Much improved conditions at Battle Creek today with a firm skate deck. The course is somewhat choppy, with two U-turns and a clover-leaflet, but exhilarating, with bone-chilling descents and heart-warming climbs. Excellent grooming; should be fun for the relays today.

(John Kendrick)

Trail continues to weather the warm weather well. When I skied beween 4 and 4:40 pm, it was 37 degrees. Lots of sugar churned up on the hills by lots of skiers. Moved ok on the flats; continued to struggle on the uphills with all the sugar particularly coming up from the bottom of the "Shoe". Guess I'll keep on training to see if I can build up some stamina.

(Keith Carlson)

Battle Creek continues with excellent conditions on about 2.4k, with a big Pisten Bully visibly working with huge snow piles nearby to open up some more. When I arrived at 1:30 pm, I had the place nearly to myself. But at 4:30? A high school and middle school extravaganza: Stillwater, Mounds Park, Forest Lake, Tartan, SPA, Como Park, Central, Northfield ... and certainly some other schools. Kids of every size and ability, and Birkie-scale crowds: wonderful!

(David Moore)

This week, two high school meets are scheduled to take place at Battle Creek West. Please be aware of the potential trail congestion during these events. While the trails will remain open to the public, please exercise caution and be aware of a high volume of skiers. Scheduled High School Meets -- Wednesday, December 20th: Irondale (SEC) from 2 pm to 5 pm; Thursday, December 21st: Twin Cities Nordic from 3 pm to 5:30 pm. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we accommodate these events. Thank you for respecting the shared use of the trails.

(Thony Thao)

Started at 6:30 am. Trails in great condition, one small dirty spot next to the classic tracks right on top of the bump by the trail access at the east side of the parking lot. Since I last skied on Friday, the Horseshoe Loop downhill has been added, it ties in nicely to the downhill turn of the Prairie Loop. Snow guns were blazing along the Catwalk. Overall great conditions considering the warm and rainy weather we had over the weekend.

Photos:

(Christian Franken)

At a 1:00 pm start there was lots of sugar to plow thru for a skater like myself. Where it was packed and not churned up on the flats, it was pretty fast. There was only one spot of snert easily avoided. It was about 37 degrees and cloudy. The classic track looked fine wherever I looked at it. Despite playing hockey once a week, having done one bike trip of 16 to 18 miles at decent pace in each of the last two weeks, and doing cardio intervals on the elliptical at least once each week with no problem, it wasn't enough and my 71 year-old self could not sustain skates up any of the significant hills even on newly waxed skis in the right temperature range. I would have done a little better without the loose snow but all the other skaters - about 15 - managed it fine. It was no issue on the downhills even though I snowplowed rather than stepped many of the faster curves. Nice to get out for the first time with a reasonable amount of terrain to ski. Thanks groomers and Ramsey County.

(Keith Carlson)

Considering the weather over the past few days the open trails were surprisingly good. Lots of laps but great to be out there! Need some snow for sure but lucky to have the man made trails.

(Pat Green)

7 AM Trails well groomed for classic and skate. All considered after warm and rain. Conditions are as good as they can be.
Side note: Classic track is on right side of the trail. It seems like on any right turn corner skaters cut into the classic track - that is no no. Please respect the classic track!

(Ahvo Taipale, Finn Sisu)

I groomed the established trails last night, working with what the rain and warm weather has done to the course. The trails aren't perfect, but neither is the weather. Looking forward to the cooler temperatures to get some more work done both on the current trails and getting some more snow made!

(Joshua Wickert)

Despite the warm weather and groomed trails, skiing was pretty good. The trail had a few icy patches along with soft snow especially on the uphills.

(Ethan Knuti)