Skied the man-made trails at Elm Creek. The snow was definitely a bit slushy but completely skiable and the downhills were fast. Classic tracks appeared to be decent shape on most of the course.

(Hannah Weissman)

Stuck to the man-made loop Tuesday night. Rutted, slushy, but fast and fun to ski. Groomer was heading out to the Northern lights loop about 8:30 - I don't understand this as it was not below freezing yet.

(Charlie Anderson)

I did a short--very short--skate before I switched over to classic. They had groomed everything, but... *squish squish*. The weather makes it what it is. Despite not having great (or hardly any) wax on my skins, let alone skin treatment, the tracks on the manufactured loop were pretty good--faster than the skate lane. Ventured out to N Lights because I saw set track, and was surprised they were in very good shape. I say B skis, because the wet may not be the best for people's best classic skis. Probably OK if skating, though. Not a lot of debris or burn through yet, surprisingly. Just beware that, if classic-ing the natural snow, the melt down is making it so that your pole plants (predominantly right arm) sometimes go rather deep--so watch your force. It even happened a couple times with my left pole plants.

(Andrea Potyondy-Smith)

Caught the Valley classic trail just after noon before rain and it was great, neither slush nor ice. Took a peek at Northern Lights - not sure if groomed, seemed a little slippery. But had a fun ski, and well worth coming out. Thanks groomers.

(Karen Peteres)

Did the northern bit - Monarch and the multiuser trail. Morning conditions were good, with good firm tracks on Monarch, but by noon the snow was getting soft in the sunny areas. The multiuse surface was a little choppy, but very skiable. Some skate skiers and skijourers were out, seemed to have no problems.

Photos:

(Laurie Ford)

Parked at the beach lot (very full at the main lots), and skied the outer loop, snowmaking loop, and Northern Lights. Generally very good conditions. The natural snow trails were a little rutted but very skiable (always hard to compare against the artificial snow), had plenty of coverage and wasn't icy. Downhills were just fine, good control and smooth. Surprised to run into three groups of walkers out on the outer loop, haven't had that happen before. Lots of skiers out, including kids classes, but never crowded.

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)

The Valley trail was groomed and the tracks were good. The Northern Lights trail was groomed but the track were in very bad shape. Snow was icy and hard and in some places too slippery to ski on outside the tracks.

(Alex Van Dyke)

The groomers were still out when I was there and in fact were just setting the classic tracks. Skate deck was soft but by time people are reading this it should have setup some. Northern Lights had been groomed earlier and with the freezing rain was glaze ice so I turned back.

(Don Callander)

Skied Monarch late this morning with classic skis. Must have been groomed and tracked this morning because it was perfect, with nice deep tracks and no footprints from hikers or snowshoers. Met very few skiers, had good and glide with my skin techs.

(Earl Stabenow)

I skated the outer loops from 8:30 to 9:30 this morning. Trail conditions were quite varied. Valley was near perfect for skate and classic. Lake Trail (and the shortcut) had been freshly dragged for mostly fine skating, but with a good-sized groove in the middle in many sections that tried to catch my skis; classic tracks were mediocre at best, and often had been dragged over today by the groomer. Creek Trail hadn't been dragged today, and was getting hard-packed, with a firm groomer-created mid-ridge in places. Creek had nice-looking classic tracks, the best on the outer loops! (But I didn't get a good look at Eagle or Monarch.) Northern Lights (return leg at least) had been dragged this morning, and skating was fine; the classic tracks were better looking than they had been on Friday, better than on Lake.

(Ron Refsnider)