On Monday a single grooming pass with the Pisten Bully was made on the 3/5K trails. This moved the single track set closer to the center of the trail to provide a firmer track while narrowing the skate deck slightly. The 10K trail was not groomed on Monday but did see a double wide pass of the roller/comb on the previous Friday. The right hand track is skied in. Due to thin snow conditions our grooming is less than in previous years. The Campground Loop is still solid with deep track sets and a wide, firm skate deck. Grooming plans: Upper Spirit Mountain Nordic will be groomed double-track, system wide, on Friday. This will eliminate the skate deck as we prepare for the Nordic Spirit Ski Race on Saturday. Re-grooming to the normal skate/classic layout will happen if there is remaining snow quality and depth. I would expect to see the double-track set remain for some time based on the current short-term forecasts. Our current base is a delicate 6".

(Larry Mishkar)

Spirit hasn't been groomed since the last snowfall. There are skied in tracks, which were OK. I ended up going over to Magney...

(Elaine Nelson)

It was a pretty day, but the trails are not in great shape. Both the skate deck and the tracks had a lot of areas with tilled up dirt. It surprised me but Spirit had about half the snow that Hartley does, just a few miles away. I would use rock skis and not worry or B skis and just be a little careful.

(Adam Schwartz-Lowe)

Trail has a lot of leaves and dirt groomed into the snow. Skied the 10K loop. Trail is well packed. The connector to Magney-Snively is in good shape.

(Tyler Henkels)

The 10k and 5k loops had soft skate decks, uneven lanes, and some weeds sticking through. The 3k loop and campground loop were much better. Campground loop had a firm deck under the fresh inch of snow. Could use a groom to even everything out. Classic tracks looked deep and good though!

(Ellie Sin)

I enjoyed my first ski at Spirit this season. The first 5k (of the 11k) had a little bit of drifted snow and didn't seem as freshly groomed. I didn't ski the last 6k (went to Magney instead). The classic tracks looked really nice and I was kicking myself for bringing my skate skis today (no pun intended!). There was some dirt and debris in the middle of the trail which was a little hard to avoid (particularly on the uphills).

(Elaine Nelson, Skinnyski.com Race Team)

All trails are open for skate and classic skiing. Watch for leafy areas - the deer are digging for acorns directly in the trail. Snow is very thin at the Finnish Complaint Hill sign due to wind erosion. Reitler's Corner in the Campground Loop has a double set of tracks as a combo set of classic and skate doesn't work thru this narrow corner. For most of the trail system this is the first groom of the season.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)

We are happy to announce that all trails at Grand Avenue are open and groomed classic and skate. Overlook and Deer Stand, our only natural snow trails, were last to be packed, corded and tracked, thanks to three recent snowfalls. However, they will see limited grooming as all that snow was soft and airy, and will not withstand daily grooming. The remaining machine-made trails will be groomed daily. Pictured is Deer Stand.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)

Went to Spirit after discovering Magney wasn't groomed, hoping it would be good after the extra 3 inches yesterday. It had a skied in track. We skied the 3k and campground. Pole plants were very soft and went down quite far.

(Eve Graves)

I skated upper spirit Tuesday finding the conditions to be quite good! I did use my B soft skis and it was perfect. There was just a little bit of brown and leaves popping through here and there on the 3K and a couple K of the 10K that were groomed. A nice track was set as well. The campground loop is my absolute favorite because it is always immaculate and the terrain is just so much fun forcing you to vary your technique making you feel like a gazelle. Get out and pack that snow in!

(Jena Ogston)