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)

Skied Brown's Pond and Hills loop start/end at the Nordic Center at 9:30am. Extremely icy, had to take off skis and walk several up and downhills for safety. Good day for cross training!

(Jennifer Fischer)

Upon request, the groomers attempted the trails again this afternoon on the East side. The areas that get more sun exposure like Prairie and North loops still were not taking much to the grooming efforts. Browns Pond was able to improve a little bit but the trails are still icy and in overall poor/fair condition.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Staff started at around 4am to attempt grooming but the compacted and icy trails did not want to cooperate and the conditions didn't seem to be improving with each pass. To avoid further damage we have decided to suspend grooming until weather/snow conditions improve. You can expect the East trails to remain in fair/poor condition until we see better weather but the West side is still open for multi-use if people want to try their hand at snowshoeing or other activities!

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Icy. Did not soften up today despite high temps. Great glide but insufficient edge. Double pole in tracks or classic ski with klister but I would advise most skiers avoid steeper downhills. Better yet, go for a jog until conditions improve.

(William Brown)

Trail conditions on the eastside, Figure 8 loop formed by Hills, Brown's Pond, Prairie and Savanna was good to very good. At a noon time start, conditions were highly variable ranging from boilerplate to binding pulling-out wet corn at the bottom of the hill after 6E depending on sun exposure. It was reasonably fast overall - clocked moderately fast for me at 7 MPH - but getting slower as more of the trail got sun exposure and the snow corned. Had no problem with control on the shaded downhills. It was 40 degrees according to my car and sunny. I used FastWax Yellow LF.

(Keith Carlson)

I skated Savanna and North late morning and intended to follow up with the Prairie and Hills loops, but found the trail conditions difficult. The skate deck was generally rutted hardpack, much of it icy. I was able to find "edgeable" snow on the left side of the skate deck about 60% of the time, but the downhill segments were pretty much frozen hard and rough full-width. As I was finishing up, I found some segments in the sun softening a bit, making the skating and climbing more efficient. Everything was skiable for me, but the rough surface, especially on the icy downhills, really beat up my old knees.

(David Sonnenberg)

Both the East and the West side trails were regroomed yesterday. Tracks were touched up but starting to get shallow in areas and debris still present, especially in the North Loop. After the icy rain we experienced the trails have gotten slick as well. At this time we will avoid grooming until the temperatures drop to prevent further damage. Hoping to regroom early Friday unless we see a change in the weather.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

No new grooming as of noon today. Skate deck is packed and icy, hard to get an edge. Trails are starting to soften up in the sun, but in the shade it is dangerously fast, so I get over to the classic tracks for stability.

Photos:

(David Byrne, Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club)

Tracks and skate deck in generally great condition. Some areas have some leaves and debris but very few places cause slowdowns. Tracks are fast. Snow drifting has partially filled the tracks along the fields on the southeast fields. Green loop has some interfering debris on the first half, pretty good on the second half. No track on the first part of the last half of the green loop.

Photos:

(Lincoln Fetcher)