Classic skied Lake Elmo Park from 11am`- Noon, beautiful sunny day, about 25 F when I skied. Trails in decent shape, somewhat skied out, with those persistent oak leaves causing the occasional complaint when my skis stopped suddenly, but still wonderful to be skiing in February here in the Twin Cities. Lots of folks out enjoying the trails, a few people not really caring or paying attention to which way the trail arrows pointed, my wife was about to launch down one of the hills on the Brown's Pond trail when a guy skate skiing the wrong direction up the same hill came close to a collision. Just saying, especially when there's a crowd, please just ski the way your supposed to. Thanks!

Photos:

(Harlan Jones)

Trails not groomed today but skate deck firm and in good condition. I marvel at how little debris there has been on the skate deck this season. Unfortunately, can't say the same for some parts of the classic tracks.

(Dana Smith)

All trails are in good to excellent condition at Lake Elmo. The skate deck was a little soft in a few spots, but overall very good with little to no debris. The classic tracks looked great, deep set and in tact in most places. Only downside there is a good amount of leaf debris on the North trail near the lake. But just a short section. The groomers are doing fabulous work with all the activity here, and the conditions are tremendous.

(Glenn Hansen)

The oak leaves and amur maple debris was just too hard to avoid. Wax based skis are not the answer today. Skins or fishscales would be better. I tried North and Browns Pond. I picked up leaves and bark everywhere.

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(Bryan Heinle)

Great skate conditions - fast and quite a lot of cord still. Skate deck was flat and just beautiful conditions.

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(Ronald Okenfuss)

East side trails were all regroomed this morning and they attempted to repair the tracks in some sections of the trails but struggled with some soft/crumbly snow. Due to the high winds there is a bit more debris on the trail currently, especially embedded in the tracks in the more wooded sections of the trails and snow drift in the open areas. There are some sections that are still in pretty good condition but overall I'd rate them more on the fair side today. Grooming plans: They will attempt to regroom tomorrow which will hopefully help if the wind dies down. West side trails are being repacked this afternoon.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Classic skied at Lake Elmo Park from 1:30-2:30pm, a little bit of sunshine and a warm 15 F. Skied green to Brown's pond trail, then the Flats, through woods on green, yellow to Savanna turn-off, around Savanna loop to yellow and back to trailhead. Overall classic tracks in good shape, did not appear that tracks were groomed this morning. A bit icy in spots, especially on Savanna loop which didn't appear to get as much traffic as other trails on east side. One spot, I think it was on the Brown's Pond trail, some wood bits from an industrious squirrel made a few meters of tracks more a walking path than ski tracks. Another nice day to be out skiing, maybe we can ski into March this season in the Cities.

Photos:

(Harlan Jones)

John and I classic skied at 1 pm and classic tracks were 75% nice, deep and fast. The other 25% were shallow, washed out and had some whoop-de-do's. There were a few places with leaves and bark (deers probably nibbling on the trees - wish they'd clean up after themselves!) where you need to jump onto the skate deck, which was nice loose snow, or risk a sudden stop or face plant! Here's a photo of a bad place on the Green loop and meant to take a picture of the real pretty tracks, but my battery went dead. Sorry! Overall, even John said pretty good conditions and you know what he does at 4 o'clock in the morning!

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(Carol Fitzgerald)

Skied all of the lit trails last night, and saw only a couple people - I felt like I had the whole place to myself! Classic tracks are in great condition - they are washing out in a couple spots and there's a little bit of leaf debris in the most wooded areas, but 99% of the tracks are firm and fast. Found: I did find a car key on the "Hills" loop, on the climb right before the intersection of the "Hills" and the end of the "Brown's Pond" trail. Call the Lake Elmo Park Reserve main office if these belong to you.

(Nick Myhre)

Another excellent day of skiing at Lake Elmo! We arrived at 2:30 pm; beautiful sunny day and 10 degrees with light wind. Perfectly groomed trails made for lots of glide and plenty of whooping and hollering!! We ran into more deer out having fun than people. What a great season of skiing. And it is only January! Thank you groomers.

Photos:

(Woody Croatt)