Took a break from the spirit downhill runs to check out the snowmaking course and thoroughly enjoyed it. Base seems pretty deep yet, good coverage and not much debris - mostly just the mud tracked in by mountain bikers. It is icy in spots and I was glad that sections were softening up in the mid afternoon to make for better control. The iciest part is the wide area down by the chalet. It seems like it is being groomed regularly yet but the person I asked in the chalet didn't have any information about grooming. Like most spring skiing, it's probably going to be best if you can hit the part of the day when it starts to soften so you don't have to deal with icy ruts.

Photos:

(Peter Aggen)

Conditions fantastic for skating at 8:00am today. Freshly groomed and fast. What an enjoyable trail -- first time here.

(Bonnie Handmacher)

Still winter conditions on this last day of February with a temp of 25 degrees at 3 pm. It looked like the trails were freshly groomed today. The classic track was shallow and a little icy but I had decent grip and glide with skin skis. The skate deck was firm and fast according to reports from the St Scholastica ski team who were out training.

Photos:

(Gene Karwoski)

Roller Coaster is closed with snow guns in place and piles of snow ready to be groomed out. Stadium is ungroomed. Hopefully all back fully open by Saturday morning. The higher up loops (Black Bear and Overlook?) were great skiing. Violet Klister worked wonderfully.

Photos:

(Brian Markes)

Pristine, albeit cold, conditions at GANC this morning. They are blowing more snow now in the Stadium and on RollerCoaster- the latter was closed. The rest is open and wonderful. Thanks Spirit for giving us consistently great conditions in this decidedly un-winter winter.

(Tom Heinitz)

Spirit Mountain Nordic Center will be hosting the CCSA (Central Collegiate Ski Association) Conference meet on Saturday, February 10th and Sunday, February 11th. On Saturday, February 10th the Nordic Center trails will also be hosting the Duluth Area JH and JV Season Ender. The ski trails will be closed until the completion of races each day. Saturday, February 10th opening time will be 2:30PM and no classic tracks will be set. Sunday, February 11th opening time will be 1PM and classic tracks will be set best line. Trails are in good condition.

(Siiri Morse)

Mashed potatoes on top, ice underneath. Uphill sections are soft; downhills are fast and very icy in the corners where the trail has been scraped clean.

(Quentin Tschofen)

Skied lower Spirit this morning. Excellent fresh grooming. More loops added up top. Basically, amazing.

(Todd Struckman)

I had a fast and enjoyable ski tonight. There were some classic tracks (that looked good). The skate deck was firm and fast. I had no trouble on the downhill turns (no ice). The snow machines were blowing on the upper sections. Hopefully we can ski the full loop soon! Right now, it's about 1.3k long.

(Elaine Nelson)

I just got off the phone with Tom Straka, the Spirit Mt Trail Maintenance Manager. Tom wanted skiers to know that they had a very successful period of snowmaking over the past two days. They made so much snow in fact that they need a little more time on Tuesday morning to finish pushing everything around and grooming. Tom suggests delaying your arrival at Spirit Mt Nordic until after 10am on Tuesday. A little back story here... one of the compromises that was made with neighbors agreeing to the building of the trails was the creation of a noise ordnance that restricts night time grooming. The Spirit Mt crew would love to groom the Nordic trails in the overnight hours but they are restricted by the ordinance.

(Dave Johnson)