Skied from 9 until noon. Went on the Northern Lights trail off the man made snow loop. It had been groomed for skating only. Snow cover quite good all around with 2 exceptions: the first uphill with lots of dirt showing and the big downhill was rutted and icy at the bottom. It was nice to get out of the wind. Used Start Oslo blue covered with blue extra and had pretty good kick.

(Ralph Schwartz)

High school season is underway and Elm Creek will be packed most weekday afternoons from roughly 2:30 to 6:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays are high school meets, so best to plan for an alternative schedule those days.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Conditions: Excellent groomed ski trails for classic and skate skiing.
It was quite a treat to get out to ski on the familiar trails and catch up with skiers. I used my good classic skis on the perfectly groomed trails. Yesterday Mike and I ventured out on the multi-used trails (the PPP triathlon loop). It was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day in comparison to today. But it was still great to run into friends and a few who seem to be ready for the Elm Creek Time Trial ski race series starting this coming Wed. night. This is the first time in recent years when the first race is not on a short 1.2k loop! Enjoy the season! (Photos from Saturday)

Photos:

(Amy Xu)

Conditions: Great snowmaking loop.
The snow was good and fast this morning. It was getting a little soft around noon and slowing down. It was fun skiing with a few hundred of my nordic friends.

(Ben Mullin)

Conditions: Fresh snow skied in. Nice surface.
Lots of people out at Elm Creek today. No signs of any grooming but the classic tracks and skate deck were skied in nicely. Classic tracks were a bit thinner than yesterday with the new snow packed down and were broken in a couple of places but in good shape overall. The skate deck had been packed down from all the traffic and was in great shape. What a difference an 1" of fresh snow makes! The fresh soft surface gave good purchase; having covered yesterdays hard packed surface. No sliding sideways today.

(Leif Irgens)

Conditions: Firm, slow. Classic tracks pretty good.
Skied around 1 pm. Only a few cars in the parking lot by then, pretty quiet on the trails; only saw 4-8 other skiers. Looked like they might have groomed this morning but the skate deck looked like it had seen a lot of traffic earlier and was packed down really hard. Couldn't hardly get an edge in on the skate skis and slid sideways a lot (OK, some of that is my life-long battle with technique problems). Classic tracks were really good most of the way around the man-made loop; a little shallow in a few spots. Tracks were also a bit firm but I had decent kick with Start Green considering it was my first classic ski since last March.

(Leif Irgens)

Conditions: Fairly firm surface, good classic track, fresh snow.
Skied around 9 am. Encountered almost whiteout conditions as a snowband passed through for about an hour, dropping a fresh inch on the trails and slowing down the snow speed! A lot more people out there this morning, but plenty of room still in the parking lot, as well as on the trail. Temps and winds nice - in the upper 20s, light winds.

(Bruce Adelsman)

Conditions: Just about perfect for a Wednesday ski (on the man-made snow loop).
The new snow on top of a solid base made for outstanding skate ski conditions. Just enough fluff to get an edge and not so much to significantly slow down the glide. Classic tracks looked well set and no longer icy. A few teams were out but there was plenty of space for everyone to ski at their own pace and enjoy the winter conditions. Nice to see so many smiles!

(Sandy Schreyer)

Conditions: The snowmaking loop was really great except for one spot with a couple easily avoidable ridges in one section from the groomer as another report mentioned, otherwise perfect for skating and pretty fast. A classic track set.
When I left around 4:30 the parking lot was almost full. Going to be the go to place till we get more snow or Wirth opens up.

(Clayton Keim)

Conditions: Freshly groomed, good surface with some slow sections by the active snowguns.
Skied around 10 am, a lot more people - roughly 20 skiers out. Sunny to start, clouded over by the time I took a few photos at the end. Nice conditions, not as icy fast as Monday. One short segment on the return to the chalet that had two ridges (unusual by Elm Creek standards), looked like they had groomed out some snowmaking excess from the night before. Sections by the running snowguns felt like sandpaper (to be expected). Nice morning ski.

Photos:

(Bruce Adelsman)