Wow is there a lot of snow left at the Mound. Trail was combed out again Monday and I was thrilled with how nice it was mid afternoon at 45F. I skied from the parking lot on the upper section to the campground hill and back several times. Rock skis for sure and there are some bare spots but all in all an amazing outing given the recent rain and record temps. I skated but another guy was going around on fish scales and having fun too. Well worth the trip for hard cores.

Photos:

(Mike Ivey)

Most of the trails have survived the record-breaking warmth and severe weather. Even better, after a nearly 3-week hiatus, park staff made the decision to groom the green, yellow, red, and campground loops on Friday morning. I don't think anyone saw that coming! No tracks were set, but there is relatively fresh corduroy. However, it was quite hard-packed/frozen over this morning, and significant portions of the trails had been hiked over when it was soft, thus creating nasty postholes. There are some bare spots, notably on the big downhill descent into the campground in multiplace places. You will need to walk down it. The campground itself also has some bare and thinning spots, although at this time they are mostly avoidable. There were also large visible bare spots near the trailhead, although coverage got much better once you made it into the forest. Be careful on the descents - I hit a particularly hard/icy patch of corduroy with my metal edges that caused one of my skis to go flying and partially broke my binding. Grooming plans: Park staff say they plan on grooming again on Monday.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

The combination of record heat, some sun, torrential rain, heavy wind, and possibly even hail have visibly taken a massive toll on the trails. While I did not venture onto the trails themselves, what I saw from hiking/road intersections looked mostly awful compared to just 24 hours ago. I still harbor hope that the trails deeper in the forest survived, and I did see some evidence of that on the Pool and part of Ridgeview trails. But some of the loops may become out-and-backs instead. I would suggest staying off the trails until they've dried and firmed up.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Mild daytime temperatures have actually contributed to better skiing conditions for trails on the north/east side of the mound. Coverage there is still essentially 100% and not thin, save for a large rock that apparently tracks were set over on the edge of the trail. Skiing around it is trivial. Softer snow has made it easy to control your descent, and skiing over postholes isn't as bumpy of a ride as it previously was. However, there are now bare spots on the Pleasure Valley Trail (orange loop), one of which you'll probably need to take your skis off for. It's odd because there are still many spots on that loop that are still in great condition. The main campground still has like 90% good coverage, but it is visibly thinning, and patches of asphalt are visible in a few places. Be very careful on the descent into the campground, because that is where I noticed it to be the thinnest. You may want to take a sharp right and head down that little loop by way of the skate deck. I did not bother with the trail down to Ridgeview, since I could see patches of bare asphalt from afar. Shoutout to the skier I talked to who was using 102mm skis in hopes that it would level out a lot of the bumpiness. It worked!

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Skied the entire classic trail system, save for the steep uphill on the yellow loop. I used my slightly-wide metal-edged touring skis, which I think was a necessity. Temperature was about 40F when I arrived around 2 pm. Coverage was good throughout the trail system, with only a few easily avoidable bare spots. The main thin part I noticed was the exposed part of the Military Ridge Trail Access next to the prairie, where there is only an inch or two of snow on top of asphalt. I would be careful through there, since it is on a downhill. Beyond that, the usual spot under the pine grove on the Pleasure Valley Trail (orange loop) was thin and dirty. Incredibly, even though it was well above freezing, the trails on the north/east side of the mound were still quite firm/hard-packed. Pretty much no melting. There's still a deep base on that side of the mound (6"+), although all of the foot and ski ruts make it a bit of a rough ride. As a side note, I did ask park staff about their decision not to groom over the last couple of weeks, and it sounded like they didn't want to groom due to the past rain and the current freeze/thaw cycles creating a hardpack.

(Kyle Richard)

They didn't groom the entire weekend. Despite having deepest snow in region. It's nasty but passable with metal edges.

(Paul Blichmann)

What a waste of a deep snow base. It has been walked all over and frozen that way. There is no skill level to safely ski through frozen postholes.

(Paul Blichmann)

Skated the flat loop at the top of the Mound starting at 7:15 this morning. Expectedly crusty, but honestly in good shape considering it hasn't been groomed in at least 10 days. The base is deep enough, at least 6". There are some deep footprints you'll have to be careful around, and it looked like someone attempted to set some classic tracks. But the latter could be easily skated over. It was already starting to get a tad soft/slushy by 8, although I wasn't sinking in at all.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Skiing at The Mound lives on! I decided to give BMSP another shot this evening. I stuck to the campground and pool trail, and honestly the tracks were in excellent shape! I almost couldn't believe it. There are a couple of spots with leaf debris, and it is still quite soft (especially pole plants), but for the most part hikers haven't trampled all over everything. If it were just a tad firmer then I would have used my good skis, but instead I stuck with my wider fish scales. The only part where it seemed a bit thin was towards the bike campground, and only where there were some footprints.

Photos:

(Kyle Richard)

Got out early and snow is solid. Tracks are icy fast. Lot of foot traffic initially near the shelter. Took the Willow Springs loop (backwards) to the campground loop. Downhills are dicey. Very skiable. Saw no one here this morning. Good job BMSP staff for keeping the trails annd shelter open!

(Eric Birschbach)