All the early season lumps and bumps have been smoothed out. All the boiler plate ice has been covered. The Ridge is skiing great! Skied bronze, summit, and cedar tonight and would have no concerns using good skis. I was skating but saw a fresh track set on everything I skied. The rest of the trails in the network were in varying degrees of groomed from not at all to groomed with 2-3" of snow on top.

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(Tony Norland)

Beautiful new snow, and still falling! Trails were pretty soft and wind had blown new snow into the tracks. Looking forward to coming back when it has had time to set up a bit. Laurentian was not recently groomed but had a nice set of skied-in classic tracks. Wynne Creek was not groomed yet, I skied it but next time will wait until it is groomed. Summit and Bronze was tracked on one side and was soft but pretty good shape. Great coverage everywhere, no concerns using good skis!

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(Ellen Thompson)

Good to excellent conditions for skate skiing. B skis to good skis. Mesabi East and Giants Ridge Invite was very organized and many happy skiers. New snow was falling on some of the icy areas.

(Lisa Martin)

Skied bronze and summit trails as they are supposed to be in the best shape. Tracks are mostly ice with grass and rocks popping through occasionally. Skate deck is icy and a bit uneven. Every once in a while was a stretch of decent coverage.

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(Andrew Hansen)

Skied Summit, Bronze and Silver just before sunset. No classic tracks set on Silver. I had skied this past Thursday and it was ungroomed and a bit crusty/icy with a half dozen rock heads showing as well as a few sticks poking thru here and there, 99.9% coverage. However, they received a fresh inch of snow last night which covered the crust nicely. Still ungroomed as of 4pm Saturday. Could probably use good skis?! I just never do so this early. I will say, it's refreshing to ski in the woods and not have to loop after 3-5k!

(John Witzmann)

The trails at Giants Ridge came through the warm temps and light rain just fine. Based on what I saw at trail intersections it looked like Cedar, Summit, and Bronze all received one pass with the ginzugroomer in the last 24 hours. I skied Gold and it also had one pass with the ginzu on everything but the lower loop of south Gold. The tracks were not reset, but still looked to be in good shape with some fresh snow in them. The trails still have some lumps and bumps here and there but ski pretty darn good considering.

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(Tony Norland)

A 3G effect! "Great Ginzu Grooming" on the trails that have been opened up. Solid tracks and fresh corduroy were the best on the Gold and Cedar, while the Summit, Bronze and Northern Lights were well loved. Conditions are early season fantastic - thank you groomers!

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(Cheri Johnson)

Classic skied Gold, Summit up, and Bronze down. All are tracked and groomed for skating. Skate deck was a bit bumpy and soft, but tracks are in pretty good shape. B skis recommended, there is generally good coverage but some twigs and a few rocks poking through -- easy to avoid if you're keeping an eye out for them. All things considered, great conditions for early season. Hoping this bodes well for a good snow year! Swix V40 covered with V30 was dragging a lot in the stadium and golf course but was kicking well in the woods. Also classic skied a few laps of Northern Lights Friday evening and it was in great shape.

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(Ellen Thompson)