It's been a quiet 5 days with very little skier traffic until Tuesday afternoon when a couple hundred high school and jr high kids hit the trails for the North Star Conference meet and the right for their team to bring home the coveted traveling wood ski trophy. The temps were cool but the air was dry, sun was shining and winds light making for a great day of skiing. Grooming plans: We will complete grooming of the 90km of skate, classic and fat bike trails the next two days.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Another 2" of fresh snow overnight. All the inner trails were groomed today, including the section skate and classic only courses, and tracks cut to the west on Twin Lakes and North Loup to the north. Skate lanes to the north have the dusting of fresh snow since Thursday's grooming.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Went for a classic ski this morning testing out last nights grooming. Very nice skiing on simple hard wax. Good to see the sun again today. We have been grooming daily this week working in the fresh snowfall on 90km of trail. We are digging deep into the base mixing the new snow with the nicely seasoned and transformed material with good results. Combined with falling temps and a humidity swing of almost 30%, the tracks are setting up rock hard this evening. We have been working on the skate trails widening, leveling and pulling in snow. The 25km fat bike trail was groomed Tuesday and we headed out for another groom today getting about a third of a way before the track ripped off the SnowDog groomer. With the new snow drying out, still some great fat biking conditions on the remainder of the loop on a rock solid base. Lot of wildlife being sighted and tons of tracks everywhere. Grooming plans: All the western classic trails will be reset Thursday and touch up grooming the rest of the week on other trails as needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

To borrow a phrase from WCCO weatherman, Chris Schaefer, Sunday was definitely a "Top 10" day to be out on the Maplelag ski trails. I skied about 4 hours overall without repeating any trail. All of the classic tracks I skied were as crisp and clean and firm as ever. Kick wax and skins worked equally well. Snow coverage is excellent. Temps reached the low to mid teens, and the sky was a brilliant blue. It was a picture perfect day at Maplelag.

(Glenn Gifford)

Conditions rated good to excellent. Light dustings of snow this week accumulating to an inch or so. Touch up grooming on select classic trails with the Pisten Bully and all skate trails renovated, combed and structured with the Ginzu groomers this morning. 25km fat bike trail groomed yesterday morning with the SnowDog groomer. Entire 90km trail system has been groomed daily this week. 50km groomed for classic, 15k groomed for skate and 25km groomed for fat biking. Grooming plans: touch up grooming on the weekend as needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

An inch of new snow overnight. We had no rain at Maplelag the past 24 hours. All the skate trails groomed this morning, renovating the old snow and mixing with the new. Tracks are being renovated and reset on select classic trails today as well and will continue through the week as deemed necessary. The new snow keeping ski conditions good to excellent.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

Classic tracks at Maplelag were firm and in great shape Sunday on the trails we skied including Twin Lakes, Wavy Gravy, Sukkerbusk, North Loup, and JibFly. There was a good number of cars in the parking lot, and we crossed paths with very few skiers on the trail (likely due to the 70km of groomed trails at Maplelag). The temps were in the mid-30's when we finished about 2:45pm. We started with zeroes, then switched to skin skis and fish-scales and all worked well today, although the zeroes started icing about midday as the temps warmed. Very nice day with excellent skiing. Thanks to Jay and the grooming crew for keeping the trails in such fine shape.

(Glenn Gifford)

2" new snow past 48 hours. We completed grooming of the 90km groomed trail system, including the fat bike trails, this afternoon. Jonell and I classic skied on Twin Lakes loop at dusk and it was about as good as it gets. 15km groomed skate only, 50km groomed classic, 25km groomed for fat biking. There is also around 10km of non groomed trail for backcountry skiing.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

1-2" new snow this morning. All singletrack classic trails on the west and north part of the system groomed and reset today with the GInzu's. We ran the Pisten Bully on most of the inner classic trails than cut a track with the Ginzu. Inner skate trails groomed with Ginzu. Scheduling plans: Tomorrow we will be hosting the 30th DL Invite Nordic Ski meet. Trails used will be Sap Run, Mother North Star and Skaters Waltz from 10am-2pm. All other trails open. Grooming plans: The remainder of the trail system will be groomed Thursday evening and Friday morning and daily touch up grooming will continue as needed.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)

It's been a great week of grooming, skiing and fat biking on 90km of trail. Subzero nights has set the base and deck up hard and daily rime frost has fallen to the deck making for really fun glide. We've opened up and groomed more singletrack classic trails to the north (Roy's Run) and have also groomed and tracked a loop on Bullhead lake that has access to the Bullhead quinzee shelter. 15 km groomed skate, 50km groomed classic and 25km groomed for fat biking.

Photos:

(Jay Richards, Maplelag Resort)