Skied Eagle and Creek trails. The snow was soft but track was there for about 95% of the trails. No bare spots, some leaves and small twigs from all the wind last week.

(Norman Greenberg)

The manmade snow loop was great with a firm and fairly fast track. There was some snow blowing in from the opposite direction of last week...warmer wind. The Northern Lights had been rolled and a track set. It was all soft. I think the classic track snow is too dry to set up. The natural snow was fairly fast as I almost made it to the top of the little hill after Cowabunga.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Man-Made snowloop was in great condition for both skate and classic. Surprisingly, Northern Lights had not been groomed and so the downhill side of Cowabunga was a bit sketchy and there was a fair amount of tree debris around. Not sure of the grooming status on the other trails.

(Don Callander)

Started with classic on the manmade snow loop, which was as perfect as ever. Even made it up the wall without having to herringbone for the first time ever. After visual inspection of the natural snow trails from the manmade loop, I decided to switch to skate and venture out. The connector to the outer trails was freshly groomed and demonstrated snowmobile tracks and channels similar to what I have been seeing at French and Hyland (see first pic). I haven't seen anything like this in the 10 years I have been skiing here so I'm puzzled as to the cause. The multi-use trail to the Nature Center was loose powder and footprints, not appearing to have been groomed for maybe a week. The ski trail continued to be freshly groomed with tracks and channels until connecting with the Creek Trail. Here, grooming appeared to have been performed maybe 1-2 days ago with about 1" of loose powder on top and a somewhat uneven but skiable surface. At the connection to the Lake trail to return to the Chalet, grooming abruptly stopped. From there, slogging through about 6" of fresh powder on skate skis was... well... not fun, but I didn't know another way back other than skiing the wrong way back the way I came. Made it to Northern Lights (with a lot of double poling) and managed to not fall on whop-de-doo's down that steep downhill (tracks showed several people ran off trail in the corner at the bottom here). Grooming picked up again at Northern Lights, appearing to have been done maybe 1-2 days ago, with the skate deck being somewhat soft and uneven but skiable. I wasn't paying much attention to the classic tracks other than to notice that they were present and/or absent at various times on the outer loops. They did look decent along the return on Northern Lights to the chalet. I was on skate skies waxed with Fastwax HS 0 today (-30 F to+8F) and glide was noticeably better than my experience yesterday.

Photos:

(Leif Irgens)

Machine made snow loop and Northern Lights are groomed and tracked. Although, there is some blown snow due to the high winds. Skied west to Eagle and Creek Trails. They are rolled but very soft with no tracks set. The north end of the Lake loop is rolled but the connector between creek and northern lights has not been rolled. The monarch classic tracks near the nature center had not been set. Overall a great outing but very slow conditions today. Very peaceful as I think I was one of like three skiers out there.

Photos:

(Nick Graham)

Just a drive by on this brutal wind and cold day. There was evidence of someone having ventured out on the skate deck. The wind was howling and the snow was blowing into the tracks in the open areas. There were a couple of cars there so perhaps a skier or two ventured into the woods to escape the cold wind.

Photos:

(Mark Lahtinen)

I classic skied the outer loop at Elm Creek this afternoon. Absolutely beautiful with the fresh snow falling. Lots of fresh powder. No tracks set on some trails. Nice track on Valley & Northern Lights loop.

Photos:

(Mark Skinner)

Skied the Lake trail and manufactured snow trail. The surface was very icy boilerplate and while the natural snow trails gave a bit more edge, they were also quite uneven in spots. Careful on the downhills - it's painful to fall on that surface.

(Kate Karshna)

Can only comment on the man made loop as I didn't see any tracks on the natural snow. In general the trail was in excellent shape. The snow guns and wind were blowing causing a couple of areas to be wind blown and covered.

(Scott Greymont)

I skied the Valley and Northern Lights trails. The Valley trail is in good condition with some loose snow over a freshly groomed deck. The Northern Lights Trail is in poor condition as stated in the Three River Park District Trail Conditions report. The Northern Lights trail has many areas where the snow is soft and slushy.

(James Brandt)