Great coverage everywhere and beautiful bluebird day to be out! Skated the entire loop. The deck is pretty soft from the new snow and tracked out from the weekend traffic, think another roll and would be primo condition. Also think the melt-re-freeze the other week actually helped solidify the base. Awesome to see so many people have gotten out!

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(Grant Schoen)

Classic skied Phalen around 11AM this morning. Plenty of snow coverage with yesterday's snow, and the course was rolled this morning. No tracks were set anywhere along the 4 mile loop, and the trail needs to firm up some, but hopefully the groomers will be back out to finish grooming the trail and to set the tracks down.

(Bob Cockriel)

Phalen was rolled and groomed this morning, with about 4-5 inches of new snow over. Enjoy the beautiful winter skiing weather!

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(Amanda Smith, St. Paul Parks and Recreation)

The classic track at Phalen is surprising. It is cut on the complete 4 mile loop. Just a few spots where it passes over ice. Tracks had blown snow in them this morning which made good kicking for me. There are glazed sections on the trail as well. I don't think there is anything that could damage your ski bases so you could use good skis. Skate track has good coverage and was softening up as the day went on.

(Bill Stuber)

Groomer really improved the trail this morning/afternoon. Skate deck is a little rough but still has some nice soft snow ski on. Tracks looked good to me, the drifted in snow was skied in and looked good. It was a shock to skate on cold slow snow at 8 degrees. We really have been spoiled.

(Bill Stuber)

I thought I would check it out for classic. First, I like the small changes they have made to the course in the past week! Second, the classic tracks, reset in certain places, were filled with windblown snow, especially on the east-west portions. I spent much of my time outside of the tracks on the skate deck, which was faster than the tracks without being dangerously so. It wasn't the dreamscape I experienced a week ago, but it was still pretty good. I noted rock skis because the icy bits are pretty aggressive (I had to turn up my audio book so I could hear over the sound of my skis crunching ice). Kudos to the groomers for doing what they can with the little snow that they have.

(Michael Kuhne)

After reading the weekend reports I was optimistic but didn’t find the skate conditions skiable this morning. Turned around after less than a km as it was solid ice. Must have softened again and the hardened. Skied back in the classic tracks which seemed ok but I only saw a small part of the track.

(Tyler Lindquist)

Classic tracks about 1/3 pretty good and 2/3 pretty icy. Very fast especially downhills. Too icy to be fun for me. Did not skate but others were. Skate deck looked pretty hard and bumpy.

(Kathy Magnuson)

A bit icy in spots, but easily avoidable and some really nice stretches that were in really nice shape with nice deep track for classic. Grip tape worked good for traction and Blue Fast Wax for glide, and fast conditions. With a little caution and care you can have a very good experience even with fair conditions.

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(Scott Ford)

St Paul Parks and Rec is too modest. The groomer did a phenomenal job setting the classic track, and packing the skate deck. Yes, some icy spots (3-4, just a few meters each), and a few places where some debris is poking through, but there is a track, and what appeared to be a reasonably firm skate deck, salvaged out of some really tough conditions. B skis, but only because why risk good skis, but all in all, just a terrific salvage from extremely marginal conditions.

(Bob Cattanach)