Fantastic skiing. The snow held out great today. Hard to get off the trails today during the lunch ski. There was no melting. Interesting enough, the high temp hit 32 at 3am before temp dropped down 7 degrees than slowly climbed back up to 31 before dropping down again to sub 30 by 5pm. We didn't groom today for the first time in 10 days, saving the snow for grooming tomorrow night/early Saturday morning where we will groom most of the 60km of groomed segments. Currently tracks in great shape and skate deck is excellent. Lots of smiling faces on the trails and the balmy temps great for all the young kids skiing this week. Most recent grooming was yesterday on edges of skate trails and the north end of Bullhead lake trail and the bootleg extension which was groomed the for the first time this year. The first part of Bullhead is still skier made track and north end when crossing lake is bit rough, recommended to take skis off and walk though but entire loop and extension worth the ski for adventure/nature experience. Overall the base is deep with cold temps and we are confident of excellent skiing through the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

70km of grooming the past 24 hours. We were back out grooming this morning, cleaning up the inner trails and also went north and reset double track on North Loup. We will leave North Loup double tracked this week than put the skate lane back in for next weekend. Skied late morning on Mother North Star under a beautiful sun dog. Tracks were a bit slower from fine grained snow and a little wind blown but still a great ski. We will be back out in the morning touching up select trails. This week we also plan on grooming the bootleg extension of Bullhead Lake trail. Currently this trail has a skier made track and reports have been excellent, a nice option from the groomed trails that enter deep into a balsam pine stand.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Pristine! Sukkerbusk, Twin Lakes, Island Lake, and Wavy Gravy were awash in fresh snow. Picture-perfect classic tracks were freshly groomed again late yesterday afternoon, courtesy of Maplelag's master groomer. Be there!

(Glenn Gifford)

Another great day of skiing! Warmed up to 15 degrees and light fluffy snow falling all day made for a fantastic powder day on the trails. Total new snow around 4". We groomed all the skate trails in the morning and reset track on 15km of trail in addition. After the snow stopped in the late afternoon we groomed and set new double track on 30 km of trail and groomed 7km of skate trail. Little bit of wind skirting some snow back in the tracks. Photo of members of the North Star Ski Club that have been coming for over 40 consecutive years dating back to when Norm Oakvik was leading the charge on promoting Nordic skiing back in the 70's.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

A perfect day on the trails - the proverbial winter wonderland! With no wind and plenty of sunshine, the dry cold was not a major factor. Smooth and fast tracks on the fresh snow, fast and fun with my classic wooden skis. I did Twin Lakes, Island Lake, and Wavy Gravy in the morning, then North Loop and Roy's Run (my favorite) in the afternoon + Sukkerbusk and Mother North Star in the middle, total of 35K. Can't wait to be back before very long!

(Istvan Gombocz)

Fantastic day of skiing after grooming on entire 70km trail system the past few days including the fat bike trail. Morning lows have been -30 but with no wind, brilliant sunshine and temp near 0 by noon making for best classical skiing conditions of the year. Went out for a early lunch ski with Jake and found the best skiing on Roy's Run and North Loup than I can remember in recent years. If you ski Roy's Run, be sure to look for the wolf tracks on the adjacent pond on the far north end. Touch up grooming on a few inner classic trails and skate trails planned in the morning.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

3" of new snow. No issues with warm weather earlier in the week. The base is seasoned and firm. 10-18" of snow depth.
Groomed all day, working in the new snow but didn't do final due to wind blowing. Once the temp warms up to -20 air temp, will be back out doing final touch up on entire trail system. Note: North Loup will remained double track through the MLK weekend. Skating on Skaters Waltz, the two extension loops across the road, Suicide Hill and Single Green which is the long hill used in Section course. All other trails will be single or double tracked.
10km Twin Lakes Singletrack Fat Bike loop scheduled for grooming Friday afternoon/early evening. For best conditions, ride Saturday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Left the snow-starved West Central Minnesota region this morning with Kayo Aslagson and drove the 2+ hrs to Maplelag. Well worth the drive! Skating was excellent; firm, fast trails and a beautiful day. These were near perfect conditions - the "near" referring solely to my lack of fitness, otherwise it would have been absolutely perfect!

(Keith Brugger)

Trails have been holding up well to high volume of skier traffic and warmer temps making for nice skiing. We will be hosting the DL Invite race on Tuesday January 9th. Varsity classic will be using the second half of Rootin Tootin trail for the start, the full regular loop of North Loup and than returning on the east side of Sukkerbusk. These trails closed during the races from 10am-1230pm. JV and JR High will be a skate race on Skaters Waltz. These trails will be closed from 12pm-2pm. All other trails open for skiing all day. We will be grooming on the courses today and ask skiers stay off the fresh groomed until the afternoon. North Loup will be double tracked from today, eliminating the skate lane, until next grooming planned on Thursday than will be groomed for skate and classic again.

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

My wife and I classic skied on Sukkerbusk and Twin Lakes this afternoon. Like usual the trails were groomed to perfection. The snow was skiing cold, so blue wax worked well. My wife was using skin skis for the first time and also had excellent kick and glide. With little wind and temps in the upper 20s it doesn't get much better than today.

(Tom Dooher)