basically, amazing.

(Todd Struckman)

I had a fast and enjoyable ski tonight. There were some classic tracks (that looked good). The skate deck was firm and fast. I had no trouble on the downhill turns (no ice). The snow machines were blowing on the upper sections. Hopefully we can ski the full loop soon! Right now, it's about 1.3k long.

(Elaine Nelson)

I just got off the phone with Tom Straka, the Spirit Mt Trail Maintenance Manager. Tom wanted skiers to know that they had a very successful period of snowmaking over the past two days. They made so much snow in fact that they need a little more time on Tuesday morning to finish pushing everything around and grooming. Tom suggests delaying your arrival at Spirit Mt Nordic until after 10am on Tuesday. A little back story here... one of the compromises that was made with neighbors agreeing to the building of the trails was the creation of a noise ordnance that restricts night time grooming. The Spirit Mt crew would love to groom the Nordic trails in the overnight hours but they are restricted by the ordinance.

(Dave Johnson)

On Thursday, Jan 11 about 400 high school skiers will be racing in the Marshall Sprints at Spirit Mt. The sprints this year will be classic so the groomer will be laying down four classic tracks early Thursday morning to have them set up for the race. There will not be room for a skate lane in the stadium or on the sprint course. Skiers are asked to wait until after the race on Thursday to do any skating at Spirit. Thanks so much, from your Marshall Sprints Race Director, Dave Johnson.

(Dave Johnson)

Here is a message from Tom Straka of Spirit Mt Operations: We will be closing all operations for Monday (Jan 8) to blow snow. We are going to load up all of Nordic that has been getting skied on to build back up the base. We've got great temps forecasted for Sunday night so we're going to make a big push at it so we can be done with that section.

(Dave Johnson)

Pleasantly surprised with the good conditions at Spirit this morning. Grateful for the crew out there grooming some additional sections. Overall about 1 km open. Plenty of folks out there doing laps but didn't feel crowded at all. Coverage was good and really no icy spots to speak of. If you have a quiver of skis I'd recommend B skis but if you've got a single pair I would feel comfortable using them without significant risk of damage. I mostly skated, which was freshly groomed and pretty fast. A lap on classic skis to end the morning. There's track set on the lower segment of the loop but not the whole course. The track that was there was firm and in good shape, holding up on the main downhill corner at the very bottom.

(Gabi Hester)

Observed a bit of the classic technique high school ski race held today. They also had a skate race on the same course afterwards. I was on the course, it sure looked like the tracks were solid and I didn't see any of that icy surface we were getting when it would thaw during the day. It seemed like a solid skate deck. Trail was partially open (<1 KM?). Nothing is melting anymore at least.

(Sara Zimmer)

Thank the city, thank all the donors and thank the hardworking Spirit Mt snowmakers and groomers who have made it possible for the 300+ high school skiers who descended upon the Spirit Mt trails to ski and practice this afternoon. Was it crowded? Yes. Was the snow a bit icy? Yes. Were there classic tracks? Yes. Was it skiing in one of the warmest and snowless seasons on record? Yes. So thankful to every person involved in making this opportunity available, especially the snowmakers and groomers. How hard that must have been for them to watch all their hard work melt away over Christmas and have to start all over again. I did take the opportunity to thank one of the Spirit Mt staff in person and he informed me that Spirit will be blowing snow overnight in the lower stadium and then in the morning they plan to push it around and groom it. He asked that folks wait until later in the morning before skiing to stay out of the way of the groomer and snowmaking equipment. What an easy thing to do to support their efforts!

(Dave Johnson)

Mostly ice. They opened some more trails and there's a second loop, snow is in the making, trails are groomed and no classic ski trails.

(Sebastian Fallas)