Beautiful morning for skiing at the Knob!

Pilot Knob road

Rolling again

I took the roller over about a foot of snow this morning on the road through Pilot Knob and at the Lodge.  It would be skiable but it will still be soft today and there are no tracks set.  Plans are to take the Ginzu over it early Sunday morning to have skating with tracks set.  So hopefully skiing will be good by Sunday morning.

Sled and roller on Pilot Knob road

Pilot Knob road

The Lodge Resort

The Lodge Resort

MELTING

I skied for a couple of hours through pilot knob this morning.  Conditions were poor to fair for skating on the road.  The classic tracks are still intact for now.  Sorry to see it melting this early in February.  

Pilot Knob Lake 

Rejuvenated skate deck

The skate deck has been rejuvenated on the Pilot Knob road tonight.  The classic tracks are hard and icy.

Pilot Knob Ski Race 2017

The 2nd annual Pilot Knob ski race was held yesterday.  We had a total of 29 skiers which was up from the 16 last year.  The park was in great shape for the race and having temperatures in the 20's made for an all around great day.  Thank you to all of the great volunteers that helped direct skiers & bring food and to North Iowa Nordic for contributing to expenses.  It was truly a pleasure to be able to ski with all of you at my favorite trail!  Jeff

Start on Pilot Knob Lake

Andy O'Brien of Mason City

Todd Juhlin of Iowa City.

Jen Juhlin of Iowa City

Darrin Siefken of Tripoli

More pictures from the race will soon be posted on Facebook "Pilot Knob Ski Race".

Pilot Knob

The trails for the Pilot Knob Ski race have all been groomed for skating and classic skiing.  This includes the road and lake.  The lake has some icy spots but is still skiable.  The classic tracks on both the lake and road can be anywhere from poor to very good, but skiable.  The skating decks all look very good especially on the road.

The race starts at 8:30 am with three different distances, 27 km, 9 km and 4.5 km.

thanks

Adding a new race distance

 We will also have a 3 lap race around the Pilot Knob lake this Saturday for a total distance of 4.5 km. This will cater to new skiers and kids who don't like to ski hills. This is free for kids. There will not be any awards for this distance but I think every kid should earn a treat for completing it!

So the Pilot Knob Ski Race will consist of the following three freestyle races.

27  kilometers
9    kilometers
4.5 kilometers.

Freestyle means that you can ski either the skating style or classic style.  All races start at 8:30 am.

Pilot Knob pictures

We still have snow and we are still having Saturday's race.  We will be using two Ginzu groomers Friday evening to chew up the hard pack conditions.  Looking forward to some good skating conditions.  We'll do our best to make some good classic tracks too.

Pictures from today.

Pilot Knob lake race start area. (rolled only, not groomed yet)

Pilot Knob road

Pilot Knob road

I just rejuvenated the skate deck on the road through Pilot Knob this morning.  Nice to still see so much snow there!