L Hanson

On Friday around noon the GUR was good, but a bit icy, which is no surprise considering the temperature. Three joggers had run around it soon after it was groomed and maintained the correct social distancing to leave deep divots all the way across.
Chickadee was great and quite fast. Thanks to the park staff for grooming this late in the season

Tried to skate the spruce trail Friday afternoon, but a Park worker told me there was a movie shoot there and the parking lot was full. I went to the GUR instead and found the trail was decent. Two cm of fresh snow covered an icy base. The combination was quite fast without being treacherous.

Saturday at about noon the GUR was slower than usual. It had been groomed Friday, but felt quite soft, no doubt due to the +3 temperature today.

The GUR has been freshly groomed and is fast. The other trails are also groomed. There is still tree debris in places, but there’s nothing that can be done to fix that.

Skied bluestem onto esker onto chickadee onto bluestem. Trails were in good condition and the debris was no worse than it’s been most of the winter. The parking lot was full and of course that means a few entitled twits who read the sign and decided it doesn’t apply to them.

Thanks to the park staff for posting a new and hard-to-ignore sign that prohibits walking and suggests alternative hiking trails. The GUR still has some loose snow on it from the weekend but it’s still moderately fast.

Classic and skating trails are in decent condition. The new snow has been packed by skiers on the classic trails, but even on the skating trails where there is a bit of loose snow, conditions are moderately fast. Grooming is scheduled for Friday.

Trails were freshly groomed on Friday. The crud that had blown onto the trails has been buried, and the fresh cordoroy and warm conditions made skating on the GUR fast

I skied Aspen at about noon on Tuesday. All the trails had been recently groomed, and aside from some tree litter and localized drifting, were in great condition. Thanks Park staff.

Friday at noon we skied chickadee, esker, and the GUR. Conditions were about as good as we get, with a bit of a mist that should harden up the few soft spots on the interior loops.

At about noon on Tuesday the GUR had 20 or 30 skiers on it and no walkers. (There were a few footprints, however.) It had been groomed for skating, but was still on the soft side. With a temperature of -14, conditions were on the slow side. The two internal bays had also been groomed, but they appeared to be quite slow.

On Monday afternoon Aspen was still skier-packed but decent. A snowmobile had packed a base for the GUR and had begun doing esker. Conditions are improving every day. Thanks Park staff.

Late morning Sunday, the GUR was fast and not icy at all. By about one PM it was beginning to get softer and skating was getting slower. There are still no bare spots. The parts of the classic trails that I could see appeared to be skiable but I didn’t see any classic skiers.

On Thursday at around noon, the GUR had softened enough that skating was fast and offered some control. Still no bare spots. The classic trails appeared to be decent.

Skated on the GUR late morning and found it quite icy to begin, so I cut onto Aspen for a few kilometers. By about noon, the road had softened somewhat and skating was fast. Still no bare spots and not too much damage from walkers.