How many skate skiers does it take to pack down the deck as well as one piston bully? I'm not sure, but the number of skaters who traversed the ungroomed western trails at William O-Brien between my first and my second loop did a pretty good job. I was ready to quit after skating that first loop, especially after the Rolling Hills Savanna trail (aka "Central America"), which only a few others had traversed before me. But my partner, who was doing classic and thought conditions were terrific, was at the far side of the park when I wanted to call it a day, so I headed out again and by that time enough others had tamped things down enough to make the ruts a little less intimidating. Central and South America (the Prairie Overlook trail) were still very soft and more rutted than I like, but by that time the Hardwood Hills Trail was very good. Overall, today's ski was an adventure and a workout more than a waltz, but still very worthwhile.

(Lois Braun)

William O'Brien received over 16" of snow this past week. They groomed the flat 2.5 mile wetland loop. Left the other 9 miles of trail alone, not groomed. On the park website they wrote "Hills west of the railroad tracks are ready for the back-country, make-your-own-tracks experience-- a classic skier's powder paradise!" It wasn't paradise for this unknowing skate skier that thought they were going out a post Birkie skate on a beautiful day at a park that's been groomed well all year.

(Kelly Knaus)

Per reports, trails east of the RR tracks/tunnel have been groomed for skate and classic skiing. Everything west looks to have been rolled and packed, but not actually groomed. However, there has been plenty of traffic and the tracks for classic are good - firm and pretty crisp. Skate deck looks firm, though it may be a bit slow because of loose snow. I did the whole main loop to include Woodland Edge Trail, plus the upper Wedge Hill Savannah trail. The long downhills are a bit sketchy without set tracks, but they're not particularly fast today, either. It was lovely at 7am with sunrise and no wind — get out there if you can!

Photos:

(Rita Minnichsoffer)

Classic trails freshly groomed east of railroad tracks. We also skied west side with no problem! Beautiful day for it!

(Heidi Brigley)

Skate deck was not groomed today as of 11:00am. There were skier made classic tracks. The back half of the park was deeper than the front.

(Kelly Aukema)

The Wetland Loop that I skied had been rolled but no classic track set. Conditions varied from some skier-created tracks to windblown snow covering glare or chopped ice.

(Patti Isaacs)

They spent the better part of Thursday and Friday scratching up the ice. I skated the inner loops and they were much better than I thought they'd be. The bigger downhills seemed dicey so I didn't do the hardwoods, farm or South America loop. No usable classic track.

(Brian Wicklund)

Looked like the groomer had just finished working on the skate lane and tracks right before we arrived about 11:30. Some slick spots, some sticky spots, and some trail debris, but considering our recent funky weather, both skating and striding lanes were in surprisingly good shape -- thanks to the efforts of the groomer!

(Paul Lohmann)

With 35+-degree temps, had low expectations, but, wow, had a fabulous ski on great snow conditions. Kudos to groomers who are keeping this snow very, very skiable. THANK YOU! Yes, skate deck was soft in some sun-exposed spots, but was much less icy and full of debris than I was expecting.

(Kris Olson)

Good all round, great considering the weather lately! Groomer has been hard at work. Base is also deeper so he has a bit more to work with. He was able to scratch the skate deck enough to get an edge, flat contact, and a reasonably soft ride, despite the corn. Tracks good too, considering. Fast! Beautiful day.

(William Brown)