Freshly groomed but wait until morning. The snow is clean and the trails are in very good shape. It's just too warm. I turned back after 200 yards, hoping it would be firm in the shade. Nope. You'll love it Saturday morning!

Photos:

(Nick Lansing)

Of course conditions change daily this time of year, but the Bambas, Sommer, and stadium loops (about 10k) were freshly-groomed this morning and the skating was awesome! However, the classic tracks are now largely filled in or melted down, except for the back (return) side of the Bambas Loop, where they were intact but icy. As to lake crust skate skiing in the Ely area, conditions are slowly improving; I have had good outings on firm crust this week on Blueberry Lake and on the North Arm of Burntside, especially near shore along Camp DuNord.

(Elton Brown)

Hey it's spring skiing and you watch the clock and watch the thermometer and take your chances and some days you might just have perfect conditions. This wasn't quite one of those days. Classic skied Bambas and Sommer loops with fishscales. The track was deep and firm, and snow conditions ranged from clumpy and slow to icy and fast, depending on sun exposure and how used the trail was.

(Andrew Slade)

Spring skate ski, good base coverage on trails. Birch highlands and Sommer's were our favorite. Bamba's was icy in some sections. Snow was starting to fall as leaving the trailhead.

Photos:

(Kayla Meyer)

Skied the Bambas Loop. Fresh groomed skate deck and tracks, however the glide in the classic tracks was really slow. Probably due to the fresh dry snow we got yesterday and not enough skiers to smooth the tracks in.

Photos:

(Andrew Slade)

All trails in top condition. A fresh dusting of snow this morning and temps around 10F made for near perfect conditions. All trails that we skied were groomed for both skate and classic.

(James Young)

Terrific mid-winter conditions. Classic tracks are deep and firm. Skied Sommer and Bambas loops. At 4F degrees, glide was a bit slow. Side trails like Hannah Jo and the Pine Park are ungroomed.

(Andrew Slade)

Lovely bluebird afternoon. We skied Bambas and Sommer loops. The skate deck looked freshly groomed but the classic tracks were shallow and often worn out, could definitely use a touch-up.

(Andrew Slade)

Hidden Valley is in great condition for both skate and classic. The 10 miles of professionally built groomed fat bike trails are also in great shape!

(Bria Schurke)

Skied Birch Highlands, first third of Sommers and second half of Bambas. Trail was freshly groomed. Groomers had set the classic track too far to the side, so the pole plants on the outside were soft, tracks went through some standing shrubs and I had to dodge around a lot of overhanging tree branches. Time to get out the loppers and do a mid-winter edge trim.

(Andrew Slade)