Excellent conditions on the open trails, possibly the best skiing day of the winter. The CCC/Thompson loop is just about as clean as it was after grooming on Friday, with somewhat better glide, and the track is still fairly deep with no washed out areas. Still no glazing or significant debris on the return loop along the river, which is usually the trouble spot. The Oak trail has similar conditions, except for a few scattered oak leaves that settled in the tracks on the outgoing downhill portion-these are easily avoided without slowing down by lifting a ski. Special blue provided very good kick. Possibly glide would have been better with green, as temperatures did not warm up as fast as predicted (from -10F at sunrise to 14F at my start time, and 17F by the time I finished up shortly after noon. ) Thanks to the snowshoers, who have become much more numerous than skiers this year, for showing consideration in staying well to the side of the left track on the Oak Trail. It didn't look pristine, but still skied quite well.

(Joel Rosen)

The CCC and Thompson were virtually pristine late this afternoon. Tracks were deep and clean, and even the return along the river was not yet marred by debris or glazing. Track was set earlier in the afternoon, so the cold, fresh snow was squeaky, and glide was modest. I used green kicker, but I don't think special green would have made much difference. Should be great tomorrow morning unless it snows an inch or more overnight.

(Joel Rosen)

Only trail that is open is not groomed since the rain on Tuesday. Since that time a hard freeze has made the trail extremely icy. If you were to fall it would be a hard impact since the surrounding snow is frozen hard.

(Michael Pappas)

We skied Jay Cooke today around 11:30. It was fast and fun but not icy. Towards the end, the spots in the sun were just starting to get a bit mushy. Fresh grooming yesterday made tracks solid, shallow in spots, but not icy. No debris at all when we skied either. Footprints were on the tracks on the way back.

(Eve Graves)

Purple kicker provided plenty of grip on the Oak Trail, but with the recently (yesterday) renovated and groomed track and temperatures still in the low 20's, purple in the kick zone was slowing the glide somewhat. Nice deep track with minimal debris, and the renovated snow was still almost untransformed before 9:30am. By the time I drove over to the main trailhead, temperatures were in the upper 20's and the purple wax was providing good grip and glide on the CCC and Thompson trails. As usual, the return along the river had the most debris and glazing.

(Joel Rosen)

The Oak Trail was beautifully tracked and not yet glazed at the mid-morning start. Just some minimal oak leaf debris that wasn't hard to lift skis over (B skis rating is for the other trail). Blue kicker was working quite well, but then the fast warm-up changed everything. The uphill return portion was somewhat glazed and with temperature rising above 32F, special violet or even violet kicker wasn't quite enough for consistent grip. By the time we drove over to the CCC trailhead, further warming had occurred. The CCC had considerably more debris, especially (as usual) the return along the river. A good pair of no-wax skis would probably have been the best option by this time.

(Joel Rosen)

Skied the Oak Trail mid-morning. As might be expected on a windy day, there were scattered oak leaves in the tracks, but never more than one leaf in one place, so it wasn't hard to lift up skis over them. The wind was preceded by a dusting of snow, so the track that was probably fast yesterday was a bit on the slow side this morning. I used special green kicker; possibly, polar would have worked better.

(Joel Rosen)

Skied CCC and Thompson loop. Track is very good and debris-free on Thompson. Most of CCC is debris free, but as is often the case, pine needles are a slight annoyance on the return along the river. Did not have time to ski the Oak Trail, which was recently cleared, groomed and tracked (park report), but hope to check it out later this week. Trails connecting CCC and Oak are not yet cleared and opened, so driving is the only reasonable option.

(Joel Rosen)

We skied from the campground today and wow, did they ever clean up a ton! Looking along the sides as we skied there was evidence of clean up almost the entire way. When you come from the campground parking we went left to get onto the trail. At the T, you can only go left now because the trail to the right is still completely covered with downed trees. The trail was not freshly groomed, but the tracks were solid and intact with zero debris. Going up the one big hill some pole plants were super deep and soft, the rest of them were firm. Someone had walked up the middle of the tracks and we saw someone going to snowshoe and redirected her but she continued on the ski trail. One gal in our group was heading out on snowshoes and the ranger caught her as she left her car told her to stay off the ski trail and guided her to the snowshoe trail.

Photos:

(Eve Graves)

The park now has the two closest ski trails on the North Side cleared, groomed, and double-tracked: CCC and Thompson. CCC was virtually pristine, and Thompson had some minor debris off to the sides of the tracks. Very little ski traffic as of this afternoon; in fact, these trails will probably ski better after a few more people have skied through and eliminated some of the minimal crust remaining in the tracks on curves. There are more spectacular, challenging, and scenic trails in Jay Cooke, but for now, it's a treat just to be able to ski here in these near pristine conditions.

(Joel Rosen)