Excellent conditions, considering our circumstances. Best, if only, spot to get Ks in in town this weekend. Busy and mashed up in some spots, but otherwise good to go.

(Emily Nagel)

We have (mostly) survived the torrential rain and freeze from last nights system, with much of our available trail tilling out to an acceptable level. There’s no way around it; everything is ice or a lot of tilled ice at the moment. It will be firm and granular for a while, but tracks set really well and it’s definitely skiable. Of note, there are some major water issues above the DWP on the roller coaster connector. This area was pushed out for a high school race tomorrow, but it is very thin and water logged so we do not recommend going this route. For now, the temporary two-way on roller coaster remains the best course. Additionally, there is a smaller wet patch on upper black bear to keep an eye out for. We’re still open and there’s still skiing to be had!

(Erik Blow)

Howdy folks, we had a successful Section 7 race yesterday using the newly opened big bend section of trail, which now allows us to have another loop completed! We are groomed and tracked through the stadium and into the core trails, but do not have track on the alpine runs at this time or up the "Supertour" loop. We have some mechanical issues with our track-setter that are being addressed today and hopefully will be back in service tomorrow. You can still access the upper section of the Supertour loop and the Black Bear trail, but due to our need to pull power and water across the trail at the mid-section of the big hill, we ask that you please observe our closures and make this section an out-and-back. The Spirit Mountain alpine runs will be open this weekend and will commence full-time hours afterwards, so from that point on we will not be grooming specifically for nordic in these areas, and we please ask that skiing stay within the confines of the GANC once the weekend starts. We are making progress on the upper section of the Roller Coaster loop and connecting to Black Bear and the S-turns, and we hope to have that connection made by the end of the weekend. Think those cold, snowy thoughts!

(Erik Blow)

Thursday we will be hosting Minnesota section 7 ski teams for the Proctor Invite race at Spirit Mountain. Stadium setup will begin in the morning and racing begins at 11am. Please keep this in mind if you are planning to come out and ski tomorrow. Thank you!

(Erik Blow)

We have groomed for skate and classic the SuperTour course, which includes the Downhill Musher and 11B/13B Alpine runs. We continue to make snow on Big Bend and Black Bear, so watch for changing conditions. Overlook and Deer Stand are natural snow loops, and have minimum snow covered, so they will see a groomer once snow depth is adequate.

Photos:

(Larry Mishkar)

Skied at Grand Ave Monday night. Snow guns where running at full blast up on the hill, and I couldn't tell if any were going on the XC trails. Nordic trails had been groomed beautifully for skate but no tracks were laid, though classic was still great with single digit temps. We only stayed on the manmade loops, so not sure if the "natural snow" trails of GANC have been groomed yet.

(Ketzel Levens)

GANC trails are now closed to public skiing until the Duluth SuperTour races end Sunday afternoon Dec 5th, and the course is cleared of fencing and signage. Snowmaking will start up Sunday night and run continuous as temperatures dip low. About two-thirds of the system has good snow covered as of today and our snow making efforts will focus on increasing snow depth on some previously snowed in trails and on those trails that remain green. We will open segments of the system once they are groomed to our standards.

(Larry Mishkar)

It's been a great few days seeing old and new faces out at GANC enjoying some great early season snow! All of our crews have been putting in hard work to get ready for this coming weekends races, and starting tonight through race weekend, we are going to be doing some intensive work to get our final product ready. That means a lot of snow cat traffic, stadium set-up, snowmaking work being done, which is going to take up quite a bit of the available snow surface for skiing. We will be closing and diverting traffic through the system through our foreseeable future, so please bear this in mind if you plan to come out this next week. This is perhaps our most critical step to host an incredible race, so your patience and support means a whole lot to us!

(Erik Blow)

Great skiing out at GANC. Nice skate deck and classic tracks. Super fun to be so social seeing old friends while getting in a good ski. Thank you Erik and Spirit for getting things going and putting in so much work for the race next weekend!

(Matthew Ryan)

We will continue to have our stadium loop open today, as well as up the downhill musher alpine run to the road crossing. Tracks were set this morning and look great! As always, please bear in mind that we are actively snowmaking so keep an eye out for equipment, personnel, and those red snow cats that make it all happen. We will be closing off portions throughout the day to start moving snow around in the upper loops, so please respect any signage or barricades. Thank you!

Photos:

(Erik Blow)