I ski at Lake Elmo Park a lot. It's close to my house, I like the terrain and they always do a good job grooming with the minimal snow we usually have. But not today, baby! Today the groomer did an awesome job and the conditions are exceptional! Tracks were nice and deep and went down and up a lot of the hills that are fun to ride down and easy to kick up! The skate deck had enough snow and corduroy left to jump on and off on a couple tight corners. Yes, a couple sections of not quite as deep tracks where we normally see them but the conditions and the grooming are the best I think I've seen there in years! Thank you!

(Carol Fitzgerald)

Trails are in pretty great condition! Tracks were set on all the East trails except the North loop and the skate deck was freshly rolled as well. West side trails were all packed this morning as well. Great day to come out skiing!

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Great conditions. Freshly groomed skate and classic. Come on out! You won't be disappointed. My first time here. Green route has big downhills with classic tracks.

(Paul Parins)

I took my classic skis to Lake Elmo between 3-4pm today and skied the classic tracks on what's becoming my routine ski loop, green to Brown's Pond, to the Flats, through the woods on green, then Prairie yellow to the turn-off to Savanna. The groomers did a nice job this morning with both the skate deck and classic tracks, the tracks that were missing on Savanna loop were re-tracked this morning. Night and day difference between Wednesday which was primarily an ice run and today with combination of snow yesterday and regroomed trails. My hat is off for all those doing the grooming at all Washington County parks.

Photos:

(Harlan Jones)

Lake Elmo Park Reserve's east side ski trails were tracked this morning for classic skiing. Please note the trail section around the swim pond has not been tracked yet. With this new snowfall, trails are back in good condition. Happy skiing!

(Elena Schewe)

Yay fresh snow! The groomer rolled the East side trails this morning to prepare for a ski meet this afternoon. Race starts at 3:40pm and is expected to end around 5pm. Expect the trails/park to be busy during that time. Overall things are in fair condition but there are still some icy sections on the trail. Tracks have not been reset at this time - they will wait until the snowfall is completed to attempt to reset tracks.

(Jen Garcia, Washington County Parks)

Eagle Point multiuse trail (on the west side) was in fair condition for skating. Obviously, there were lots of boot prints and on the north side, snow cat or snowmobile tracks, roughening up the surface but, with last night's freeze, it was skateable. On portions where the walkers didn't spread out and followed one narrow track instead, there was a reasonably smooth skate deck particularly after the right turn before the bridge on the climb up to the north ridge. However, getting too close to the edge resulted in my pole breaking through and sinking into the softer snow on a few occasions. Despite the fact that I was taking it easy and I actually took time to look around a bit, I was able to maintain a 6.8 mph pace, which is pretty fast for me. It was about 34 degrees with a moderate overcast. I used FastWax LF. It was nice to revisit a trail I loved (before it was converted to multi use) and have great memories of - like fording the first stream on far western end with several well targeted jumps and then leaping across the second stream now channeled through the big culvert after throwing my skis across to the other side during the thaw at the end of one season.

(Keith Carlson)

Clearly not groomed since last snow. In the very few places where you can find portions of the trail that have seen little traffic since that snow, the skiing is good. Most of the rest of the trail consists of hard, somewhat icy ruts. The orange trail just hard not icy and is not rutted -- but it's rather uneven, giving the appearance that a vehicle was driven down it and not enough grooming done after that to smooth things out. I suggest B skis due to debris on a few sections, but this is also pretty easy to avoid and there is plenty of coverage throughout. Overall, I'm waiting until this is groomed before returning for skate skiing, though I will note that I was skiing with my rock skis (having broken my newer pair), so bad edging was really the final straw.

(Jess Holle)

Took my old classic skis to Lake Elmo and as expected, the ski deck and tracks were really icy. I skied Brown's Pond to the Flats, through the woods on green, then to the yellow prairie loop, and then decided to do the Savanna loop to finish my afternoon. Just a caution for any classic skiers doing the Savanna loop today, the machine came through to pack down the ski deck and erased the classic tracks for about 2/3 of the way around the loop. Definitely could have used metal edges on my old classic skis for some of the downhill sections, my inner thighs are going to be barking at me tomorrow. But as always, good to get outside to ski and looking forward to some new snow to keep this season going.

Photos:

(Harlan Jones)

All the trails remain open. They did try rolling on the East side this morning but as expected the trails were really soft. Minor ice in some of the more open areas of the trail.

(Jen Garcia)