I had the place to myself this afternoon for about an hour of skiing. I guess conditions are pretty poor so only die hard skiers or something of that ilk venture forth. That said, there actually were a few places where there was kinda nice soft snow. Most of the course was icy and in some areas quite icy but no glare ice. More like hardscrabble snow packed ice in most places. I had metal edges on my skis and that helped with the control. Conditions reminded me of alpine skiing Sunburst and Little Switzerland in my youth but I digress.... Did I mention that climate change sucks?

Photos:

(Christopher Quandt)

I got there in the evening and it was fairly icy and powdery but very skiable. You could probably use good skis, there weren't really any bare spots, but B skis if you're being careful. Great to have a loop open with the weather we've been having.

(Sarah Guillot)

1 km loop, rolling gentle/moderate hills the whole way, hairpin turns like a gokart track. So much fun! Plenty of snow. Other than climb by powerlines which puts classic into the weeds (temporary situation). The set tracks were rocksolid and so fast! With no slipping on climb either. That is, when you aren't scrambling across skate deck for intersections and turns. The hairpins are soft enough to skate-turn on long touring skis, but caution required on the interchanges which are hard and uneven. Leading to some skittering. Mighta just been rusty skills, it's day 1.

(Paul Blichmann)