Beautiful, wonderful xc skiing at Lake Elmo Park this afternoon. Lots of skiers out enjoying the trails. Some leaf litter in tracks, but not bothersome.

Photos:

(Ken Kuznia)

Thanks to the snow overnight Wednesday into Thursday and a light dusting overnight, the day was beautiful and all who were on the Lake Elmo East ski trails were smiling, including myself. Trails, both classic tracks and skate deck in great shape thanks to groomers, a bit of drift in the tracks on the far side of the Flats, but otherwise a great day.

Photos:

(Harlan Jones)

Absolutely pristine this morning for classic and skate. The most wonderful skiing at Elmo I can recall. To be able to stay in the tracks for all the fun sections rather than stepping out for leaves was a treat! Classic track beautifully groomed throughout and skate deck looked wonderful, as well. Despite it already seeming perfect out there, I crossed paths with the groomer four times in 90 minutes out working the corduroy.

(Marjie Carr-Oxley)

Went out in the afternoon and found the skate deck was soft but great to get out on new snow. Colder nights and additional grooming should firm up the skate deck. Classic skiers reported good tracks.

(Jon Woetzel)

Ski as fast as you can for as long as you can! Oops, sorry, that's if you're headed to the Birkie. If you just want to ski for fun, conditions are ideal in a lot of places around here. Lake Elmo trails are as good as I've ever seen them! So if you're not skiing the Birkie or Korte (good luck if you are), don't miss the skiing around here and Lake Elmo would be an excellent choice! Skate deck is a little soft as expected, but Pisten Bully groomed and nice solid classic tracks.

Photos:

(Carol Fitzgerald)

The East Side trails have all been packed/rolled and freshly tracked this morning! Conditions are good with very minimal debris out there. The West Side Multi-use trails were also packed and looking good.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

They packed/rolled the trails on both the East and West side this morning. Trails are in good/fair condition, fast and a little icy. There is a lot of snow drift already happening as well. Grooming Plans: Regrooming with tracks being set once the snowfall is completed (hopefully early Friday morning!).

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Not recently groomed as of 11:00AM. Mix of skied in fresh snow, wind blown ice and drifting. Park was partially groomed once since the rain.

(Bill Callas)

Most trails freshly groomed. Icy but surprisingly good and fast. Stay only on the trails the groomer has rolled.

Photos:

(Kristine Toone)

I grew up downhill skiing in the Rocky Mountains and spring skiing on corn snow was so fun and easy! Today I had the new experience of cross country skiing on corn snow! It was wonderful! It was fast and there was very little drag on the soft snow; typical for corn snow. (If you don't know what it is, Google it.) I skied the outer trails: green, red, green, yellow. There was intrusive debris on the green switchback but elsewhere, the debris had almost all melted below the level of the track. Total fun!

(Lincoln Fetcher)