What a great morning of grooming and a great day of skiing. After working the ski shop desk all day listening to customers rant and rave about the super conditions, I put on the classics at the end of my shift and checked out the trails. They were silky smooth with deep tracks. It was the best ski I had in 2 years! We are 100% open with 75 km, freshly groomed again today. We are open Christmas Day.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Very good classic skiing, including the Hautanen Highlands. It was clear that the last several inches of recent snow made a significant diffference. As usual, top-rated grooming. The skate deck looked excellent as well.

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(John Greenler)

The warm weather and rain turned the trails near Minocqua to hard and icy, so time for a road trip to ABR. A few miles north of Mercer it started to snow and it snowed for the rest of the day. Arrived to ABR at 1:30 pm with a temp of 28F and both parking lots full. It looked like about 3 inches of snow had fallen so we decided to stride. We took Tamarack two track out to Jason's park intersection in the new ABR area. We skied Wolf Tracks and it appeared no one had skied this trail all day; we saw only 2 skiers out in the new ABR. We took Tamarack track back out to River Run and took that to Jack Pine and White Pine - we saw lots of skiers in this area. The classical track was good even with new snow in the track. I was amazed with both parking lots full how few skiers were in the new ABR area. This is some of the best classic only trails around. The new snow was fun to ski in and the trees were gorgeous. Eric even treated me to Christmas cookies after my ski - what a deal!

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(Greg Dahl)

Very good coverage and all the trails are open. With the few inches they got the other day and a dusting yesterday the tracks were in very nice condition. I did all of Tamarack Two Track and there were only a couple of bare spots in the out and back section, but you could get around them. The bulk of the trails had perfect tracks and the skate deck looked solid. I would say you can use good skis since it's easy to work around and completely avoid the thin stuff.

(Adam Schwartz-Lowe)

Beautiful day at ABR. Cloudy, calm, temps in the low 20's, a bit of fresh snow clinging to the trees. Just enough base to provide good conditions on most trails. The wide skate/classic trails were smoother and offered deeper tracks than the narrow classic-only trails, but all were enjoyable. Just a few icy or dirty spots, easily avoided.

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(Todd Campbell)

We were blessed with 3 inches of a nice dense snow over our firm base. We sent 4 groomers out on the 75 km early this morning and had great results. Trails were skiing great on 45 k today, we will re-open the Highlands to the south after the early morning groom cycle Saturday for 65 km of classic tracks and 40 km of skating.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Great news, we received a good dense 3 inches of snow today! We will have a full groom crew out in the early morning, grooming 45 km on old ABR and we will go out after coffee break to groom the Highlands and south to see if they are ready to reopen for the weekend. We are open daily including holidays.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Good conditions exist at ABR, but we need more snow. The base is hard, skate lane is good where it has been recently groomed. Classic tracks looked quite icy with debris from the wind. There are a few thin spots here and there, particularly on Memory and Sulo's. If you are careful, you could probably still get by with your good skis.

(Jonathon Rulseh)

Just coming in from grooming tonight the trails are grooming up as cold dry powder. I groomed 20 km of skate lanes. The Trails are still well covered. Closed off the Highlands tonight, we will not be grooming to the south, due to the big hills and remote location, for a few days or until we get new snow. Classic tracks are well formed on the combination trails 20 km, but worn a bit on the classic only, all classic tracks are a bit glazed.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

I spent the weekend at ABR. Conditions were beautiful; midwinter coverage. Excellent tracks, skate lane looked good. Used my best skis. One caveat...the trails in the Southeast corner of ABR - Hautinen Highlands, part of Tamarack, Coyote Canyon, etc have signs posted before entering the area warning of lower snow coverage and possible ski damage as a result. These trails are groomed but I don't know if they are tracked for classic -- they are open, but I stayed away.

(Ralph Schwartz)