New snow

 The lake has been groomed after receiving about a half inch Thursday morning.

Monday conditions

 The lake was fairly good for skiing Monday with only a small section with some exposed ice. The road has not been groomed since there were bare spots thanks to windy conditions.

Monday morning

 The lake has been groomed this morning. I even made an attempt at some classic tracks. They actually look pretty good around most of the lake except where there is very little snow.

Pilot knob Lake

Thanks to North Iowa Nordic, I was able to borrow their equipment today and probably until the end of the season. I was able to groom the lake. But the snow is very thin so there are no classic tracks.

More warm weather

 Last couple days were hard on the snow here. I scooped some snow in the bad spots, but then the snowmobile didn’t have enough power to pull the groomer. So it is not groomed right now.

Pilot knob Road

 I groomed the road today but couldn’t set tracks. At most we had 2 inches of snow in the good spots. In the bad spots, it was blown clean. I would say the east half of the park is in pretty good skiing shape. The west half has a lot of twigs blown down onto the trail and may not make for a very good ski experience.

The lake still has slush underneath the new snow so I could not groom that.

Warm and rainy

 It’s melting. We’ll see what happens with the system coming Sunday.

 

 

Pilot knob

 The road has been getting too much debris falling from the trees for it to be enjoyable to ski anymore. I would not recommend skiing on the road. It’s time to look for untouched patches of snow to crust ski on.

Pilot knob

 The road was scratched up this morning for some halfway decent skate skiing. There’s certainly some icy spots and lots of tree debris, but we can’t complain.

Pilot knob lake

 Pilot knob Lake is finally thick enough to groom. It was disappointing to only find one to 2 inches of snow on top of the ice though. The initial big snow must’ve pushed the ice down and it all froze. So I was not able to groom any tracks for classic skiing. But it looks like skate skiing will be very good.

Morning groom

 The road at Pilot knob State Park has been groomed this morning.

Refresh

I regroomed the skate deck tonight to help pack it down more. It was a little soft for skiing yet. The classic tracks were still in great shape.

Pilot knob Road

 We received about 5 inches of lightweight snow last night! The road is groomed for both classic and skate style skiing.

Pilot knob Road

 I groomed the road going through pilot knob State Park this morning. The classic tracks are a little poor in spots. This is thanks to getting 10 inches of snow on ground that is not quite frozen yet. The skate deck looks to be very good. and we have more snow coming Saturday evening.

First big snow of the season

 We received about 10 inches of snow this last weekend. I rolled the skiers half of the road last night. After some melting on warm surfaces and some settling, we still had about 7 inches or more on the road! I will try to groom this when possible when time allows.

It will be a while before the ice on the lake is thick enough to use.

Great day for skiing.

 This was a beautiful day for skiing indeed!

Regroomed trail

 The lake has been groomed again tonight with a new track set. The skate deck on the road was groomed but is very thin.

The road

New snow

 Thanks to Joel Yunek and Robert Polking for rolling over the skate decks on both the lake and road Saurday afternoon after another good inch of snow. The classic tracks should be fine after being skied in earlier.

Another round

 The lake and road at the knob have been groomed. Only a thin skate deck on the road. But the lake is great with the first full classic tracks of the season!

It is snowing, so this might be buried later in the day.  Not a terrible problem to have. 

Another inch

 The lake has been groomed including tracks Thursday evening. The road was also groomed without tracks but it is a very thin base.

Pilot knob lake 

Pilot knob road