The sun had turned most of the snow to slushy snow on the made-snow loop by the afternoon. And with bikes and skiers on it, the deck was choppy and mushy. The tracks were still there in places, but extremely soft and they would periodically disappear. It was nearly impossible to move between tracks or to the deck without erasing some. Coming down the catwalk hill, the tracks disappear and then zig zag after reappearing. 24 hours skiers were still zooming on the slush- hopefully things firm up a bit.

(Dan Boody)

Skied all the snowmaking trails. Tracks in good shape except one sloppy section of curve on the upper part of the back 40. A little more glazed than normal. Variable snow, but decent out of the tracks - didn’t look like it was groomed overnight (perhaps due to 24 hours of Wirth going on). Leaf litter common on the trail in the trees.

(Dan Hutjens)

The fastest conditions I've experienced yet this year--yee ha! So fast I did seven laps on one mint-chocolate Cliff bar. That is a Vasaloppet classic's worth of k's (though I was skating). When I arrived around 2 the course was perfect almost everywhere, the only exceptions being a few south facing slopes, which were getting a little slushy in the bright sun. I was worried those would get worse as the afternoon went on, but clouds moved in around 4 pm, cooling things off to such an extent that I started to worry about the opposite problem: the ruts on the slushy uphills freezing solid. But several teams showed up at the same time, and it seems that their traffic kept that from happening. Instead, the slush froze into sugar, but I'll take sugar over frozen ridges any day. So my 7th lap was still almost as fast as my first.

(Lois Braun)

I skied the manmade Loop and found lots of dirty snow. A mix of freezing slush and hard packed snow. Not too icy. I received a number of light scratches from the dirty snow. B skis are recommended.

(Adrian Swanson)

Spring skiing was super at Theo this morning with excellent tracks and skate deck. By the time I finished a couple loops the March sunshine was taking a slight toll on the southern exposures.

Photos:

(Bill Lundberg)

I did a pre-dawn ski of JD Rivers, Tornado Alley, Bridge, Skyline and the snowmaking loop. The natural trails held up fine in the warm temps yesterday and for the most part still have good coverage with minimal ice. I expect it's going to be fading fast with warm weather. I am removing skis under 55 and over the connector between the Theo Wirth bridge and Trail 18. Both areas are skiable, but icy. There is also ice under the railroad bridge between skyline and the Trailhead parking lot. Other than those spots, though, I didn't encounter much in terms of ice or exposed ground.

(Sam Knuth)

Took the pup out for some pre-Birkie shakeout skiing. Excellent conditions on the natural snow north of Glenwood. The skate deck was, firm, white, and fast. Classic tracks looked deep and fast. The manmade loop was also great. I was happy to see some fir branches around the outside of the North Finger so night time skiers won't fly into the snowbank at the bottom.

(Adrian Swanson)

All of the snowmaking loops were in pristine shape this afternoon for both classic and skate. The Judy Loop was fair to good with some leaves and blown in spots, but still skiable. We could use some more snow for the Judy. The big parking lot across from the trailhead was closed because of the placement of big storage containers.

(Bill Lundberg)

I did classic today. Fresh grooming and very light traffic. On natural trails, tracks were perfect in some places, crumbly in other places, and windswept or thin in other places. But, overall great conditions (probably better for skating) and I suspect the best natural snow for the rest of the year is now through Saturday morning. The ice under 55 (Especially on south side) is a bit exposed at this point so I wouldn't recommend skiing through with good skis. Otherwise no issues.

(Sam Knuth)

Skied all of the natural snow trails. East side of Wirth lake, JD Rivers, and Skyline were all very drifted over. Parts protected from the wind were incredibly good, so the morning must have been great. Another groom and it should be great.

(Dan Hutjens)