Skated lit trails and some of the unlit after dark. Great coverage, not too firm, not too soft. Slight washboard on a few sections like the straightaway but majority was so nice I went out of the lit loop without a headlamp and just glided blissfully. Natural snow skiing is so good right now - excited for this weekend's event organizers!

Photos:

(Linda Evert)

The trails were in great condition tonight for skate skiing. There were quite a few people out this evening enjoying the trails, more than I usually see there in the evening.

(Zak Kujala)

All of the loops (Lagoon, Lakeview, Skyline, Meadow, Medicine) are in great shape! I was pleasantly surprised to find completely clean snow throughout the entire trail system, perfect conditions for skating and also good classic tracks throughout. Even after a full day of traffic, the conditions were really quite excellent. It was fun to get back out to French, I definitely recommend checking it out if you have not visited for a while.

(Bill Oyler)

Skated at French starting mid-morning. The skate deck was recently groomed and in probably the best condition I've seen since the Polar Vortex winter of 2013-14. It was reasonably firm and reasonably fast, at least for my first lap around the full loop of perimeter trails. I was waxed with FastWax 20 (12-28F) but found my skis becoming increasingly grabby over subsequent loops as lap times were steadily slower over the course of my ski in spite of increasing effort and climbing average heart rates. I didn't sample the classic tracks. They looked worn to me, as though they had not been groomed maybe since Saturday morning but I spoke with a classic skier who said the glide was good in spite of them being washed out here and there. Corners and downhills were getting a little glazed anywhere us less capable skiers found the need to snowplow but it wasn't too bad. The worst was the chute coming down the hill by the Chalet from Lakeview to Lagoon. I went through there once and scared myself silly so I detoured to the left by the playground on subsequent laps. I'm continuing to notice a problem with wrong-way skiers on the one-way trails at French. I've stopped a few people this week and they seemed appreciative of me stopping them from going into a one-way trail the wrong way. Also, several trail sections with footprints or snowshoe tracks but the trails have been the right level of firm to survive the tracks without them being problematic.

(Leif Irgens)

Excellent conditions tonight, very enjoyable skiing. No hard or icy spots on the lit trails. Classic tracks looked good but I don't really know anything about them.

(Zak Kujala)

Went to French tonight with some trepidation given the similar weather to Wednesday when the skate deck was so hard and frozen that I gave up and went home to ride the trainer. The skate deck tonight was a remarkable surprise - well skied by the time I got there with skate ruts everywhere but the snow was soft enough that those ruts did not reroute my skis out from under me. Speeds were a little slow but all in all, it was great conditions for me with the deck soft enough that I could hold an edge with minimal difficulty. I didn't sample the classic tracks but visually, they looked a bit worn out by the time I got there around 7 pm..

(Leif Irgens)

We had a great ski at French this morning. The skate deck and the classic tracks were in very good shape. It was a little slow skiing with the half inch of new snow, but still very enjoyable. This was the first time skiing at French this year with no leaves or other debris in the tracks!

Photos:

(Bill Lundberg)

Ideal! It was a great morning ski. All trails freshly groomed with the new snow. No icy spots and no brown spots. A little slow with the new snow but beautiful with the branches covered. Tracks looked well established. Enjoy.

(Joe Anderson)

Skiing was pretty good for both classic and skate although with snow falling at freezing it was a little slow. Zero skis had plenty of kick and the tracks were fairly good except because of the warm temps for more than a day, they were a little weak in the turns. There were only a handful of skiers enjoying the snowfall.

(Pete Thurmes)

French was at its best this afternoon. Nice sunny adventure thru the entire system including a whitetail deer sighting! Enjoy!

(Tom Mayer)