Overall, good conditions at French today. Firm skate deck and not too many spots to be concerned about. Some grass or debris here and there. There were a couple rocks on the connection to the Meadow Trail, but avoidable (merits the B ski rating). Always thankful for the grooming efforts there! Happy new year, skiers!

(Landon Brodersen)

Skied late morning/noontime. Nice skate deck, firm with a little loose stuff on it. It looked to be a pretty fresh groom. Only area of concern is the two way section going to Lagoon. A very thin layer of snow is covering the pavement, but it is easy enough to ski around. All other areas are well covered. There are occasional areas of dirty snow, but they are small enough that you can ski around them. I didn't see any gravel. It was nice enough that I broke out the SpeedMaxs after the first loop.

(Steve Hum)

I had a good classic ski at French this morning. The trails were well used, but the tracks were in good condition on the Medicine Lake Trail in the hilly section of French. Otherwise the tracks are in fair condition. The skate deck was being regroomed while I was there. It's soft with decent coverage in most areas. I found some solitude back in the hills.

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(Bill Lundberg)

Nice skate deck late morning at French. Firm and fast, but not hard packed. Classic track was there but looked pretty beaten up. Beware of a few rocky sections (aka. drive-thru stonegrinding) especially near Challenge Hill and then the return hill to the chalet.

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(Bruce Adelsman)

Nice firm skate deck, nicely groomed, but occasional bare or thin spots, and spots of dirty snow.. There's enough snow that there is at least a path thorough all the areas on snow. Overall it is pretty good but it's not ready for your best skis yet. And they were marking the snow with blue arrows. Apparently the direction changes near the visitor's center have confused a few people.

(Steve Hum)

Took a look at my driveway at 5:00 pm and decided it was time for a trip to French -- and it was beautiful. About 1-2" of fluffy fresh powder on top of what seemed to be a remarkably smooth base underneath. It's conditions like this that allow me to think I actually know how to ski. Even places like The Skyline Trail along Northwest Blvd, which can be an extended series of lumpy washboards, were smooth. My compliments to the groomers for whatever they did with the minimal base to smooth it out for this new snow. I skied Lagoon, Meadow, Skyline and Lakeview and by my second lap, I practically had the trails to myself. I'd recommend B skis as the base is still pretty thin. Pole plants hit pavement along the bike trail near the trailhead and the concrete bridge on Meadow, and hit frozen ground a few other places. However, the only place I saw bare ground was the 2-way connector going from Meadow to Skyline, where another skate skier had a few strides where the edges made it down to dirt. I didn't ski the classic tracks but they were visible from having been set sometime before it started snowing.

(Leif Irgens)

Pretty good trails for this time of year, a bit spotty in some areas, and I would suggest not using your absolute best skis on the lagoon trail especially, but the trails are beautiful.

(Laura Hansen)

Good classic and skate at French today. Nice hard tracks in 90% of trail. Watch out for a couple bare spots. So refreshing to be of the hamster wheel although the manmade snow has been a life saver to diehard skiers.

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(Diane Pattridge)

Skied the lighted trails at 8:30pm. Overall, conditions were fair. Snow is not very deep on the Lakeview-Medicine connector and near the play structure so watch for bare spots. Downhills have been “snowplowed”: all the powder has been pushed to the sides leaving a narrow hard-pack in the center, however the tracks are intact. Lagoon Trail has a non-negligible amount of postholes, from both people and wildlife.

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(Peter Kivimaki)

The trail is packed and rolled for skate and classic track had been set on most of the trails. Most of the trail is nicely covered and firm, particularly hill down Medicine and the hills up and out from Medicine/Skyview. There are exposed sections, however: The 2 way section to Lagoon past the play area is exposed grass and a little pavement. On Meadow the bridge is lightly covered in snow and immediately after it there is some gravel, and the little hill at the pedestrian tunnel has some exposed grass. The worst spot are the 4 way intersection to go up the hill on Medicine (the old challenge hill,) little step up on Skyline just past the wetlands, and causeway section between Lakeview and Skyline/Medicine. All have exposed gravel and no way to get around it, so either you need to take off your skis or run lightly on across them. Overall it is is really good skiing but I'm glad I used my rock skis.

(Steve Hym)