Fairly hard packed and fast in the tracks on the downhills since they are glazed. There were a few spots the groomers had shoveled snow over bare spots so everything is in pretty good shape still. Classic tracks looked OK with a few leaves or grass in places and a bit glazed.

(Angie Robinson)

Track hard and fast, great kick with Rex blue power grip. Leaves in track can cause abrupt slowing especially on some of the hills. Great day to be out, many people enjoying the day.

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(James Zyskowski)

Skied at 3:30. Deck was well skied in by other skiers but it did look like it had been recently groomed. It got faster my second time through the loops as the temp was falling. Fun! Classic tracks looked good, too.

(Catherine Perrone)

Very good conditions on the U golf course. It appears to be have been groomed early this morning. Firm, but not hard skate deck. It was easy to get the edges to work. Grass was barely showing a couple of areas, both easily avoided. A bit more snow will be helpful, but still very good this afternoon.

(Chip Treen)

Skied both outer and inner loops today. Very nice condition on both. The inner loop has been rerouted back to its original path from before the recent snowfall - it was a bit shorter for a couple of days but back to original length now. The trails are nicely packed and groomed. I skated today but the classic track looked great too.

(Serguei Pakhomov)

This was my first time skiing here, although I've been doing this for a half-century now, including 10 Birkies. First, an observation - the classic track looked mostly good, a little faded here and there, but serviceable for me on most of the downhill portions. In retrospect, it seems as though most of the reports I've read were from classic skiers, which seems to be the way to go under the current conditions, but after being warned by my PT that the diagonal stride would likely cause problems for my damaged Achilles tendon, I've been mostly skating. The trail is well-covered - I noticed no bare spots. The skate deck is very firm, to the point of being rock-hard in many locations, so hard as to be very difficult to set an edge to push off. This is especially true on those numerous sections of the trail with one side higher than the other, where the downhill side of the trail has been scraped and polished very hard by the hundreds of skate strides the trail has seen since the last snowfall. Although none of the inclines are particularly long nor steep, many of them have gotten very hard as well. Many skiers have gone off the trail to be able to herringbone where they couldn't set an edge on the trail, and many are skiing the downhill side off the trail as well, since the downhill runs have been polished hard and are rutted enough to make the skis bounce and chatter. From what I could discern, it seems as though the groomers know what they're doing, but the minimal snow we have doesn't give them much with which to work. Until we get more snow, the tilted trail sections could be an on-going grooming issue for skaters, unless you're a really good skater who can set your edges better than I. I used my old Fischer skate skis with the metal edges and still had trouble.

(David Sonnenberg)

Skied this afternoon at about 3:30. Busy parking lot as always but lots of room on the trails. Did both outer and inner loops Grooming was spectacular: firm wide skate deck, easy to get an edge any time. I hopped in and out of the classic tracks for downhills and some double poling and they were fabulous throughout. We had been out on the course this past weekend too after the snow - it was ungroomed then but still silky and truly lovely (even skating!). Still, it's great to have the groomed version of things back! Thank you U of M golf course groomers!

(John Grady)

We classic skied both the inner and outer loops this morning and found them to be in great shape. The groomer(s) has done a great job in grooming and setting tracks on the classic trails. Watch out for a few rough patches were the tree trimming and removal work is being done, as well as a couple of bare spots (easily avoidable) under tree overhangs.

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(Bob Cockriel)

Groomer repaired and order has been restored out here. Classic track set throughout and the skate deck has been leveled and widened. Temps tonight should leave some nice conditions for the morning. Thanks for your patience.

(Mitch Hoffman)

Grooming plan: We have some mechanical problems currently and I will be working through them tomorrow when I get back to town. We will get skiing conditions back as soon as we can. I apologize to our skiers for the current conditions.

Photos:

(Mitch Hoffman)