Kudos to the grooming crew for a perfect skate deck this morning, along with great classic tracks! The snow is in great shape and the trail is very clean. The newly reconfigured loop is a fun change of pace. Wirth is a Super fun place to be in the early morning!

Photos:

(Bill Oyler)

The groomers did a great job reconfiguring the course to allow for some great late season skiing while getting off the golf course. The new loop is fun with some good hills. Classic tracks shallower than yesterday and from 6:00-7:00 things were icy. Still plenty of snow, some debris in the tracks but nothing too bad.

(Sam Knuth)

Beautiful fast morning on the man made loop. Great work restoring the trail after the race yesterday. It was crisp and a bit icy in the classic tracks (Great double polling but I had a hard time getting any kick with my skin skis). Tracks were deep, doubled up and generously spaced. Exhilaratingly fast and super fun.

(Sam Knuth)

Great corn on the snowmaking loop in the morning. Wet and slow in the afternoon. Skate lane still fairly firm. Classic tracks wet ice.

(Zachary Handler)

Spectacular skiing on the man-made loop before temps got above freezing this morning. A little sugar but overall very firm. Spring skiing doesn't get much better than this.

(Jaclyne Jandro)

I purposefully waited until temperatures were above freezing to start skiing, and am glad I did: I'd rather ski on slush than ice. As expected, at 2:30 pm both up and downhills were sugary slop, but surprisingly, it did not drag. The ponds/rivers notes by previous reports seem to have been drained, because I didn't notice them. Perhaps that's what the ditches across the trail were about. The one across the low spot in the S curve on the North Finger, which was about 10 inches wide and 10 inches deep, made me nervous, but I learned that it was not a problem to ski over as long as you keep your skis parallel. Reputedly there was a similar one on Drevils Drop, though I don't know for sure because I bypassed that hill. Overall, I had a good ski, though I decided to quit at 4:30 when some of the slushy ruts were starting to firm up again, because frozen ruts mess with my confidence. Funny how quickly refreeze seems to happen in the shadows, even when air temperatures are still climbing.

(Lois Braun)

The snowmaking loop was freshly groomed this morning and perfect. No ice. No dirt. Just perfect spring corn.

(Zachary Handler)

The snowmaking loop was in great shape for skating this morning with fresh grooming; it looks like they were getting ready to set track when I left at 9. There were 3 places where water was running over the trail; none of them were a problem yet this morning. One was on Devil's Drop, one on the way out to the Meadow and one on the hill down from the Meadow towards the Stadium.

(John Kendrick)

Man-made loops were still in great condition late Thursday night as the rain was stopping and transitioning into a full (brief) snowstorm. The track was surprisingly firm albeit packed with moisture. There were four spots where very small streams were starting to develop crossing the trails, but they hadn't eroded much and were starting to freeze back over. The most dicey was the 180 turn on the far north end, but none of them deep enough to get you too wet. Still a lot of fantastic skiing yet!

(Joel LaFrance)

The 6.5 km snowmaking loop has held up very well. The skating was fast and effortless despite the drizzle and the increasing amount of tree debris. There are no dirt or rocks but rather some leaves and bark here and there. Did not affect the skiing at all. A few damp areas have formed but none were big enough to to dampen my boots. Classic tracks have not been reset since the rain started and they have all but disappeared.

(Zachary Handler)