I was impressed how good the trail was this afternoon. The big downhill was plenty soft and controlled but still a little speed. My fish scale skis did well once the track got compressed down after a few passes. Only two spots of bare ground where I walked across the grass/mud with my skis. Most of the trail still has a very deep base. Beautiful day to ski in a t-shirt. Afternoon skiing should be good for a few more days I would think.

Photos:

(Peter Aggen)

There's snow, but it was all frozen ruts when I tried skiing at 8:30. The climb in on Willow Creek is almost bare at the top, the narrow strip of snow/ice is thin enough that you can see the ground below. Made it to the foot of Scenic Hills and decided I wasn't a good enough skier to keep going. It might actually be ok skiing once the snow gets softer, but when I was there the hard ruts made it almost unskiable.

(Steve Hum)

Checked out the Hyland trails to see how they fared after the rains this week. Only the beginning of the Scenic Hills return trail is unskiable (see photo). There is a section of the Boulder Ridge plateau where the trail is getting narrower. For the most part there is a shallow classic track for the whole trail. I probably waited a little too long to start skiing, so the trails were slushy and slow for me. It was a nice sunny day, so it was good to get out skiing.

Photos:

(Geir Johansen)

There was fresh new snowfall so I had to go skiing. The entire 5K loop is skiable, with the new snow covering up much of the leaves and dirt that were on the trails. I classic skied, but there were others out there that were skate skiing. The wet snow made the tracks were extremely slow, but it meant I could go down Boulder Ridge without the fear of getting caught in a icy rut of crusted snow. I skied up next to three deer who were just off the trail, but they decided to take off right before I got my phone out to take a picture.

(Geir Johansen)

Conditions were poor at my 10:45 start. Last night's snow covered the dirty snow but the base underneath was pretty saturated. I skied all the way to Boulders bottom but walked most uphills. Thus my pace was 5.2 mph. The bare spot on the first downhill on the return from Scenic can still be skied around in the right. At least the snow is consistent so I suffered no sudden decelerations. 33 degrees per radio as drove here. I used FastWax Yellow LF. Daughter switched cars with me so I was unable to buff with fluoro paste. Doubt it would have made a difference.

(Keith Carlson)

Skied about 2:30-4:30 pm. Not much change from what I found the day before. Spring conditions to be sure but still a decent classic track and very enjoyable. Red klister kicked well. If temp is dipping below freezing at night, you want to wait until the frozen trail has softened before you go. The one spot running out of snow was a short section of Scenic Foothills return loop; I easily skied it but my wife went back on the approach side, which still had plenty if snow cover.

Photos:

(Steve Share)

My last time for the season. Was fair to poor. Some harder ruts, snows getting dirtier and the bare spot at the first downhill returning from top of Scenic has expanded a lot in less than 24 hours. Still skied all of Boulder without too much problem. Only issue is the parallel ruts at the bottom scared me with thought of getting stuck in one and hitting the light pole at the intersection with Scenic and I snowplowed at the very end to forestall that possibility. First Scenic climb was too soft and rutted for me to skate but a young woman skated right by me. I skated all the second. Still was able to ski down from the top of Frog Town pretty fast but ruts at first right turn had me heading for the trees until I was able to turn in final 20 foot margin of the trail. Still an okay ski for the end of my season.

(Keith Carlson)

Pretty nice conditions at Hyland this morning. Really good skiing with only a few spots starting to be mashed potatoes by the time I left around noon. No major ruts or icy spots. There are two spots where the snow is getting thin: The downhill section out of Boulder Ridge has dirt showing over about 1/3 of the trail, and the downhill out of Scenic Foothills has a large spot of dirt that, by the time I left, had almost completely crossed the trail. Saw several skiers skiing down the climb into Scenic Foothills. Lots of dirty snow, and lots of organic debris between the visitor's center and Jan's place. Many thanks to the Hyland crew for another awesome season!

Photos:

(Steve Hum)

Got to Hyland today to ski about 5:00 pm. Surprisingly, good spring skiing! Decent classic track. Red klister kicked well. There is still a base 1-ft. to 4-ft. Entire width of trail snow covered except in one place. Lots of leaves approaching Jan's Place from visitor center but after that almost none.

Photos:

(Steve Share)

For April 1st, conditions were superb. Thanks Skinnyski and those who continue to post to let me know I was wrong on Wednesday. There was still good skiing to be had in the Cities at Hyland. At least with the window I caught with an 11:00 start. Between Tuesday night's snow, skier traffic. and the modest thaw, Tuesday's snow cat damage was all but gone. Just caused me a little issue on the return from the top of Scenic on the 2nd downhill when I crossed what was left of the cat's snow rubble after I cut the apex of the curve to the left and had to cross it to the far right of the trail before I could snowplow and skate to complete the turn to the left. With a few exceptions, the snow had softened enough that crossing any ruts was not a problem and it was reasonably fast. The Boulder uphill was firm and I skied the downhill with no problem. The first uphill on the Scenic was still pretty chewed up from the cat but I was able to skate about 2/3 of the way up beside the cat damage on the far left before I tired and had to walk the rest of the way to the intermediate flat. There were two small bare spots that could be easily avoided but the first on the first downhill on the return from the top of Scenic should be skied on the right, not the left like I did. It was 36 degrees at my start and beautiful sun. I used FastWax Yellow LF buffed with fluoro paste.

Photos:

(Keith Carlson)