Beautiful day for skiing!

What a great day for skiing!  The hoarfrost in the trees made for a picturesque day on the trail. Nice to see people from Clear Lake & Garner up to enjoy the course this afternoon.  Hope you get a chance to ski today!

East Wood Access

 

Lodge & Krysilis

 

Between the river & clubhouse

 

 

Fresh snow just groomed

Pretty much all of the Forest City Ski Trail has been groomed for skate skiing thanks to the recent snowfall.  I did set tracks on the loop that starts at the East woods access and goes down to the river.  And there are tracks at the Lodge & Krysilis properties.  However the tracks do go down to the grass on occasion.  There isn't enough consistent depth to set tracks over the entire course.

Chrismas Eve

One more loop has been opened up this morning thanks to Jim McGuire and Sam Swanson bringing snow to the bare spots.  This is the loop between the East Woods access and the clubhouse.  It was only packed for skate skiing however because there just isn't enough consistent depth there to set tracks. 

However there are still tracks on the loop that goes from the East Woods access down to the river.  And that skating loop was also refreshed and widened this morning.

The loops on the Lodge and Krysilis properties are still skiable also.

Merry Christmas!!

First Grooming of the season

Parts of the ski trail were groomed tonight.  Because of how much snow was blown off of the trail on Thursday we could not groom the entire trail.  Thanks to the efforts of a shoveling crew to add snow where it was needed we were able to groom one loop on the golf course.  It is ready for skate skiing and has a track set for diagonal skiing.  The best access would be in the Northeast corner of the course just off of golf course road. 

We also groomed on the Lodge Resort and Krysilis properties for both skating and diagonal skiing.  Access there would best be at the Lodge parking lot.  Skiers are welcome there.

Thank you to Dan and Eric Rust, Sarah and Dan Hovinga for moving snow tonight!  If anyone else is interested in helping open up any other loops feel free to contact me at jhovinga@wctatel.net.

First storm!

The course was packed with a roller early Thursday morning in an attempt to pack it down and to keep it from being blown away before the winds really picked up.  However by the end of the day the winds did more damage than expected.  We will evaulate the bare sections and try to make the best of what is left.

Here is what it looked like after one pass with the roller.  There is about 8" of snow in this spot!

Jeff

First Snow

Well, our first snow of the year on December 9th was just a dusting so there was not enough to do any grooming.  However it was enough to enjoy some skiing on the trail anyway.  Joe and I went out tonight and enjoyed some fun skiing!

It looks like this Saturday will be the next chance for snow.  So we'll keep an eye on that.

New for this year is that we will groom a vary small ski loop right next to the ice skating rink in Pammel Park.  There are plans to have lighting available there too! 

Bring on the snow!

Jeff at Pilot Knob Lake.

The FC Ski blog wouldn't complete this year without a picture of the trail groomer enjoying some of the fruits of his labor! Thanks for all you did this year Jeff, you really made the most of what little snow we had.

Beautiful day for skiing

What an incredible day for skiing today!  I had to post a picture of our three skiers enjoying the snow and sunshine at Pilot Knob State Park today.

Pilot Knob State Park

The lake at Pilot Knob State Park was regroomed this morning.  The skating lane looks to be in good shape all around the lake with the exception of a few hard icy spots.  Classical tracks were set on the South side of the lake only.

Grooming plans

I just went for a night ski and enjoyed some nice skating on the Pilot Knob lake.  There is still enough snow to work with all the way around the lake thanks to the 2" of snow on Monday.  Due to a week of thaw/freeze cycles the snow was pretty hard.  My plan is to get out early this Saturday morning and regroom the skating lanes.  It should make for some pretty good skating on Saturday morning and early afternoon.  I will attempt to set some tracks for classical skiing on the protected side where the deeper snow is, but it might not work to well.  I'll let you know!

Pilot Knob State Park

The lake was groomed for skating only tonight thanks to a good 2" of fresh snow today.

Pilot Knob State Park

The skate trail around the perimeter of Pilot Knob Lake was regroomed Saturday night.  It should make for some good skating on Sunday.  And hopefully we'll get some snow on Monday!

Pilot Knob State Park

The lake at Pilot Knob State Park was regroomed today.  The skating portion was redone and is in surprisingly good shape.   The classical tracks were not redone because of lack of new snow and therefore are rather hard and slick.  I went out and enjoyed some of the best skating of the year!

Pilot Knob Lake looking East at sunset.

Robert Polking and Dwight Beavers of Mason City enjoying some fast "double poling".

Pilot Knob State Park

There isn't enough snow left on the city ski trail to regroom or even to enjoy skiing thanks to last week's warm temperatures.  So I always enjoy skiing on the ice on the lake at Pilot Knob State Park.  The snow will last a lot longer on the ice and because of the the hills and trees that surround the lake.

Eric and I were out there last night touching up the skating portion of the loop.  The classical tracks are a week old but we decided to let those remain.  According to the snowmobile the loop is 1.5km long.  And it is one of the prettiest most wind protected places you'll find to ski in North Iowa.  It's only missing hills to ski on!

It can be accessed from the sledding hill parking lot.  Just head South on the other side of the small pond next to the warming shed. 

After Monday's melt down, we'll try to get out there again to regroom.  Enjoy!

Touched up skating lane/old classical tracks

Eric pulling the Ginzu

Thorpe Park

I packed the trails around Thorpe park this morning and set a classical track around the smaller marsh.  It is accessible at three trail heads.  One trail head is near the office & maintenance shed and the other two are close to Lake Catherine.  I did not attempt to set a track around the larger marsh because of too many bare spots and low snow conditions out in the open.  However all of the trails would be good for snowshoeing.

Groomed Forest City Ski Trail

The trail was groomed Saturday morning.  The base is very thin in some areas with some occasional bare spots.  But it is definitely skiable.  Get out and enjoy it this weekend since it looks like we're in for another melt down starting Monday.  The walking trails through East Woods have also been set.

Grooming update

The trail was groomed for skating and classical skiing Monday evening.  Thanks to the new snow it looks like it will be in very good shape this week!

GROOMED

The ski trail was packed Friday night with the roller.  It was groomed this morning for both skating and striding.  The tracks for striding get a bit thin but hey it's snow!