Nice firm base, plenty of coverage throughout, just a few small areas of dirt or leaves kicked up by the groomer. Good skis. Skied all of the groomed inner loops - Sukkerbusk, Mother Northstar, Jib Fly, Rootin Tootin, Sap Run ... what am I forgetting? Fantastic afternoon on the trails! Well worth the drive. Plan to be back tomorrow to check out the skate deck and outer classic loops if my legs last.

Photos:

(Natalie Griffith)

An inch of fluff snow overnight. Trails are taking shape nicely after daily grooming. The entire trail system has been groomed and more trails continue to be tracked. We are only setting one track on the double track trails. Please no skating on the open side as we reserve this space for future tracksetting. A few of the outer singletrack trails have a few rough/thin spots and we try to lift the track in these areas. Always be aware of natural organic forest matter etc. Tons of wildlife tracks, out there. Trail cams have been picking up bobcat, wolves, fox, pine martens among others. Active eagles nest at start of Twin Lakes trail and beavers crossing trails in spots. The 25km fat bike loop "FatLagChilada" has also been groomed the past two days. We also added new snowshoe trail to the north this fall. All told there is over 100km of trail available for the aforementioned activities. Finally, we also packed and groomed out our main and subsidiary parking lots. 17" of total snowfall this year and we have yet to plow these areas. This is part of our sustainable or "green" model that does not include snowmaking.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

A spectacular day on the trails! We woke up to -10F and another dusting of snow since grooming last night bringing the storm total to just under a foot of new snow. We worked on the remaining of the trail system (except Bullhead) and also made additional passes on trails groomed yesterday. This afternoon on the classic only trails we reset one track on the double track trails Sap Run, Sukkerbusk and Mother Hen. We also set one track on Mother North Star. Went out for a classic ski on all the new tracksetting after sunset and found really nice skiing. I was using good skis as I was comfortable stepping out of the track on just a few spots, mostly on Mother North Star, where there were very minor soft touches to the grassy trail surface. Sub zero temps all day set the tracks up very nicely. Grooming during the storm yesterday while the snow was moisture heavy paid dividends to have such nice classic tracks. Grooming plans: Tomorrow we will be combing out the skate only loops, Skaters Waltz, the two extension loops, North Loup and Suicide Hill again. We will also set track on one side on JibFly, Twin Lakes and Rootin Tootin. All other classic trails are open for no track classic skiing.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

8-9" of moisture lade snow today. A period of rain from 4am to 5am embedded a 1/4" crust in the base that made for easier grooming actually. 90 km of grooming today. All inner trail system and a few trails on the west and north system roll packed. Set track on 7km at end of day. Groomers back out tomorrow packing trail we did today and will hit rest of north and west trails. Fat bike trails will be groomed this week as well.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Great day on the trails. Lots of smiles and reports of better than expected conditions despite the thin base. At dusk Jonell and I skied on some other inner trails to check coverage and things are looking good. Snow is starting to fall and groomers are ready to roll and pack in the morning. Focus will be on the inner trails than moving to the outer trails Sunday evening and Monday. Tracks will be set on Sukkerbusk if conditions allow. Trails will be open Sunday.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Great day skiing a nice 3 km loop. It's a very enjoyable loop, with nice climbs, plus Suicide Hill open as well. I was eager to get out on some new skis and didn't regret that decision. The trail is in amazing condition especially given how little snow we have received.

Photos:

(Jonathan Haug)

Had time for a quick 1 hour skate session right about sundown. Really enjoyable for early season conditions. Base is minimal but had been packed well before the previous days warm spell. Recent grooming has made edging possible. Abbreviated loop as of now but has a great mix of terrain to get your legs back under you after being off the skis for a while.

Photos:

(Lance Strum)

Just over an inch of new snow last night. We groomed on 3.25km of trail last night, pressing the new snow into yesterday's renovated snow and base. The snow was falling as dry and fluffy but damp at the surface due to air temps in the 32-33 range which made of nice packing. Cold temps overnight set the structure nicely. We groomed again in the morning touching up the sides. This afternoon we were out again, this time running the teeth on the Ginzu groomer as much as we dared focusing on the middle of the trail, mixing the old crusty base with Tuesday's snow and last nights snow together. The end result was really nice early season conditions experienced on a late afternoon ski. Just a few spots the teeth dinged the ground but mostly grass was pulled up. I was expecting the surface to give away in a few areas but had no issue. I felt comfortable using B skis, just 2-3 flat rocks are exposed, easy to avoid. We will have this 3.25km of trail open for skiing tomorrow. The segments include Sukkerbusk and Skaters Waltz to the east and also Suicide Hill. The connectors are the return of Sap Run trail and also the "skinny field". Basically follow all the grooming, ski either direction. Clear and cool tonight should tighten up the texture even more overnight.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Yesterday warm temps took out bit more snow than we expected. Thankfully froze down hard overnight and the temps behaved today and were able to hang on to some base. The early season loop we are trying to open for the weekend held out better than I expected and was able to tenderize the crown where the base was adequate with the lightweight grooming setup. A post grooming ski found sufficient edging, and despite the thin cover, was a real nice and rather lively ski. We are still optimistic to open this early early season loop, which includes a two way connector to Suicide Hill which had the best skiing. Total km of this combo is right at 2.5km. Forecast calling for 0-2" tonight. If we can get pull down an inch, we should be able to open this loop to the public Friday afternoon on into the weekend. Will update Friday noon. Photos from the "early season loop" including Suicide Hill.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

2" of heavy wet snow mixed with a little bit of rain last night capped off a great month of November at Maplelag. 8" of total snowfall and 18 skiable days. Early early this morning we groomed on Skaters Waltz, Sukkerbusk, Suicide Hill and the soccer field loop, pressing the wet snow into the cold frozen base. The temp cooled down enough last night to freeze everything down. A ski mid morning found fantastic early season conditions, especially on a 2km loop consisting of the above trails we have been working on in effort to open this weekend. We also set track in a few spots to test the durability of the existing ice/crust base and were please with those results. We are keeping the trails closed with the warm temps today and tomorrow and will assess conditions Thursday evening to see if we can open at least 2km of trail for the weekend.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)