The Lake Superior snow machine was in high gear today. I wanted to skate today but the snow was four inches more than forecast and I prefer to stride when there is significant snow on the skate deck. At any rate it was a wonderful relaxed ski with snow coming down, trees covered in it, and every every rock or stump looking like an ice cream cone. Expect excellent "Big Snow" conditions at ABR and other worldly scenery. Go get some.

(Rick Nelson)

Magical snow-globe ski at ABR. Gotta love lake effect snow... The inch of snow in the forecast turned into 5-6" and it's still snowing. Classic tracks were skied in from this morning's groom.

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(Sue Schroeder)

Wow, woke up to another inch or two of snowfall, must have been lake effect. With only three groomers we picked grooming the old ABR and all the classic only. Widetrack on the classics and Pig Heart and Partner in the Bully. We groomed up 50-55 km of the 95 km. We have a groom team scheduled for the early morning, we plan to groom south to the Highlands with Tamarack 2 track and Ridge Runner. Touch up as needed on the others.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We had the full crew out this morning grooming 94 KM of trails and resetting tracks. It lightly snowed all day and was great skiing with the warmer temps in the high teens. We plan to groom again in the morning including all single tracks and some of the combination trails. The ungroomed trails will have an inch of fluff on them.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

We have had daily snowfalls of 1/4 inch to 1 inch of snow and temps in the single digits, overnight temps and grooming temps -10 ish in the last 3 days. Trailside residents, lodging guests and Rustic Cabin "campers" have been enjoying the trails along with a few locals and the vacationer skiers. Classic skiers had a fun day today with the 1/2 inch of powder skied in. I plan to regroom about 20-30 km of skate lanes early in the morning, Saturday and Sunday we plan to have a full groomer crew on to regroom all 95 km.

(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

Great day at ABR today. The warm weather yesterday followed by the cold today helped set up a fast/firm skate deck. Although cold conditions mean slow snow, the glide was nonetheless excellent with 1/2" of snow dusting from overnight. Peltonen wasn't groomed yesterday or today, but it was a firm, wide, fast track with good edge that made the tough uphills a bit easier to climb. I used my cold skate skis with Toko XC Cold powder ironed in with Toko blue hot wax and it paid off. River Trail and Blueberry were also not freshly groomed today which honestly made for a better glide. Overall beautiful day in the woods.

(Luke Fortney)

Excellent grooming at ABR. Skate lanes were firm, clean, and wide. Classic tracks were full depth with good pole plants. The trails are really skiing well this time of year, with a lot of smiling faces and friendly staff. Ridge Runner was closed and not skiable, but all other trails appeared to be ready to ski and in tip-top shape.

(Jonathon Rulseh)

We went to ABR expecting very good but were amazed that they have actually achieved perfection. Hats off to ABR.

(Tom Dunaway)

An inch of new snow overnight, Pig Heart and Crasher groomed up all the combi trails including Ridge Runner (skate) with both Pisten Bullies. The snow continued like a lightly shaken "Snow Globe" most of the day. Skiing was reported to be magical. At noon, most of our out of town friends and guests were departing Rustic Cabins, trailside houses and local lodging. 1:30 we gathered for the Ironwood Nordic Skiers Team photo, From 2:00 -3:30 the SISU Endurance Team from our local 4H showed up, there are 42 youth enrolled. We ended up receiving about 2 inches of snow during the day so we will have a full team of 4 groomers including both Pisten Bullies out early morning. We plan to groom 76 k or more of trails; all the classic only trails and all combi trails except Peltonen 5 k, the Dog Trails 7 km and Ridge Runner is under discussion 7 K. The light powder on the more advanced trails sometimes is more attractive for the intermediate skiers.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)

It was chilly morning with -10 F at 6 AM when Pig Heart and Crasher went out. Crasher groomed most of the classic only except Otter Slide and Puumala Trails. Pig Heart was in the larger of the Pisten Bullies and groomed the main trails with a few shortcuts (Pelty, Bards, Meadow and the Dog Trails were left with 1-2 inches of powder). Honey Badger took care of the Pink Cabin Trail and serviced the cabins. Temps climbed to 1 above but with no wind and the sun out we had skiers, but mostly in the afternoon.

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(Eric Anderson, ABR Trails)