Birds Hill Provincial Park

A friend wrote to me on Monday morning:
“I skied Bluestem this morning. It was very marginal rock skiing. I noticed someone else was out classic skiing too. Once more snows comes, I hope more skiers get out as the fat tires are all over in this weather. Nice to be back on snow!
The field was by the overlook would likely be nice for skating.

Birds Hill Park, Group Use Road, Monday morning, 9:30 to 12:30, -1° to +4°, sunny.
At 11:00 a front end loader began plowing the road, starting where the road exits onto North Drive. When I left for home, the plow was proceeding west from the road’s intersection with the Chickadee trail. The road surface is now mainly a thin sheet of ice with a b…[Read more]

Birds Hill Park, Group Use Road, Friday afternoon, 1:00 to 4:00, -2°, sunny, windy.
The track was generally nicely softened from the strong sun. Icy in the few shaded areas. The overall speed of the track was similar to Monday … moderately fast.
In a handful of places on the road, the track has started to narrow. The first “asphalt barricade”…[Read more]

Birds Hill Park, Group Use Road (including the two new-for-2018 sections), Monday afternoon, 1:00 to 5:00, 0° to +1°. mainly sunny.
For the first time in two weeks, the skate track wasn’t ice-hard.
At 1:00, many parts were icy and some parts were soft enough for good lateral ski stability and balance.
At 5:00, many parts were still icy, m…[Read more]

From Steve Scoles on Saturday evening:
Crust skied at Birds Hill Park this morning. Fun, but not quite the epic crust conditions we have had in the past at BHP. Skied the Pope Hill area and north (never have been north of that area before and got lost for a bit!). Skied the Folk Fest area and then the beaches, lakes and lookout area. There were…[Read more]

Just did 2 laps of the Group Use Road… In all honesty, I just shortened my glide and had a great time.. Yes its lumpy, yes there’s ruts. some places is like a washboard, but in other places along the edges its awesome… there are no bare spots on it at all.. the most rutted part is at the Chickadee lot entrance, once you get away from there its…[Read more]

Skated the GUR around noon on Thursday. There were no bare spots yet, but it was very icy and difficult to maintain control. I double poled as much as I skated. Still better than a day in the office.

Wednesday afternoon, about -4C and sunny. We classic skied west Bluestem, part of Aspen and Chickadee. Let’s just say it’s still skiable….icy, shallow and hard, with exposed areas and turns deteriorating. We double-poled most of it. Chickadee was really poor (footprints and bare spots), and southwest Bluestem was the best. Had a short skate-ski…[Read more]

From Bert Graef on Tuesday:
Skated 2 loops of the group use trail in the late afternoon. Its very hard in the middle and v rutted, so I mostly kept to the lesser used sides. Its not bad, but would be much better if the park simply groomed it ONCE . We could then have great skiing since the weather is cold and the snow is not soft, EVEN IN THE…[Read more]

Birds Hill Park, Tuesday afternoon, -8° to -6°, sunny, light wind.
I did a crust skate ski today in a large area south of North Drive.

My crust ski was not “fabulous” like Corey Mohr’s report (on Lake Winnipeg near Camp Morton), but it was interesting and it had some highlights.
Last Friday I w…[Read more]

From Bert Graef on Wednesday evening:
Still some good skiing on the skate trail. Leg power must be applied carefully, as surface is very hard and there are some deep ruts . Was a great evening, as wind had died down and wasn’t too terribly cold. Just wished the park would at least groom the trail, as these very expensive grooming machines are…[Read more]

Birds Hill Park, Tuesday morning from 8:15 to 10:45, -2° to +1°, sunny.
Classic (Aspen, Bluestem, north Chickadee): The tracks continue to deteriorate.
Skate (Group Use Road): Reviews from the past few days (Scott, Chris, Les, Dan) accurately reflect today’s skiing.
Skiing at these temps is very enjoyable.
Kevin & Anita Miller

From Scott Bias:
Two of us skated the group use road On Monday morning. Trail was firm with a bit of give, which softened up further toward the end of our ski, as the temperature climbed to +2. As noted in other reports, there is plenty of snow. There was evidence of walkers but no deep ruts which was a pleasant surprise. And, with only 4 cars in…[Read more]

Spruce Trail 5PM – Although the temperature said it was only +1, and no sun, the trail was very soft… especially where the snow was deeper.. as pointed out earlier there are some trail biscuits in the early going (within the first 1.5km or so) There is also heavy foot traffic in the early going that soon disappears in the first 1.5km.. There are…[Read more]

From Corey Mohr:
On Sunday, March 25th from 2-5pm I skied BHP. I started out skate skiing the Spruce trail which has excellent coverage, more debris is starting to pick up and came across two people on horses laying piles on the skate deck. Pretty sad. I classic skied the Lime Klin, Chickadee and Bluestem. Both the west side of the Bluestem and…[Read more]

From Bert Graef on Saturday evening:
Skied till 830 pm (dusk). Skating was effortless, fast and magical. A rare evening like this one makes all the frustrations of the past season go away, and restores my faith in a sport where things just sometimes get exasperating.