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)

Conditions: Entire snowmaking loop now open groomed nice and wide and smooth as always. Northern Lights was quite nice also but a couple thinner spots I saw. Couple lights out also but was nice to get out of the wind.
Great to have the entire snowmaking loop open a week before Thanksgiving! If you want to avoid skier traffic go late as there were only 2 other cars in the lot when I left around 9:00 pm and they're open till 10:00 pm.

Photos:

(Clayton Keim)

Conditions: Natural snow of Thicket and Northern Lights skate deck was solid and great edge. No tracks on natural snow. Artificial snow was blown snow and slow.
Outer loop was not groomed but rest of natural snow was awesome. Artificial snow was brutal. Thanks crew for turning on the lights for the natural snow too. Much better skiing without the extra windchill.

(Todd White)

Conditions: Very windy and windblown. There was a track sometimes.
First ski for me. Classic. The track was there in the protected areas which are few and far between on the manmade. The manmade snow was pretty fast though. The freshly made and flying manmade stings the face in the 30 mph gusts. Back in the woods on the natural snow was nice but without a track. At one of the intersections I came across a nice 6 pt. buck (congrats - survived last weekend). We looked at each other for about 20 seconds and then he took off for some fartlek...me, well, not so much.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Conditions: Excellent coverage. Solid base with Winslow powder on top.
Classic skied around noon. Tracks were harder and more abrasive than expected. Windy conditions caused tracks to get filled in on several sections. Skate deck looked great and seemed to be fast without being icy. Lucky us for getting to enjoy this early season treat!

Photos:

(Sandy Schreyer)

Conditions: 2K of perfection -- for both skate skiing and classic skiing (continuous classic track throughout the 2K loop).
I stopped by around 5:45pm to check out the season opener at Elm Creek. The grooming machines were busy working on the remaining 0.5K and staff were working hard at moving the snow guns around. When I left just before 7pm there were several dozen more cars in the lot, so the word is spreading fast! Thanks to the Three Rivers crew for all the hard work making this happen.

(Bill Oyler)