Skated the snow-making loop a little after noon. It was around 32 degrees and partly sunny. Coverage was great and varied from moderately packed to up to a inch or two of loose snow. Deepest loose snow was on the climb after the right angle turn on Frog Town. Reasonably fast given the temperature. The crowd was pretty light given it was sunny with warmer temperatures. I used FastWax Yellow LF.

(Keith Carlson)

Skied only the natural snow trails today. North trail, Oak Knob, and Hill skate decks were smooth and hard with no bare spots. None of them had tracks set. A skis would be fine on these trails. The first third of Lake had lots of leaf debris and some dirt showing on the skate deck. Again no tracks were set. Easy to ski around the bad spots but they can catch you out. The rest of the trail from the Hill split was in very good shape with a smooth and hard skate deck.

(Steve Hum)

Still just sticking to the man made snow loops as that is the only place with tracks and the tracks are fabulous. Firm and flat. Skate deck was great as well. I noticed in a few areas where something appears to be coming through the snow - one place was by Jans as you are coming down the hill from Willow. The other was in the classic tracks going up the Foothills. Hoping that is it just leaves that have been ground in.
A note to those who ski when it's dark - out on Boulder one of the lights wasn't working this morning.

(Scott Greymont)

The Hyland maintenance surprised us all with an early Christmas gift: all 5k of manufactured snow trails are open, good, packed and tracked. The trails with natural snow (10k) are all packed, not tracked and are all in good condition except lake is in fair condition.

(Sonja Bercich, Three Rivers Park District)

The 5k man made loop was great! Super clean snow, solid classic tracks, Boulder Ridge was very even and fun to descend for the first time this season. Nice work Hyland groomers!

Photos:

(Bill Oyler)

Shout out to the team at Hyland getting the full 5k of man made snow expertly groomed. Tracks were firm and flat. The skate deck was perfect.

Photos:

(Scott Greymont)

Only skied the man made loop, it was in excellent condition this morning. Props go out to the grooming crew. They were out moving snow around the Foothills - looks like it is only a matter of a few days before this becomes available. Skate deck was a perfect corduroy - the tracks were firm with little to no ice.

(Scott Greymont)

Manufactured snow trails (currently 3.5 K) are groomed overnight every night by our amazing groomers! Manufactured snow trails: Star, Willow Creek and Frog Town, are packed and tracked are in good condition. The trails with natural snow are packed, not tracked. Lake Trail is in fair condition; Hill, Oak Knob, part of North and nature center trails are in good condition. HS Meets this week, Today, Wed. Dec. 7, 3:30 pm-5pm and Thurs. Dec. 8, 2 races: 9am - 10:30am and 3:45pm- 5pm.

(Sonja Bercich, Three Rivers Park District)

Manmade was perfect this morning for skate. Fast and no ice. Classic looked great too. Snow guns blasting Scenic and beyond.

(Taylor Forsyth)

At 8 am we skate skied the Lake and Hill natural snow trails. As you might expect, the Lake trail received a lot of traffic last weekend. But on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being pristine, I still give Lake trail a 6 rating. However, we did not ski the segment of Lake along the south shore of Hyland Lake because we veered off and skied Hill trail. Using the same scale, I give Hill trail an 8 rating. On Lake and Hill trails you can use rock and B skis respectively. I did not see any classic tracks set. Thank you for all of the hard work trail grooming. You are doing a great job. I am spoiled to be skiing this early this year.

(Paul Pasko)