At my 1:15 pm start, the chalet and other parking lot to the south were packed but the trail traffic was surprisingly no issue. Temp was around 22F degrees and the trail was in excellent condition. No sugar to slow you on the climbs. MInimal snowplow wake on the Boulder downhill and looked like the same on the Scenic downhill where it met Boulder. Improved my time for one lap by 13% from the only other time I did the full snow-making loop since it opened this season despite stopping for 30 seconds at the top of Scenic for hydration and a fairly stiff south- southwest wind on my return. Thanks groomers for the excellent conditions.

(Keith Carlson)

Beautiful condition all the way around Hyland today. The low snow on the Star loop is all fixed. Tracks all the way out to and back from Boulder were excellent. The skate deck when I dropped onto it has a nice feel. 20 degrees warmer than yesterday. Sunrise picture is just to remind people to look up and enjoy what we have.

Photos:

(Scott Greymont)

The classic tracks were firm cold and squeaky this morning at -11F. Great that the entire manufactured loop is open. Skate deck was beautiful corduroy.

(Scott Greymont)

Skied Hyland Thursday (classic) and Friday (skate) evenings. Trail conditions were excellent, firm skate deck and well set classic tracks. The additional snow making on the Star Loop has made a big difference. For only man-made snow, it doesn't get much better. Glide felt terrible while skating for some reason though.

(Ben Ruhme)

I classic skied this afternoon at Hyland, found the tracks were in great shape, just a little slow down the gentle hill by the practice area. The skate deck looked good with no sugar at all. There is a bit of a wind from the north but I never got overly cold. Big thanks to the groomers! I recorded 25.6k in 5 laps, so just over 5k per lap.

(Tom Harris)

Everything was groomed for both skate and classic today. The only issue was some sticky/slow snow spots.

(Kenneth Kooistra)

It was nice to get a respite from the extreme cold and finally ski the entire snowmaking loop (except Star, which was closed for grooming). Despite the "warmup", skiing was slow on any uphill stretches due to the still low temps - around 14F - and recent grooming that had not setup and was soft. Nevertheless, the Boulder and Frogtown-Willow downhills were fast with only the Scenic downhill not fast enough to carry me thru the flat onto Frogtown without much skating. There were no snowplow wakes on any of them. Thanks to the groomers for getting the entire snowmaking loop open.

(Keith Carlson)

They regroomed as I started my second lap of classic skiing. So first no tracks, then second loop was fantastic tracks and softer skate deck. In the sun it felt much warmer than the air temp registered.

(Bill Quinn)

I classic skied this morning / early afternoon. There were no classic tracks! The skate deck looked good and firm. The Star loop is currently closed. I got 20.7 k in 5 laps, so a bit more than 4 k per lap right now. The weather was beautiful, the newly opened trail was great, if only there had been tracks (they said the machine broke) or they had posted so I would have had my skate skis along.

(Tom Harris)

The classic tracks were groomed over and not present but there was fresh corduroy on the skate deck. Great snow overall and a handful of others out this morning. It looks like Star loop is almost complete.

(Matthew Kennedy)