Skied the Valley, Northern Lights and part of the Lake trails. The skins worked great on the Valley - fast and good kick. The Northern Lights classic track hadn't been re-groomed so it was icy. The track down Cowabunga was a bobsled run but not wobbly so I got a good ride over the hump and beyond the next trail intersection...zoom-zoom...might've been a new glide distance PR. The skate deck had just been re-groomed there by the Pisten Bully. Went out on the Lake trail a little. Classic track burned through on the north side of the swimming hole for a short distance. Track a little uneven at times in the areas where it is melting faster but just needed d-pole gear there anyway.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Lotsa snow...too bad it didn't fall in December when it would've lasted longer. Was going to the Dark Side but the classic tracks hadn't been set yet on the other side of the boardwalk (they were being set this afternoon). Skied the Valley and Northern Lights. At the start of the Northern Lights there are some branches that come in to play at eye level as the track was set a little farther left. Left pole track is soft as I post-holed through several times going up Cowabunga. Seemed like the No. Lights track/snow was a bit faster than that on the manmade on the Valley. Nano skins worked great but the right hard wax would've worked also. Morning will be better skiing.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Skated at Elm Creek this morning on most of the outer trails. Natural snow ski trails were in excellent condition, packed down fairly firm but still easy to get an edge. The man-made loop was oddly crunchy and somewhat hard. The multi-use trail was soft but freshly groomed and two laps out towards the Nature Center showed many signs of multi use. Fat bike tracks, footprints, and a coyote stalking a skate skier (no, wait, that turned out to be somebody skijoring :). However, with the soft snow, it was easy to skate over the non-skiing tracks. The only reason I rated the trails as B-skis was the multi use trail east of the Nature Center showed signs of someone cutting all the way down to the pavement on the uphill towards the Center (I was skiing downhill the other way and had no trouble). Classic tracks had been set pretty much everywhere and looked to be in good condition other than a few bare spots on the Lake Trail coming in towards Northern Lights. My only grump was that a path from the overflow lot to the Northern Lights trail had not been groomed, making the trip to the groomed trail from the parking lot on skate skis a bit of an adventure.

Photos:

(Leif Irgens)

Overall skate skiing was very good on the natural snows on the Dark Side. There is ice underneath which made my poles not stick a couple of times but it is fine for ski edging. Snow was off-white and thin in a few spots. We're at 69 ski days so far this year and will make the average of 70 days although almost half of them were at the 2" minimum depth and very marginal.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Classic skied the outer loop. Eagle, Nature Center and Lake trails. Decent track set all the way around. The Park rates the trails as "poor". The trails are at least fair/good. Go enjoy!

Photos:

(Mark Skinner)

I skied the natural trails at Elm Creek at 1 pm today. They were surprisingly good. I would say 90% of the trail was good as in good skis. There is a 100-200 yard long stretch on the creek trail that is bare ground but other than that all bad spots are easy to avoid. I did Lake to Creek to Northern Lights. The last stretch leading up to Northern Lights wasn't great but still skiable. When I first got out there I missed the turn to the Lake/Creek cutoff and ended up doing what I think is the multi use trail (it follows the paved bike trail). This trail was also very good and I had fresh grooming. There is one road crossing where you have to take skis off but this is a nice easy 7-10k loop. The manmade section was very good, a little dirty near the chalet but otherwise nice.

(Nick Raisanen)

Skied around 10 am today and saw very few skiers out. We skied on corduroy for the man-made loop so decided to take a look at the outer loop.
Once again freshly groomed with no evidence we had company. Had to double pole around some bare asphalt but everyone in my group felt like had had found a honey hole that no one else knew about. Kudos to the groomers. More snow will make this even more fun.

(Hugh Hanson)

Skied the Valley and Northern Lights. The track was firm and very fast on the manmade...faster than the skate deck. Slower stretch on the north uphill on the upper donut where the sun don't shine and the snow is colder. Northern Lights had some icy stretches in the track but the skate deck had been touched up since the previous report it sounds like. Did not go down Cowabunga in the track to avoid the slightly washed out stretch and did not quite make it over the following rise. There was a little dirty snow at the bottom. The Nano Skins worked the best since I got them last year although I did not try any waxable skis and most of it is double-poling anyway.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Man made loop was perfect. Northern lights hadn't been groomed today, but was skiable except for being hard packed and icy. Creek trail had bare ground in one place (see photo) and it looks like there will be more exposed sections by sunset if it stays sunny. The parts that were good were great, but there were several icy or thin patchs.

Photos:

(Andor Langski)

They were in surprisingly good condition this morning. I came across the grooming crew, working on the Lake Trail, and they had dumped some snow on the bare spots just before the downhill at the lake. The classic tracks on the outer trails haven't been re-groomed, but they're in good shape just the same. The skating deck was firm and fast, and not at all icy. The man-made loop was, as always, in pristine condition, and also very fast. The Northern Lights trail had good tracks and also had a fast, firm skate deck. You could glide down Cowabunga Hill, and make it over the rise at the end without striding. Great to have all this snow to ski on, after such a long snow drought. Hope it lasts!

(Ken Tobacman)