Anyone skiing yet?

[Neuro]

Had my first outing this season today, was great! Fresh snow on the ground and trees, -4 C in the air. 29. November is early for here.

Only downside was two blisters on the toes from the brand new boots (poor design, there's a step from the toe cap to the main body, Rossignol Xium classic).

Used the new skin skis (Salomon RC Equipe 16/17). Not enough snow for the prep machines to make tracks, there was only tracks made by other skiers, see pics.

[dcpattie]

I thought winters were a thing of the past?

I seriously need to move to a location where I can ski locally! I've envious looking at these beautiful photos.

[Neuro]

I thought so too..

Skiable in November is very unusual. Normally have to wait at least one more month. Usually more.

[JeffOYB]

several of us have been skiing different golf courses around mid-michigan as of yesterday. i guess we got 2". enough to filter into the grass and cover it a bit. a bit of grass drag but not so bad! the ground was frozen ok already so we're not getting wet snow soaking thru, which is nice. more snow in forecast.

[Pat]

We got about 4 inches of wet snow near Philadelphia on Saturday. I tried it twice but the ground temps are too high and I couldn't go anywhere. A little bit better this morning so at least I got an hour of going back and forth in a field before the sun came up.

Pat

[Neuro]

Finally January is here and with early winter snow, conditions are as good as they can be. I'm loving it..

[MN Hoser]

Still waiting for snow here. There is just enough snow to ski on the golf courses with rock skis. If you're careful and know the course (and cart paths) you can get by without damage. The cold weather has been good for snow making.

Jay

[Burgesse]

I haven’t been anywhere else yet this year so cannot comment about other northern areas. It sounds as though there’s not much snow anywhere in MN. Although we don’t have a lot of snow we are in fine shape. We’ve used four of the past very cold days to pull snow onto the trails.

[Neuro]

Voluntarily or are you working on the trails?

[Burgesse]

Our ski club maintains and grooms these trails as part of the Minnesota Grant in Aid trail system. But it’s all volunteer work.

[Neuro]

Nice

[Neuro]

Prep machines out nice and early, even on weekdays:

[Neuro]

Oh joy.. With the extra christmas kilos, my new skin skis are working beautifully, and with perfect tracks and shape coming in, XC skiing is such a pleasure ATM.

[Neuro]

I don't know what to think when I hear about people crying from some experience in nature like with northern lights or similar, but the hairs were actually standing and got chills (not from cold) the other day as it was just an incredibly lovely winter day with trees as white as could be, snow glistening etc. Almost too much for a postcard..

This picture was not taken by me, but shows how it was that day. I was going to take a photo later, but didn't want to disturb the moment fussing looking for the phone in the jacket in the rucksack. My area was maybe even nicer.

[jt10000]

First day on snow this season was .... today.