Epic back country conditions. Sign says trails open but no grooming still, only snowshoers and self-made ski tracks in few places with about 15 inches of snow. Skied all the trails plus nice snowshoe trail that looped South back to the road from Razorback. Watch out for rock next to right hand track in the middle of the biggest Razorback downhill which will scrape your ski if you are in the track. Other rocks were pretty easy to see. Note: I called Three Rivers and they said they might groom after they are done with Cleary. Disappointing because I noticed they groomed the fat tire trails.

(Dan Zenk)

The skiing was excellent, even though the trails had not been groomed yet, as of noon Sunday! The Knob and Kettle trails had been heavily traveled by many snowshoers and hikers, who packed a trail about the width of normal set tracks. Normally a bad thing, but since the snow is fresh and soft, the packed area is soft enough to help the skis track straight. And it eliminated the need to break trail through the deep snow. Most of the Razorback trail had seen little or no showshoe and hiker traffic, but several skiers had preceded me, so it was in good shape. Very nice classic skiing if you don't require perfect set tracks. Beautiful day to be out there and Swix V50 kick wax worked well on my wood skis. On south-facing hills, where the bright sun was directly on the tracks, the snow was getting a bit sticky and clumping up on the ski bottoms. But this was easily removed. There was one fallen log blocking part of the Knob trail within a mile of the parking lot, but it was easily avoided by skiing around the right end of the log.

Photos:

(Craig Wiklund, North Star Ski Touring Club)