Skied the manmade snow loop to the lake and creek trail back to the chalet. It was the first time I skied the creek trail and it was absolutely stunning with the snow! It was a bummer that even with all the fresh snow there is still a large rut down the center of it that makes skating difficult. Given that, the grooming on Northern Lights and the manmade trail is perfect, I don't understand why the grooming is so poor on the lake and creek trails.

(Harry Rothberg)

Today was one of the most beautiful days of skiing I remember in 55 years of skiing which is about the last time we had this much snow (16 inches) on the ground on this date (1969-70). Lots of snow on the ground and in the trees...calm wind...lingering freezing fog...magical. The manmade snow was great. I looked at the Lake/Creek start and end and there was a classic track that looked pretty good. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to venture out to the Dark Side. The Northern Lights classic track was fair to poor to non-existent...maybe it was just skied in. When finished I talked to a couple of long-time skiers who said that the skate lane grooming on the Lake and Creek was poor...uneven and rutted. Hopefully that improves.

(Mark Lahtinen)

What a great day for skiing with great friends. We skied at 10 in the morning with hardly anyone other than us. Valley was perfect of course. Observed Lake was tracked and Northern lights was also. Looks like the sledding hill is ready to go. Enjoy!

(Earl Stabenow)

Trails are in great shape. I classic skied Valley to Lake to Eagle to Monarch to Lake to Northern Lights to Chalet. The snow in the trees is beautiful!

Photos:

(Mark Skinner)

I skated the Northern Lights Trail and the very end of Lake from 12:30-1:30 today. I was disappointed to find that Northern Lights hadn't been groomed since the 2-3" of fluffy snow that fell overnight. Conditions were very soft and slow, and I often caught a ski tip in the fluff. There was what appeared to be a fairly good, but soft-sided skier-set track. I ventured out backwards a couple hundred yards on the Lake Trail near the beach to check conditions. On that short stretch, the skate deck was firmer and the classic tracks looked better and groomer-set.

(Ron Refsnider)

We went and skied the outer lake loop and came back Northern lights. The man made snow was in almost perfect condition. The lake loop wasn't perfect but still good for skate skiing. There was some debris but most of it could be skied around. There were tracks set and someone was skiing in them. Then we got to Northern lights, which seemed like it had not been groomed for a while. It was all hard packed and there was a rut down the middle. If you caught a ski on that then it was easy to go over. We did a lot of double polling in the tracks which was the only good way to get through without large chances of falling over. The hill down into Northern lights was so wicked fast. When we got back on to the man made loop it wasn't as fast but the grooming was great so you had good control.

Photos:

(Elizabeth Loper)

Sad day. Was out on Lake/Creek and saw more hikers than skiers on the trails. Lots of boot prints on Lake. Then there were vehicle tracks from the beach all the way back on the Northern Lights trail. Great weather and good conditions being ruined by others.

(Mark Levno)

Classic ski conditions were fair today but skate deck looked pretty good. Lots of debris on the trails was good for unexpected face plants. The man made snow trails were excellent for classic and skate.

(Bill Wolf)

Skied Eagle Trail and back on Northern Lights. Should have used klister wax (I didn't.) Tracks were well defined but mostly glazed. All alone 'til was passed by a few skaters on Northern Lights. All in all, a good way to start the New Year after spending a week in Mexico.

(Steve Paladie)

Started out on the man-made loop around 9:30 and found it to be that Goldilocks-just-right firmish fresh corduroy that allows me to hold an edge, ride a gliding ski, and forget about all the problems I have with balance and weight transfer. I made a visual assessment of the connector to the outer trails and the exit to the Northern Lights trail and concluded they had not been groomed in awhile. I did try to skate down the upper two-way trail that makes up the return from Northern Lights and found it to be that same lumpy, bumpy, uneven surface that gives me so much trouble, so I decided to return to the perfection of the man-made loop and have fun rather than fight the trail for control of my skis. It was quite quiet when I arrived. Traffic had picked up quite a bit by the time I left at 11:30 but the man-made loop was still in fantastic condition at that point.

(Leif Irgens)