Skied the 11k (on the way to Magney). The trail looked like it had been very recently groomed. Unfortunately, was still a little soft. A skier in front of me had made a few gouges with their skis in the soft stuff (I tried to be careful, but had a few gouges of my own). Pole plants were occasionally soft as well. I suspect after firming up overnight, it would make for a super fun ski! The classic tracks were beautiful - should be fantastic for Friday/weekend. Enjoy!

(Elaine Nelson)

Both the campground and 3k loops have been freshly groomed and tracked! Conditions might be soft until trails have been able to set up fully.

(Reitler Hodgert)

3K and probably a good portion of 5K/10K were groomed in the early afternoon. I was planning to go out on the 10K but the start of it had not been groomed. So instead I went out on the groomed 3K and sure enough, two-way trails were groomed to get me to the Magney connector, and connector and Magney were also groomed. The start of the 10K had still not been groomed by the time I left at 3. Conditions great on groomed portions.

(Sara Zimmer)

Grooming plans: Beautiful new snow blankets our trails and it will take a day for us to get them ready. Look for the whole system plus the Magney connector to be ready to ski Friday afternoon. The Grand Avenue Nordic Center trails are groomed to perfection today! Enjoy the snow and sun.

(Siiri Morse)

At least on Sunday morning, conditions for classic skiing at Spirit Mountain were fair at best. We only skied the intermediate (inner) loop for maybe an hour. On the outbound side of the loop, snow and grooming conditions were good, but there were a lot of windblown leaves, which collected in the tracks. This didn't seem to cause the skate skiers problems, and might not cause problems for classic skiers using no-wax skis. But, using classic waxable skis, the leaves basically made the tracks unusable - skiing through leaves really makes a mess of the wax job, and leaves the ski bottom dotted with stuck on leaf chunks. There was also a lot of windblown snow on the return side of the loop which obliterated the tracks (and, at times, most of the trail). We finished that loop, and decided to give up and ski elsewhere (in this case, Boulder Lake, where the trails were in excellent condition with no leaves).

(Len Crowley)

The 10k was super, as good as ski conditions get. Firm cord with solid pole plants. Almost no debris. The 3k loop on top of the hill could use a grooming pass.

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(Fritz Anderson)

The trail system has received a good amount of snow in the last 4 days. The system will be rolled throughout the day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and with new snow in the forecast, plan for the whole system to be groomed and ready to ski on Thursday.

(Siiri Morse)

The intermediate and easy loops at Spirit Mountain were in good shape, though only about half of them had been recently groomed. Those that were not were a bit soft, but quite skiable for skate, and getting better with traffic. I didn't venture out on the expert loops, which looked even softer. The connector to Magney Spivey was excellent, and made me wish we had gone there instead, but ah well.

Photos:

(Lois Braun)

Classic skiied the upper 3K loop which was in surprisingly good shape for today's youth ski. A bit of leaf debris on the trail but the view with frost covered trees lining the trail were breathtaking.

Photos:

(Karla Miller)

I had hopes for freshly groomed trails but was sadly disapointed. Trails appear to have not been groomed for a while. Mix of new snow, wind blown drifts and hard pack. Overall fairly poor conditions. There are better choices to ski today. I did ski over to Magney and found great conditions (city groomed).

(John Jereczek)