The manmade snow Valley loop was groomed this morning after the snow and was in very good condition, with just a couple of slightly slushy spots. The groomer was embarking on the Northern Lights loop as I left around 11am, and the deck looked enticing.

(Jason Goepfert)

Skied all trails at French around 9:00 am. Hard somewhat fast snow. Grooming overall OK but uneven, more and more frozen patches in some places easily skied around. Skyline trail downhill are OK with no ice. Some localized tree debris in a few places.

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(Bernard Cerles)

Wet, soft, and extremely slow. Skated all the skate trails very late afternoon. Very mixed. Manmade and Northern Lights seemed like they had been groomed a lot and were in relatively good shape. The outer trails had also been groomed at least once, but were excruciatingly wet and softs; in some places the trail seemed like it hadn't been packed well and the tips of my skis got caught under the heavy snow. Northern Lights was actually in the best shape to me, even more so than the manmade trails. The multiuse trail hadn't been groomed as far as I could tell. The tracks looked good everywhere for the most part, maybe a little more "wild" in the outer trails.

(Kristian Markon)

The groomers were out in force around 10:30am. I did the Valley, Northern Lights, and Creek trails. Valley was excellent as always, while the latter two were only partially groomed at the time and only a single pass at that. So about half of the Creek trail had 4" of heavy wet snow on top of an icy base, making the black diamond difficulty more like double black diamond. Should all be groomed by now, though. The groomed parts were in fantastic condition even with the warmer temps.

(Jason Goepfert)

Skied Lake, Creek and the man made trails around 1pm. Everything was so good! Very fast. I was worried things would be icy, but was so happily surprised how nice the skate deck was groomed up. No ice, not too mushy either. Glad I made it out!

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(Christy Dolph)

Skied monarch because it was close to home, had to leave by 11 am. Monarch had not been groomed for a while, with foot tracks all over it. But foot tracts lessened as I got further away from the nature center. Tracks were extremely icy. I used my skin techs because I don't want to use sticky wax. One sharp turn to the left one a downhill was troublesome because snow plowing was not effective with the icy snow. Saw a lady with two dogs pulling a small dog sled on the bike trail with her inside, but she ran behind on the long hill.

(Earl Stabenow)

Skated yesterday; classic today. Serious degradation to classic tracks on outer trails--even Eagle-- in that time, and even the skate lane on Creek/Lake was looking sad. I have seen the groomers last two days when skating between 10:30 AM - Noon. Northern Lights track was still passable, but probably not for long, and all skate lanes looked like they needed to be combed once the sun goes down. Outer trails really best for B skis. Manufactured snow still in great shape, though, and A-skiable. Was on skins with moveable bindings and was OK, though probably double poled a lot more than usual. Skins or liquid spray kilster = probably best, depending on how much work you want to put into prep and how quickly you get annoyed with imperfect technique.

(Andrea Potyondy-Smith)

Skied man made snow loop/Valley around 8:00 am. Hard fast snow, this is the time in the season to ski early at Elm Creek before temperature goes above freezing. Excellent grooming as usual, fast deck, not crowded.

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(Bernard Cerles)

I classic skied all snowmaking trails and most of the natural snow trails, including Lake, Eagle, Creek, Northern Lights, and Valley. Grooming was great. The set tracks were nearly perfect everywhere! Deep and well defined and almost no leaf/stick/bark debris. Skate deck looked excellent everywhere. The bright sun and high temperature was softening the snow everywhere the sun was shining on the trail, so glide generally wasn't great. But kick, with my skin skis, was excellent!

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(Craig Wiklund, North Star Ski Touring Club)

Skied Valley - groomed and in very good condition. Started getting soft around 2 - 2:30, especially on Northern Lights, but still good. No trail debris.

(Karen Peters)