Near perfect conditions and a beautiful day for a ski! I did Mary’s Frolic and the snow was fast, but not icy. No trouble at all on the downhills. Can’t wait to come back!

Photos:

(Nikki Noteboom)

Robert groomed all skate loops on Wednesday, and they are hard and fast. A little bit of loose snow with corduroy, and skiing is good. Might want to use caution on the Long Rider and Mary's Frolic loops on the steep downhills with sharp curves at the bottom. I finally passed a kidney stone Wednesday and got out to set new track on the classic side. Four passes, first two with teeth full down, resulted in some decently deep track on Short Cut and Pine Hollow for some stretches, but a lot of shallow to very shallow tracks. Tomorrow morning once it warms into the mid-20s, I'm hoping for some softening snow so I can set decent track on the rest of the classic side. Might leave some with old tracks from last week which are still very skiable.

(Will Maines)

Tilled and groomed all the skate loops again this afternoon and trails are looking really good. Lou and I spent a few hours this morning brushing the main trail out of the chalet, widening it out a little bit. Still more to do.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

Tilled and groomed all the skate loops this morning. Trails cleaned up nicely with all the glazing blended up and blown down sticks picked up. There are a couple sections on Long Rider that have a fair amount of oak leaves on the trail - something I hope do take care of later this week. Another warm, sunny afternoon so watch out for glazing on the trail again tomorrow morning. Will plans to be grooming classic loops Tuesday morning.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

I went out and groomed and tracked all classic loops this morning. Our opposites week was received very well, and we are planning another weekend of it in March, depending on snow conditions. After grooming today, all classic loops have mostly excellent tracks, deep and firm. There are just a few places, mostly on the first mile going out and the last mile coming in where the base was hard as a rock, causing some shallow tracks. The skate loops Robert groomed yesterday are excellent with about 1/2" of light powder on top. Robert and I will both be heading to Hayward tomorrow to ski Saturday's Birkie, so our grooming will have to hold up through the weekend.

(Will Maines)

We started reverting the trails back to their traditional grooming with the skate loops converted back to skating today and tomorrow, Will will be grooming and setting track on the classic loops. Today we had a number of snow squalls pass through followed by sunshine. In total we may have gotten 1-2" which mixed up well with the granular snow we've been regurgitating the last few weeks. Skate deck looks great.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

It’s still opposite week so I came back today to classic ski the trails that are usually skate only. There are several pretty good hills on the Long Rider which give me trouble most of the time. Long Rider was freshly groomed and mine were the first pole plants since grooming. Bruce’s Roundabout was not freshly groomed but it was still in reasonable shape. Unfortunately, the classic tracks on Long Rider were shallow for the most part and non-existent in several spots. For that reason, I would rate the classic trails overall as good. I switched to my skate skis and skated Oak Ridge. Conditions on the skate loops were very good to excellent. I found a nice level and firm skate deck.

Photos:

(Jim Gantz)

Buffed out the skate loops this afternoon and they look to be in great shape for the weekend. Earlier in the day, Alison gave me a hand doing some brushing along the snowshoe trail. The main 1.9 mile snowshoe loop from the chalet is now in really good shape, fully stomped in with almost no overhanging brush.

Photos:

(Robert Polic)

Just finished grooming and tracking all loops that are normally groomed skate only, as our Opposites Week continues through the weekend. For the most part tracks are really good, though there are short bits here and there that are rather shallow. Robert is grooming all the usual classic only trails for skating as we speak. Feedback has been so good this week that, depending on snow conditions, we'll try to do opposite grooming again for a few days in March.

(Will Maines)

This week is opposite week which means the trails that are normally groomed for skating are groomed for classic skiing and the trails that are normally groomed for classic skiing are groomed for skating. This was my first experience with opposite week and I was able to skate Lion’s Pride, Hair Raiser, and Wild Thing. I skated on one or two inches of fresh fallen snow. Conditions were very good. The groomer showed up about an hour and a half into my outing so I was able to skate on fresh corduroy for the last few kilometers. His dog Sprocket found me on Wild Thing and accompanied me for several kilometers.

Photos:

(Jim Gantz)