The Horse Shoe trail including the "Shoe" and the climb up to the cross over to the Prairie Loop were groomed with a classic track set as of 3:00 pm today. Still a bit soft with the warm temps. This addition should provide an approximate 1.5 km continuous loop.

(John Fitzgerald)

The Prairie Loop is now open. Snow has been made on the Horseshoe Trail and will begin to be pushed out and should be open soon.

(Kristopher Lencowski, Ramsey County Parks)

I skate skied the natural snow trails on the World Cup loop on Saturday. There was no direct path if you start from the main parking area by the manmade loop, so I had to do some ski hiking through snow piles and ungroomed sections to get there. I was happy to find fully groomed trails on the natural snow trails. Small rocks and tree debris were visible but avoidable. The trails were uneven at times, but soft enough to still ski with control and deep enough to edge with confidence in most sections. I also skied the Ski Games trails and they were more uneven than the World Cup natural snow sections and soft, but still enjoyable to ski. I was very happy to be able to ski the amazing trails at Battle this early in the season. For those of you that like the challenge of these trails, get out there and ski them while we have the good conditions!

Photos:

(Jeff Annesley)

The ski games trails remain in fair to good condition albeit a little bumpy at times. The fresh snow on top of the grooming from last week makes for some nice glide. Even crossed the road and skied a large portion of the trails on that side. There was surprisingly good coverage, but it could use another grooming (and there seems to be enough snow for that).

Photos:

(Kent Sall)

The pond loop (0.6 km) and the stadium were fully groomed with classic tracks set as of 2:00 pm today. There should be no issues with snow depth as it is quite deep and Pisten Bully groomed. The official opening day is tomorrow (Saturday) but feel free to come on over for a sneak preview this afternoon or evening.

(John Fitzgerald)

Levelling snow in preparation for grooming in the stadium and Pond Loop. Grooming plans: Absent mechanical issues, we anticipate opening the Pond Loop by Saturday morning.

(Kristopher Lencowski, Ramsey County Parks)

Natural snow on the ski games is in great condition! Drove by the snowmaking loop, snow was pushed out, but not groomed around the pond loop. One snow gun blowing in the stadium.

Photos:

(Ryan Soule)

Drove by BC and many of the machine made snow mounds had been leveled out but guns still blowing in area of the timing/shack/start area. Nothing groomed from the parking lot view. It appeared some guns already blowing in the lower sections and the "up hill".

(John Witzmann)

Ski games loop is open, other trails are not. When I started skiing, the trail was rolled and had great coverage, but it was not well compacted or set, so there were starting to be deep ruts - then a high school team came through and compacted/smoothed most of the trail really nicely. Unfortunately, the heavy traffic also exposed grass in quite a few spots.

(Tuomas Sivula)

Pond loop not open yet but the snow guns were blasting. I skied the Snow Games loop which was uneven at times but a pretty decent ski overall. Not bad for our first significant snowfall.

Photos:

(Kent Sall)