Skied the man-made snow loop and some of the natural ski trails. Conditions are great for both skate and classic!

Photos:

(Hannah Weissman)

Conditions were great today for classic on the far side. The light dusting of snow over mostly good tracks made for very fast conditions with sunny skies. Starting at the VC took Lake to Eagle and did four laps because that trail doesn't get any better and is rarely groomed as well as today. The bypass and creek were also really good today. Unfortunately, Monarch was a mixed bag with strange grooming. First, there were no tracks groomed connecting Monarch to Creek on either end which may be why I was still able to make fresh tracks in last night's snow at 2 pm. The SE side of Monarch had one track and the worst conditions, the SW side two tracks with the best conditions, and the North side varied between two and three tracks. I still did three laps on Monarch because it's such a great trail. An added bonus is you can see Great Horned Owl in a building next to the ski trail right outside the Nature Center.

(Dan Zenk)

Outer ski skating loop was in very good condition. Packed and just a little churned up on the Lake and Creek uphills; practically no leaf or seed litter. Nevertheless, between the 36 to 37 degree temperatures and my conditioning and age, I was only able to maintain a 5 1/2 mile pace. There was a pretty consistent but shallow track for classic but I was not always looking. The parking lots at the trailhead were full when I got there at 12:15 so I parked and started at the overflow lot at the picnic area. Nevertheless, there was practically nobody on the trails. Just a family of 4 on Northern Lights, a high school racer on the portion of the snow-making loop I skied and two at beginning of Lake. From thereon, I saw nobody. I used FastWax Yellow LF.

(Keith Carlson)

I skied the outer trails this morning. They have been groomed, although not today. The skate deck is soft, but very skiable. Classic tracks have been set on all trails, although they are generally shallow, and only one set of tracks, or tracks crowded to the right side are the norm. There is evidence of skate skiers having used the classic-only trails, and of the usual incursion of walkers, especially near the Nature Center. All in all, I was happy that these trails were finally open to skiers, even if conditions weren't pristine. The snow-making loop was in its usual great condition, and there were lots of skiers out near the chalet. Note that with the tubing hill and snowboarding hill open, the usual Christmas week parking limitations have arrived. That's not a bad thing - the park is a treasure, and it's great when it gets well-used.

(Ken Tobacman)

Not to sound like a broken record: Man-Made snow loop in perfect condition. Northern Lights and Creek remain ungroomed. I did ski a small portion of the multi-use trail and it was in decent shape. A bit hard packed in the center and quite soft on the edges.

(Don Callander)

Skied Eagle and Creek trails. The snow was soft but track was there for about 95% of the trails. No bare spots, some leaves and small twigs from all the wind last week.

(Norman Greenberg)

The manmade snow loop was great with a firm and fairly fast track. There was some snow blowing in from the opposite direction of last week...warmer wind. The Northern Lights had been rolled and a track set. It was all soft. I think the classic track snow is too dry to set up. The natural snow was fairly fast as I almost made it to the top of the little hill after Cowabunga.

(Mark Lahtinen)

Man-Made snowloop was in great condition for both skate and classic. Surprisingly, Northern Lights had not been groomed and so the downhill side of Cowabunga was a bit sketchy and there was a fair amount of tree debris around. Not sure of the grooming status on the other trails.

(Don Callander)

Started with classic on the manmade snow loop, which was as perfect as ever. Even made it up the wall without having to herringbone for the first time ever. After visual inspection of the natural snow trails from the manmade loop, I decided to switch to skate and venture out. The connector to the outer trails was freshly groomed and demonstrated snowmobile tracks and channels similar to what I have been seeing at French and Hyland (see first pic). I haven't seen anything like this in the 10 years I have been skiing here so I'm puzzled as to the cause. The multi-use trail to the Nature Center was loose powder and footprints, not appearing to have been groomed for maybe a week. The ski trail continued to be freshly groomed with tracks and channels until connecting with the Creek Trail. Here, grooming appeared to have been performed maybe 1-2 days ago with about 1" of loose powder on top and a somewhat uneven but skiable surface. At the connection to the Lake trail to return to the Chalet, grooming abruptly stopped. From there, slogging through about 6" of fresh powder on skate skis was... well... not fun, but I didn't know another way back other than skiing the wrong way back the way I came. Made it to Northern Lights (with a lot of double poling) and managed to not fall on whop-de-doo's down that steep downhill (tracks showed several people ran off trail in the corner at the bottom here). Grooming picked up again at Northern Lights, appearing to have been done maybe 1-2 days ago, with the skate deck being somewhat soft and uneven but skiable. I wasn't paying much attention to the classic tracks other than to notice that they were present and/or absent at various times on the outer loops. They did look decent along the return on Northern Lights to the chalet. I was on skate skies waxed with Fastwax HS 0 today (-30 F to+8F) and glide was noticeably better than my experience yesterday.

Photos:

(Leif Irgens)

Machine made snow loop and Northern Lights are groomed and tracked. Although, there is some blown snow due to the high winds. Skied west to Eagle and Creek Trails. They are rolled but very soft with no tracks set. The north end of the Lake loop is rolled but the connector between creek and northern lights has not been rolled. The monarch classic tracks near the nature center had not been set. Overall a great outing but very slow conditions today. Very peaceful as I think I was one of like three skiers out there.

Photos:

(Nick Graham)