Today's grooming focused on the inner trail system and tuning loops and segments recommended to ski during the cold weather. Sap Run, Mother Hen, JibFly and a condensed loop of Mother North Star using Sukkerbusk start and finish are great options for the cooler weather. Folks prepared and keen to ski the longer loops, everything is in great shape and folks out skiing today reporting excellent conditions. A ride on the Twin Lakes fat bike trail at dusk found excellent conditions as well. 100km of trails open for winter recreating. 10km of skate only, 40km double tracked, 15km singletrack classic, 25km of fat bike trail, 7km of non groomed skier made track adventure trail and 5km of snowshoe trail.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Classic skied the trails groomed yesterday. Conditions were much faster than expected. The old transformed snow pulled up made for really nice glide actually. Although the air temp was -10 when I went out, the sun was glorious and made for a beautiful afternoon on the trails. A nice size timber wolf was on Wavy Gravy for about a third of the trail than decided to leave its mark! Just a few very minor areas where drifted in the open but not as bad as expected. Bullhead has a bit more drifting otherwise all the other outer classic trails are in fantastic shape. It was nice having the double track back on North Loup for that best line experience. A check of the skate deck found a bit tighter surface and considering the temps, the glide isn't too bad. After skiing determined a grooming plan for tomorrow to clean up a few areas on the inner double track. Overall things are in great shape going into the weekend. 100km of trails open for winter recreating. 10km of skate only, 40km double tracked, 15km singletrack classic, 25km of fat bike trail, 7km of non groomed skier made track adventure trail and 5km of snowshoe trail.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Another full day of grooming despite cooler temps. Completed the grooming of all the singletrack classic trails today and touched up the double track on Twin Lakes. Also set double track on North Loup so there is no longer a skate lane there. The snow has "freeze dried" after being subject to air temps down to -34 making it a bit more tricky to reset tracks but end result is a meaningful groom as faster older snow is being pulled up. Skaters Waltz has been groomed daily the past three days and a skate ski at dusk found conditions faster than expected and surprisingly faster than the classic tracks. Most of the fat bike trail was groomed, focusing on the areas that had drifted over the weekend. With light skier traffic on the trails this week, the wildlife have really been on the move and there are tracks galore. Even got close to one of the porcupines while grooming on Roy's Run today! All told, we have sighted 6 porcupines in various locations scattered across the entire trail system. Going into the weekend we will have over 100km of trails open for winter recreating. 10km of skate only, 40km double tracked, 15km singletrack classic, 25km of fat bike trail, 7km of non groomed skier made track adventure trail and 5km of snowshoe trail. If you are keen to ski in cooler temps, we now have lots of lodging openings this weekend due to an abundant of cancellations because of the forecasted cold weather.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

