I guess if you want to avoid the crowds at Elm Creek you just need to wait for double digits below zero weather. It was -11F when I left the parking lot this morning. I didn't see one skier until I'd done all the classic tracked trails. All the natural snow trails are groomed and have classic tracks. All skating lanes were regroomed since yesterday, but only the snow-making trails and Northern Lights have regroomed classic tracks. The "Dark Side" trails are soft and slow, but it's wonderful to finally have tracks to ski on there. Northern Lights and the snow-making trails had wonderful, hard-set tracks, with surprisingly good glide. I got a lot of satisfaction from striding up the tracks on the Wall with my green kick wax. Excellent ski conditions - If you want solitude at Elm Creek, now's the time to go there.

(Ken Tobacman)

My dad and I did the man-made loop and Northern lights. We got to the trails about 5pm as races were finishing. The cut out to avoid the wall had snow that had drifted in so the skate skiing was more difficult. There were spots where I could see that snow had drifted into the tracks. They had classic tracks set on Northern lights. The snow was slightly slow and sticky but it was nice to have snow vs the ice that we were skiing on earlier in the season. The fastest section of the course was from the chalet to ski school.

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(Elizabeth Loper)

We skied the snowmaking loop, which was excellent as always, and Northern Lights, which was excellent with the new snow. These trails had good set tracks for classic. They looked a little loose and soft for skating, due to the fresh snow.

(Craig Wiklund, North Star Ski Touring Club)

The snowmaking portion of the perimeter trail is in very good condition. The remainder - Creek and Lake - that's groomed and open was in good to fair condition - minimal seed, leaf and twig litter. The skate portion of Creek up on the ridge has visible roots but only one exposed above the snow. Steeper uphills and and downhills are all well covered. The more gradual climbs to the top of Lake and Creek where the underlying ground is rutted has some snert. It was high 20's at my 11:00 start. I used my rock skis waxed with Swix Blue LF buffed with fluoro paste. B skis would have been fine. Tried to beat the warmup and avoid the need to rewax my skis. I may have missed that window but still moved okay. Trailhead lot was only half full. I only met one other skier coming the other way once I got off the snowmaking loop and then one other when I got back on to Northern LIghts which had virgin corduroy.

(Keith Carlson)

I started at the Bottineau House (which is my recommendation for parking as the chalet parking lot was full with terrain park users). The snow was a little sugary or grainy but I found it quite fast. The downhills were slick or smooth and slightly icy. The cut out to go around the wall is now open. I did the whole man-made loop and Northern lights. All the snow was about the same condition. The snow base of NL is solid and there is only one spot where there were leaves on the trail, but they are little leaves and easy to ski around. There were at least three teams out at 3:30pm when I got there which made it busy.

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(Elizabeth Loper)

Skied the artificial snow trails and Northern Lights. Both were in better shape than when I skied them a few days ago; I'd say good condition for Northern Lights and excellent condition for the artificial snow. The artificial snow was very fast, and the natural snow was faster than I thought it might be. Northern Lights was in better shape overall than a few days ago; some of the thinner spots seemed to have better coverage and some of the debris was cleaned out or covered over. Probably best to use B skis still on the natural snow but better skis would have probably been fine when I was out.

(Kristian Markon)

We got skiing this evening around 5:00 pm and got in just over 13k. I did a mixture of skate and classic. We started out on the outer natural loop, which was somewhat packed and had reasonable coverage, but no tracks and still some thin patches, so definitely B ski conditions. After that, we did a few loops on the man-made, which of course was in good condition. Here the tracks are mostly firm and deep. The skate deck was a bit sugary, but the groomers were out setting new corduroy around 8:00. Despite the beautiful evening of skiing, I doubt I will be back to Elm Creek this year.

(Marcus Bradt)

My dad and I went out to Elm creek about 9am this morning. There was a ski team out classic skiing. There were lots of skiers out. We started on the man-made loop. The snow was nice and firm. Then we went out to Northern lights loop. There were no tracks but enough snow to skate. There were a few spots where the grass was poking through, but we could skate around them. There were less than five people out on Northern lights which was a nice compared to all the people out on the man-made snow.

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(Elizabeth Loper)

We (family of 4) used the 2.5K Valley Trail which utilizes snowmaking. Trails were well groomed and tracked but slow. Trails were busy and parking lots by the chalet were full (thank god for the shuttle service!). Very cold, so we didn’t stay out for the full hour we’d planned on. Light snow fell the entire time.

(Shane Snyder)

I classic skied this morning and early afternoon. I was mainly on the back natural trails: Creek, Lake, Eagle, Monarch, and Northern Lights. All these trails had been rolled but no tracks were set. I checked a few spots and there was a 1" to 1.5" base. There were some thin spots in the usual places but nothing that couldn't be skied around. The only two spots that I really slowed down for were the Creek Overlook Bypass and the Lake trail by the small bridge just north of the beach. The skate deck looked good and I didn't see any kick through to the ground. I was on the multi use trail for a bit getting between trails and it too looked good although I did see some kick through to the pavement where someone got off the edge of the packed track. A big shout out to the groomers! Now we just need some more snow.

(Tom Harris)