Freshened up all skate lanes East of Battle Creek Road this morning. Trails are in great shape and getting firmer. There will be around 150 kids with Minnesota Youth Ski League(MYSL) using the park from 2:00-3:30. Trails are still open but just letting you know.

(Michael Rohweder)

Skating lane on all trails regroomed this morning. Gold and Ski Games trails still a bit soft; others more firm. Existing tracks in very good shape.

(Bill Kosfeld)

Beautiful, medium firmness, skate deck; beautiful looking classic tracks; and sunny skies. Gold/silver/wc/bronze loops are in better shape than ski games (which is softer and mildly drifted, but still fun). Thanks to the BC grooming artists!

Photos:

(Alan Chapman)

Reset tracks where needed this morning. Groomed out the skate deck on all trails. Set skate deck and tracks on the ball field. The entire system in in very good condition.

(Bill Stuber)

Groomed and set classic tracks on the Ski Games side after the 1" of new snow today. Only issue was that it was windy and some drifting will take place. The Bronze, Silver and Gold were groomed Wednesday morning and look good. I made one pass on the Gold Trail Skate Lane and it is starting to firm up nicely. Good skating right now. Classic track is good but in the woods. Enjoy!

(David Gorringe)

Skate lane was soft and slow this morning, but it was nice to be on fresh trails (and not have to schlep to Minneapolis to get them)! Thank you groomers for your great work, and Winter for finally making an appearance (better late than never)!

Photos:

(Veronica Hudacek)

Groomed the skate lane on entire system including Ski Games. Set new classic track on all but Gold Trail. Snow is soft but hopefully will firm up with cold temps tonight. Windy as we were finishing grooming so there was some drifting in the more open areas. Track should be good in the wooded areas.

(David Gorringe)

Skated all trails but ski games. (Others said ski games was soft and groomer had been on it.) Very soft and lots of snow. Skis sunk in but good base beneath the new snow. Groomer was out making several passes on the trails. Will be great once the snow settles and compacts.

(Karen Katz)

Lots of YSL kids were hitting the trails at the same time I was (2:30pm). Nice to see the next generation of skiers slugging it out in the 3"+ of new snow, although most were skating and it was a tough day for that. I opted to spend most of my time on the Ski Games trail, as it had nicely set and then skied-in tracks (after my first couple passes!) and the tracks held up pretty well (unlike most of the Winthrop trails, where the tracks were thin and pretty crowned/squirrely in a lot of places). It was snowing the entire time so the Ski Games tracks never got very fast but they were solid enough to get decent thrust with a soft kick. Head over to Ski Games if you are striding Battle Creek on Monday and want nice tracks.
If you are skating, you'd best stay on the Winthrop side until the system is rolled again. There the new snow on the skate deck was reasonably skied in, whereas the Ski Games deck did not get enough traffic to compact the new snow - looked like pretty tough going.

(Pete Thurmes)

All trails repacked this morning, tracks on all trails except Gold. It's a winter wonderland. Lots of deer on the Ski Games side.

(Bill Kosfeld)