Lower loops of rock hard man made snow on biathlon course have been tilled and tracks reset. Good skiing for the weekend. Upper and west trails icy and hard pack. No grooming possible. Thin base with bare spots, dirt and leaves.

(Catherine McLynn)

Skied Mount Itasca this afternoon. In the sun it was actually kind of like pleasant spring skiing. Shade was icy. Fast all around. About 2k of trails around the biathalon range have good snow depth. Everything else that is natural snow has pretty widespread bare spots.

(Afton Clarke-Sather)

Skied the whole trail system. Conditions are spring-like but without the suction cup effect on the skis. Tracks are in place most places. There are dirt clumps in a few areas where mowing equipment last fall scuffed up the trails, but otherwise, everything is skiable! No big races on the schedule, so hopefully, it stays cloudy and 33 degrees instead. Enjoy!

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)

Trails were tilled Friday evening. Tracks were reset on the 1.65 km loop but not on the natural snow. It looks like those tracks are holding up okay, and the dustings of snow have made skiing in the a little better for the skis, so we left them as is. There are no major races planned this weekend, but there may be some teams practicing. Either way, there should be plenty of room on the trails Saturday. Sunday has MyXC from 1:30 to 3:00 pm.

(Bob Conzemius)

Set track on remaining portion of Grant-In-Aid trails that did not have a track. Get out and enjoy the snow because it looks like this could be the deepest we have all season! Lots of tracks were set on the man-made 1.65 km loop for the CXC races Sunday. We also have another high school race scheduled at Mt Itasca on Thursday since there is not enough snow elsewhere. The 1.65 km loop is closed during races, but the rest is open all the time.

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)

Groomed the lower portion of the biathlon trails (1.65 km loop) machine-made snow with the Pistenbully for the CXC races Saturday and Sunday. Groomed for the skate races Saturday, and tracks will be set for the classic races Sunday. The remaining trails are open but have not been groomed since last weekend due to very little new snow. The 1.65 km loop will be closed during racing (10-4) Saturday and Sunday. The rest will be open. MyXC classes take place 1:30 to 3:00 PM Sunday, so trails will be busy. Natural snow cover is on the thin side so bring your B skis if you're skiing anywhere outside of the 1.65 km loop.

(Bob Conzemius)

Good classic ski on upper GIA Trails with two days of light snow in tracks that were set a few days ago. Temps barely zero but sunny and mostly calm. Lower loops will be closed this weekend for CXC races most of each day, but the upper trails with natural snow will be open. MYSL youth skiers will be on the upper trails Sunday afternoon from 1 to 3 pm. More skiers welcome to join the glide on natural snow!

(Catherine McLynn)

I made a couple more passes around some of the trail segments Friday evening. I decided I would come by again in the morning to set some tracks since I could see better during the day how well they were looking. I tracked the non-snowmaking part of the biathlon trails, service road, and Bittersweet/Magview. I was seeing enough debris and stuff that I was pulling up that I decided to skip the lower portion of the Grant-In-Aid trails. I came back and skied what I had groomed, and the tracks were not as bad as I had earlier thought. Perhaps I could have tracked the rest. Maybe next time. A light dusting, at this point, would make the tracks quite skiable. Some are pretty shallow, though. Scheduling: For next weekend, we will have our CXC races, so the trails will be closed during those races.

Photos:

(Bob Conzemius)

Yesterday afternoon I tried to skate in two inches fluffy snow over thin base. Since then some wonderful groomer flat packed all of the trails except Vlad's Revenge and Otter Slide. The tracks set by skiers have been erased. If it weren't getting cold, skating would have been good. But it was barely 10 degrees with the sun shining, so I did classic. No track set and a few spots of gravel showing on Service Road. Lower loops hard packed from high school race yesterday.

(Catherine McLynn)

Biathlon loops were groomed for big high school race today so we ventured onto lower and upper Grant in Aid trails. Four inches of deep fluffy snow over thin base made skate skiing more work but still enjoyable. Wonderful classic skiing in tracks set by skiers on Bittersweet! Caution on steep downhills (which I avoided) until more snow.

(Catherine McLynn)