Skied the western half of the Kettle View trail, off of the manmade loop around 12:30pm. Snow was wet and deep in some areas, but a lot of the trail was rolled and had skied in tracks, some ungroomed. Really beautiful, every branch covered in snow, only encountered one other person (manmade loop was pretty busy). Hills were slow and bumpy, but fun. Trails were being rolled again as I left.

Photos:

(Alissa Mae)

The Piston Bully was out last night and groomed the 1K man-made loop. Skate deck and tracks have been heavily skied today but it is in good shape. I just finished (2:30pm) grooming the rest of the lighted loop and the purple trail with the roller. There are some thinner spots on those but they are in decent shape. No tracks were set on those trails as we are just trying to compact the snow we have to set up a good base for this coming snow. I did not roll the upper sections of the blue/black today due to the low hanging branches and amount of sticks on the trail. DNR will get those trails cleaned up and groomed as soon as we can.

(Collin Bergholz)

The Piston Bully was out at night grooming the 1km man made loop. The skate deck tilled and is in great condition. New tracks set throughout and are in great condition as well. Please note the addition of the start hill. Use caution here as the skate deck and classic tracks are thin and shallow.

(Mark Janis)

The early grooming report of good ski conditions proved to be accurate and worth the 60 mile round trip drive. The 1k loop up summer stage hill and back was groomed. The new natural snow on top of the man-made provided enjoyable skiing. It was flat and allowed for good edging. Did 17k. I hope the groomers continue to report timely reports.

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(Don Howell)

All of the ski trails have been rolled. The section of trail that has man-made snow was groomed early this morning with the piston bully and should be in really good shape. The rest of the trails are somewhat thin, and pretty dirty. With the wet, heavy snow there are a lot of sticks on the trail and quite a few low hanging branches that are being weighed down by the snow. DNR staff will be working to get as much of that cleaned up as we can in the coming days. The upper sections of the Blue/Black are especially bad with these issues. The purple trail turned out decent if you are looking to get off of the man-made loop for something different but it is still a little thin and dirty in some areas. The snow was too thin to set classic tracks anywhere except for the section of man-made snow.

(Collin Bergholz)

It was a pleasure to finally groom some of Mother Nature's sweet snow. I groomed the entire skate deck and reset tracks on our 1K man-made trail system. I did experiment on the top of tail end and down magic carpet combing out the new snow. We need more of Mother Nature's finest snow to get the Pisten Bully off our man-made trail system. Happy skiing!

(Beattle Adelmeyer)

Excellent conditions for skate and stride this afternoon. A layer of loose snow on a firm base provided a perfect surface to hone your technique. The climb up Summerstage Hill is sugar snow, great practice for this weekends Lapham Loppet. Get out here tonight before the storm to enjoy the great skiing on the snowmaking loop.

(John McCarthy)

Very good conditions for skate and stride this morning on the snowmaking loop. Last night's grooming loosened up the dense base and mixed it with the fallen snow to create an excellent, flat skating surface. The climb up Summerstage is deep corn snow, and downhill is much improved. Tracks are solid and straight, with a couple of spots where the wood chips are poking through.

(John McCarthy)

The Piston Bully was out at night grooming the man-made loop. The skate deck was tilled and is is in great condition. The classic tracks were reset and are in good condition as well. There are a few thin spots and a couple of narrow spots on the trail but overall it should ski well.

(Mark Janis)

After two weeks, it was nice to get back to xc skiing thanks to the Lapham snowmaking and grooming volunteers. The 1 mile man-made loop was enjoyable even with the hugh turnout of skiers.

Photos:

(Don Howell)