Groomers are coming in for the night. We saw the trails are firming up well. As we groomed we saw heavy snowfall squalls so thick that you could not see and then clear again...Lake effect at its best. We have a full crew heading out again in the early morning hours and we plan to groom until noon when we will open for skiing on Friday. I would expect about 20 km groomed for Friday some with classic tracks and then more for Saturday and more for Sunday. Demo Days are on for Saturday with Fischer and Atomic attending as of of tonight. ABR is open for skiing at noon Friday, we close for skiing at dark. We plan to open until March. 7 days a week including Holidays.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

I am just coming in from checking the trails and they seem to be holding snow well on the high and dry trails. Sulos is still wet, etc. The snow on the ground tonight is 2- 3 inches, melting from the bottom slightly. We will resume grooming Thursday and plan to open for Friday skiing. the forecast appears to being OK and the cold temps and another inch or so should make for good early season skiing on about 20 km of our trail system.
Conclusion: We are not open for skiing until Friday. We plan to open the ski trails again for the third time this season on Friday and we will stay open until we are not skiable. This includes staying open for Holidays.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

The forecast looks marginal for Demo Days conditions with brand new race skis this weekend. We have decided to postpone Demo Days until next Saturday Dec 19th. Fischer and Atomic have confirmed attendance, other vendors may confirm the new date as well.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: We are patiently waiting for Winter to return! We are ready to groom again!
We have been open 2 weekends so far but need cold temps and snow to reopen.

Photos:

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Fair to poor, pretty icy. Groomed on Saturday night, with just enough snow to skate ski.

(Lisa Lee)

We closed tonight as the snow melted away and got skied away in front of us today. We will reopen when we get more snow.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: We had a good day of skiing today. 5 ski teams here skiing and our locals.
We skied on about 20 km and skiing was good early season thin conditions until about 1 PM; the sun and warm started to melt out some of the hills. We were back out tonight regrooming and smoothing out the trails, however there are still complete bare spots under a few big pines that are grass covered but not snow covered. We did not reset tracks but we did groom an additional 3 km loop that was virgin powder and should ski well Sunday.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We groomed this morning and the trails are looking very skiable. We groomed 15 km and set about 10 km of classic tracks. We are mainly picking the high and dry trails and the flatter terrain with a few small hills. We will groom an additional 5 km of trails if possible in the early morning. The snow is out and some of the southern facing areas could have thin areas or bare spots from this afternoon sun but I am thinking a skier could find some good stretches. We are open at 9 AM CST.

Photos:

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Conditions: We may be skiable today, however we are not open for skiing yet. We plan and hope to re-open Saturday at 9 AM. We have been getting steady snow and have received about 6 inches over the the last snow we had. we are treating the snow very carefully watching temps and treading lightly with our groomers. It looks like we can manage the snow for the weekend to be skiable. I am guessing on about 15-20 km.
After 20 years or being open to the public, it is still very hard to portray honest and accurate trail conditions, especially in early season conditions. I am trying to be conservative as I age because I know many folks need to make plans and travel to get here.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We picked up about 4 inches of heavy wet snow last night and during the day today. With the warmer temps we are waiting for the snow to dry out as the temps cool. We are still not reopening for skiing but as we watch what happens with the temps and the trails we still have a chance for skiing this weekend.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)