Still very hard packed this evening in the skate lane. Snowmaking was going for the downhill slope. With the wind, the classic tracks were filled in several spots. The Guru -3 to -15 wax worked surprisingly well for kick (even better than fishscales).

(Ted Lystig)

Conditions: As of 9:30 am, the snowmaking loop was pretty hardpacked and icy fast. A few brown discolorations, but nothing to be concerned about -- plenty of man-made snow. The outer trails were marked as closed -- the asphalt trail was showing.
Pretty quiet at Elm Creek this morning, and not a lot of fun skiing. Gloomy, gray morning with strong winds. The trail was surprisingly hardpacked corduroy -- icy hard. Seemed like they groomed last night, or early this morning and then it frozen up. The skating got a little better with each lap. Plenty fast, that's for sure. A little hard to see the changes in surface as the cloudy skies made the contrast very low. Yet, it was still good to be able to ski before Thanksgiving.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Conditions: Trails were in great shape this morning. Thanks groomers!
With heavy fog and 45 degrees, the man-made loop was in terrific shape. Expecting slush, I was happy to find a nice firm deck with minimal loose snow. You know it's been an early winter when you can have conversations during Thanksgiving week about how the trails were better earlier in the season. But the Elm Creek crew has delivered again. Thanks!

(Adam Himes)

Conditions: Fading fast on the outer trails; man-made pretty good and fully open.
Yesterday, there were tracks to be had on Lake and Creek. Looks like they were groomed out, but some shallow ones still exist on Northern Lights. No more leaf debris on outer trails today than yesterday, but snow is thinning fast--very sticky, and dirt and pavement starting to "bleed" through. Man-made pretty good, though also still a bit wet.

(Andrea Ochmann)

Nice evening conditions at Elm Creek. Very solid skate deck, but no problem getting an edge. Tracks looked good.

(Ted Lystig)

Conditions: Multi-Use: variable, smooth and fast in some spots, rutted and tricky in others. Cloudy, some wind.
Skijored the Multi Use around 1 pm this afternoon. It was skiable, very challenging in some areas, easy in others. Glide was generally quite good. The section leading to Eastman from the Fernbrook parking lot was very rutted and catching a ski was easy. The meadow section and onward was good, no pavement showing anywhere, fast skiing. Seemed like every squirrel in the park ran across our path at some point, but the doggies kept on course, nice! We spent some time with a young dog we met, still learning to pull, and that was fun. Nice afternoon.

(Steve Evans)

Conditions: The trails on the other side of the lake (non-snowmaking) are now groomed and quite good up there. Northern Lights has a decent amount of dirt tilled up on the first part. Snowmaking loop was perfect.
With the very outer loop now groomed it's a nice place to go for a longer ski totaling a little over 10k probably verses doing many short laps.

Photos:

(Clayton Keim)

Conditions: Trail is in good shape.
Good classic track on the manmade. New start of the big hill bypass (Wayne's Thumb) on the Valley - nice striding gradual uphill. Looks like they put in some classic tracks on the Northern Lights/Thicket but I didn't go that way today. I noticed the classic tracks coming back along the road had at least one dirty/thin spot.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Conditions: Well groomed tracks on multiple trails.
Ski now! The three+ loops are well packed and the grooming is amazing. Very few people during the day. The conditions are excellent with the proper wax making it a fast run.

(Todd Powell)

The entire manmade snow loop is now open, complete with classic tracks. As noted by others, the artificial snow is very abrasive and slow (particularly in windblown areas near the chalet). Still, the coverage is excellent and race skis are fine. It's more sheltered with less drifting on the natural snow on Northern Lights and Thicket, but there B skis would be better than race skis. No classic tracks on the natural snow. Great to have mid-winter conditions so early.

(Ted Lystig)