Conditions: Valley has a firm deck with nice tracks. NL is not tracked, but fair snow coverage with an increasing amount of debris.
Not too many brave souls out there on what I thought was a pretty decent day, a little cool though. Slow going because I didn't change my wax from Friday, but still enjoyable. The surface of the wood bridge leading to the outer loops is more wood than snow. Sure could use some more of the white stuff!

(Brad Johnson)

The 5K loop is groomed, no tracks on Northern Lights but adequate snow cover. It is nice to ski on snow that has fallen from the sky.

(Ralph Schwartz)

Conditions: Natural snow surprisingly good, man-made snow not so good.
Skied most of the trails this evening. The Creek trail had essentially full coverage although it was thin going over the boardwalk at the start and the section from where it rejoins the Lake trail until the intersection with the Northern Lights. Eagle hadn't been rolled but was quite skiable. The Valley loop was a solid chunk of ice with any new snow blown away by the gale force winds today.

(Christi Nowak)

Conditions: Valley is firm to icy, Northern Lights is good.
The roughly 1" or so of new snow did a world of good for NL. It's packed but not tracked, with a few leaves and a bit more debris on the big hill. Care should be taken skating over the paved bike trail segment as there isn't a lot of snow there and you don't want your edges finding pavement. Valley skate deck is firm with scattered icy spots. Classic tracks looked to be in pretty good condition except in the more open areas subject to blowing snow.

(Brad Johnson)

Skied between 10:30 and 12:30. The entire 5K lit loop is groomed: the 2.5K man made snow loop has excellent tracks, skate deck was very firm; the rest of the 2.5K was fresh courderoy (and was regroomed at 11:30 while I was out there) but no tracks. I classiced and the untracked snow was fine, and fast. It was also out of the wind and was quite warm in the sun.

(Ralph Schwartz)

Conditions: very very good on the snowmaking loop.
Skied this morning for about an hour. On the soft side but just in the forgiving way. A really pleasant ski. Needless to say, just on the man-made.

(Luke Smith)

Conditions: Skied today between 1 and 2 PM on the snowmaking loop; temperature in low 30s. The grooming is impeccable and the classic track showed no melting. The classic track was firm and fast.
I used the same skis I used at the Seeley classic (Rode Rossa covered with black magic) and another pair with grip tape, both worked well.

(Ralph Schwartz)

Scheduling note: Elm Creek will host a high school meet on Monday afternoon, Feb 9th, and two days of high school practice on Tuesday/Wednesday afternoons.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Conditions: Wonderful classicon the snowmaking loop. Super-solid tracks, slight glaze on descents so blazing fast, but good kick on the climbs. Skate deck looked a little treacherous places, nice corduroy in others - not much loose stuff on surface near the chalet.
Classic doesn't get much more fun than this - pretty good kick with very fast tracks. VR30 hard wax working fine at 13F dropping to 7 by 7pm. The new snow allowed decent kick from hard wax, although not as bomber as usual for such low temps, due to the old+new snow mix.

(Pete Thurmes)

I arrived a few minutes before the lights came on at 5 am (gates open). There was one car in the lot and a Three Rivers law enforcement officer waiting for the early bird skier. I talked with the officer and he informed me about the protocol of a 911 call for cars in the lot after 10 pm and before 5 am, and the possibility of being towed. He said it was a safety issue because the groomers are out in the early morning. When I arrived grooming was being done on the downhill area but the loop was finished. It had not really set up yet so I suspect they had groomed in the previous hour or two.

(Jim Smith)