With morning low checking in at -23F, it was a great day to gear down and ski one of the two "adventure" trails at Maplelag, Bullhead Lake trail. This trail offers a different experience than the other trails on the Maplelag system with a feeling of being very close to nature with some panoramic views over Bullhead lake. It is popular among the ski camp kids as a "last ski" trail, providing natural skill work with the unpredictability of the ungroomed segment. There are tons of tracks including an active water opening for the local otters as well as beaver lodges along the shoreline. Got out with Jake just after sunrise. Brilliant sunshine and no wind to speak of made for a really nice ski despite the cooler temps. The first part of the trail after Suicide hill is not groomed with a nice skier made track. No one had skied the trail since Friday so the light dusting on top made for slower conditions. This was a good thing as we had to work a bit harder to maintain glide and generated a bit more heat. The last 2/3rds of the trail is groomed, most recently on Friday, and found a solid deck with well defined tracks. A few areas of wind blown snow in the tracks from the recent blowing snow. Coming back on the double track Sukkerbusk was very nice after the skier traffic yesterday. Looks like Tuesday will be the best day for grooming this coming week and we plan to clean up all the singletrack trails and refresh the skate deck. The double track trails are skiing the best, a few minor areas of blown over snow. Select dates open for lodging until we closed on the 21st. Trails will remain open for day skiing until the snow is not skiable with focus on the virtual Lotvola Cup course.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Exhilarating day on the trails! A morning ski before it warmed up reminded me how much I missed this cool weather we are experiencing now, in January! Awesome to see other folks out. Think the whatever the windchill rating was -40 in these parts! Insane for February. But windchill is irrelevant when you are dressed proper and skiing with the wind. I like to call it reverse windchill. Ha! Had such a good time in the morning that had to get back out with the boys for afternoon ski. Again, great to see so many folks out. Proud of everyone. Conditions didn't warrant grooming other than the singletrack that has some BS WB sections but with cooler weather and not wanting to encourage longer skis, the groomers got a day of rest. Like so many times this season, grooming in the transition before temps tank is key as the entire trail system was groomed 1-3 times Wednesday to Friday. We were able to mix the relatively warm seasoned snow with the fresh snow. The end result is some of the best tracks of the year thanks to temps down to -15 last night setting the fresh set and deck bomber and the precision grooming. Some folks were out skating and have to give a shout out to them. Heroes of the day! Folks I talked to said "you need to name Skaters Waltz to Skaters Walk!" Pretty slow going on the uphills. Positive attitude and gratitude to be out on the trails, which is appreciated, makes it all good. The wind at dusk was finally going to bed and although the air temp tonight will be -20ish, sunshine and polished tracks will make for a fantastic day Sunday as it slowly "warms" up. Recommended to ski the double track classic and Just Ski!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Proper winter weather! Another solid day of grooming under a massive beautiful sundog. All skate trails groomed and all double track were reset. Still able to dig in deep with the Ginzus and pull up the seasoned snow below. Frontal passage snow continued off and on today making the surface a bit gritty and slowing the skiing down. The entire 25km fat bike trail was also groomed today. We were not planning on grooming tomorrow but looks like enough glaze of the haze will warrant at least a refresh on the key trails, Sap Run, Sukkerbusk and possibly Twin Lakes once the air temp is -10 or above. Nice job to all the folks that got out today!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Good ol' winter day! Nothing beats the experience of being outside when a cold front is barellin' throughout the day ! The groomers worked on resort enhancements until the system snow stopped than hit the trails for a full afternoon of grooming. All skate trails including Suicide Hill were groomed, mixing the new snow with the transformed goodness below. Folks skating in the afternoon reported heavenly conditions. Tracks were reset on the singletrack trails Wavy Gravy, Roy's Run, North Loup, Bullhead Bootleg and Loon Return. A post grooming classic ski on both the fresh groomed and yesterdays grooming found pretty much perfect on the fresh groomed. Cold front haze snow slowed the tracks down just a bit and the dusting of new system snow definitely slowed down the other trails but rest assured those trails will be groomed in the morning, all the double track to be specific. We will also refurbish the skate trails again. Just the right amount of snow to blend with the old and keep conditions snappy despite cooler temps. Going to be a great weekend to classic ski! Nice work to all the folks completing the Lotvola Cup virtual this week. New fast times posted this week but a reminder it's not all about being the fastest skier, just getting out and doing it. Did you see the photo yesterday of the mom pulling her youngan? Lotvola Cup completed. Awesome!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Frosty humid day made for a gliding and sliding beauty day! This morning we reset track on Rootin Tootin and touched up the center of the skate lane on Skaters Waltz, Kristin's Kutoff, Single Green and Suicide Hill. We've conditioned the snow on Suicide Hill such the hairdresser for Maplelag would be proud! Super silky lathery snow. So good. Skated in the afternoon on all the skate trails and was one of the best of the season, imo. The groom crew is locked and loaded for either a full day of grooming or touch up day. Depends on weather tonight, no predictions coming from yours truly. Just like every other day when there is snow on the ground, it's going to be a perfect day, dial in the wax and clothing and Just Ski!

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

A glorious day on the trails! The sun made an appearance and was quite heartening. The wind had a bit of a bite from the southeast but that just got excited for the cold weather to come as we look forward to some honest classic skiing with the polar type waxes. This morning we scrubbed out the double tracks on Loon Return, Twin Lakes, JibFly and Mother North Star than dropped a new pair. The dew point separated from the air temp a bit more than we expected but we made some adjustments and the final result was very good. The snow remains a fabulous silky sugar slide. We didn't groomed the skate decks for the first time in quite a while but the texture is holding out nicely and the surface is skiing phenomenal. Keeping pulse on the every changing weather to decide what trails on tap for grooming in the morning. Looking like the remaining double track trails and possibly a singletrack trail or two. Tough to do much to those trails when they are skiing very nice and about as good as it gets. Plan is to have everything set by Friday noon before the deck tightens up. The fat bike trail is riding excellent to.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Another fantastic day on the trails. All skate trails groomed in the morning. The snow has transformed nicely and daily grooming has created a lovely sugary silky sensation surface! Try that for a tongue twister! Classic lesson in the morning, skate lesson in the afternoon found primo conditions for both. Skin skis are the absolute ticket right now or if you do wax, go warmer than the temp suggest or a Rex Power grip type wax is working quite nicely. Skate skiing you can fake any wax and still have fast skis. One local called the conditions "illegal" I said no worries, the trail patrol will not arrest you! Tomorrow morning we will double pass renovate scrambling the transformed goodness on Twin Lakes and Mother North Star trails, let it set up for about an hour than cut new double track. This is the week to call in sick or punch in some PTO!

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)