Surprised to see that the skate deck was open on almost the whole system.
Skied classic as the cold made for great tracks. I had pretty fast skis despite just one layer of glidewax. The classic tracks are only set for the manmade area, but no one was out at night with the cold. Skied until about 8:00PM.
Two layers below and two above under a normal xc ski jacket. Needed downhill ski gloves and I was golden.

(Jeff Johnson)

I don't know if you would want to ski the outer trails - but they have been rolled from what I could tell. Looked like pretty good coverage in the open areas.
I stuck to the man made trails and as promised the whole loop out to Boulder Ridge was open and in great shape. Snow was really slow - but that was to be expected. Only a handful of brave / foolish folks out skiing. Only complaint was the zig zag at the bottom of the foothills on your way to boulder in the classic tracks. Probably want to avoid the tracks in that section.

(Scott Greymont)

Boulder is open for business! And for some reason, must be the grooming, there is good glide out here everywhere but the wall. Load up the Prius, Subaru, (Escalade?) with all your layers and get out here! Classic track looks as solid as concrete btw.

(Joe Dolan)

Star, Willow Creek & Frog Town loops (3.2K) are packed, tracked in good condition. Scenic Foothills and Boulder Ridge will open on Saturday morning Dec.30, to total 5K.
Visitor Center Hours 9 AM-9 PM on Weekdays and 8AM-9PM on Weekends. Trail Lights are on. Trails are open 5AM-10PM. Use Drop box by Visitor Center to pay for day pass when Building is closed.

(Sonja Bercich, Three Rivers Park District)

Skied Hyland Thursday night, classic... tracks were good but shallow, hoping we can get some real accumulating snow soon. 5k loop looks to be almost ready to open -- it warmed up enough that it looked like the skaters had good glide.
We were the last ones out and someone left behind a pair of Fischer x-lite skis with an identifiable race sticker--- we turned them into the Park Police waiting us out -- hope you see this and can get reunited!

(Jason Roys)

Lots of folk out enjoying the new snow. Tracks pretty beaten up, but still enjoyable. Scenic Foothills was still not open, and did not appear to be making snow there either?

(Tony Pellegrini)

I drove 2 hours north today to enjoy the Hyland trails and had a good skate ski. Didn't get started until noon so most of the cord was gone. But the base was solid and considering the temperatures I had some fairly decent glide. The classic tracks looked to be in excellent condition. There were many more classic skiers than skate skiers. The north loops (including Boulder Ridge) were closed with the snow guns going strong. Very nice trail system!

Photos:

(Jeff Hovinga)

Three of the manufactured ski trails are in good condition; packed and tracked; Star, Willow Creek & Frog Town loops (3.2K). Visitor Center Hours 9 AM-9 PM on Weekdays and 8AM-9PM on Weekends. Trail Lights are on. Trails are open 5AM-10PM. Use Drop box by Visitor Center to pay for day pass when building is closed.

(Sonja Bercich, Three Rivers Park District)

Hyland was skiing very well this morning. Sub zero temps kept the crowd away and the lack of wind made for a great morning. Scenic Foothills and Boulder Ridge are still closed but they had the guns cranked up! Perfect skate deck and classic track set was set. Styrofoam slow for the skate skiers, but the classic track was pretty zippy.

(John Horns)

As of this afternoon, Hyland still had the same man made loop open that has been open for about one week now. My Garmin and Strava both show this loop to be 2.7 km The classic tracks were impeccable, decent glide and good kick with cold hard wax on waxable skis. The skate deck, with the cold weather, was packed hard and had glide roughly equivalent to what I would have expected from skiing on cardboard (and probably just as squeaky).....still, it's better than being inside or not skiing.

(Leif Irgens)