Wonderfully firm and fast on the snowmaking trails this morning, superbly groomed as always. Natural trails were open - I skied Emerald Forest - thin and some icy spots but nice to be back in the woods.

(Tim Moore)

Great kick with skins in the classic track, which was deep and solid. Few other skiers out, guess they're all up in the woods somewhere.

(Walter Ebertz)

Skied classical technique today, front side and Hidden Forest. The tracks were nicely groomed. Snow had lots of water content and was solid. My kick wax wore off pretty quickly. For those times when I got out of the tracks to slow down, it was a little hard to control the skis. Not too many leaves. No groomer tracks in Hidden Forest. Snow was a little softer. Any day skiing is a good day, but the conditions were not ideal.

(Greg Filice)

Amazing conditions this morning and a handful of folks. Great grooming as always, with a lovely few fluffy inches of topping!

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(Lisa Ramsey)

It was about 30 degrees when I started, 37 when I left. And it was pretty much perfect. No corner ruts and firm (mostly) hill climbs. Thanks crew.

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(Glenn Hansen)

The snowmaking skate deck was great this morning with pretty light traffic. Some uphill sections in the sun were getting mushy and sticky. Thanks to the BC crew for maintaining such an excellent venue.

(John Greene)

I set out to ski only the snowmaking trails but when I saw the natural trails were open I had to try them. They are skiable, but only for an advanced and adventurous skier. The main problem being the big downhills with sharp turns at the bottom. The first big downhill has a fairly straight runout so that one was fine, but the rest of the big ones are very rutted and icy on the turns at the bottom. I almost bit it a couple of times even doing some snowplowing to scrub speed. They're not going to be able to fix that until there's more snow to work with. But coverage was actually surprisingly good and it was not really softening up yet as of 2 pm. There was just one big bare spot, the one that always melts first on the long gradual uphill (photo). Had to take the skis off there. But otherwise only a couple of easily avoidable dirt spots. A lot of leaves and twigs though. Definitely B skis territory. Ski Games trails across the road are closed. The snowmaking trails, on the other hand, were excellent for skating as usual, nice firm deck, no sugar yet, fine for best skis. The classic tracks looked good not great - washed out and degraded in places but very skiable.

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(Jay Lyons)

Skied only on snowmaking loops. Perfect conditions for classic skiing. The tracks were firm and I had plenty of grip with my skin skis. Skate skiing was great too. Very little loose snow on the climbs.

(Jim Lasch)

Snow making loops in great shape. With the lower overnight temperatures, the corduroy set up real nice. I skated. Tracks looked, unsurprisingly, glazed.

(Ben Larson)

Battle Creek continues to impress me with their expertise in constructing and maintaining quality ski trails. I skated several laps on the Pond, Prairie, South Tree, and North Tree loops, and despite the dearth of natural snow plus prolonged periods of thawing, this morning I found the snowmaking trails to be in very good condition. There were only a few other skiers when I arrived about 9:00. The skate deck was solid with a thin layer of corduroy on top. Classic tracks looked to be pristine in most places. Even with the small number of skiers, the corduroy was skated out pretty quickly as everyone was skiing multiple laps. However, the remaining snow continued to produce good push and good directional ski stability. Glide was a little less than desirable, but generally not bad. The inside lines of the downhill curves at the south end of South Tree and north end of North Tree were starting to get scraped down and exhibited snow being pushed to the outside lines through the curves, but still had enough edgeable snow to make them controllable when I left. Fun ski today. Big thumbs-up to the snow managers and groomers.

(David Sonnenberg)