Open today. 20º at 7 am and sunny. Forecast high 44º and sunny. We have spring skiing at it’s finest. Fast in the morning and late afternoon. Slow in the middle of the day. Ian groomed the Chickadee last night. He is in the snow cat on the low trails this morning. The skiing is really good.

For you to enjoy good spring skiing, timing is everything. If you want fast fresh grooming and you can handle the speed, get here about before 11 am. If you want slower softer skiing, sometimes really slow and really soft, depends on the temperature, get here between 11:30 am and 3 pm. If you have to ski late in the day for some reason you also have to think about the temperature and the amount of sun we had that day. The temperature will drop and the snow gets hard and fast the second the sun goes over the hill to the west.

Please be smart and make the decision best for you based on your ability.

And thanks to Simon Perkins for the photo above.

Open today. At 6 am the temperature is 16º with clear skies, half an inch of snow overnight. Forecast high is 30º and sunny. Grooming is happening as I type, Ian is in the snow cat. New tracks and corduroy on the low trails. Middle and Upper Blue Jay, Loon, Chickadee good skiing as is. Check when you get here to see if anything changed.

Today is a frozen granular base with the new powder mixed in. We end up with a very skiable surface that is quick and fun to ski on.  I skied already this morning and it was good. I was on rental skis and it wasn’t even all that fast.

Yesterday afternoon was a Youth Ski League Practice. There are many volunteers that make this program work. There are new volunteers and skiers, as in the family does not have a history of Nordic skiing. And there are volunteers that have Nordic skiing in their genes for a couple of generations. Greg, helping in the picture above, is carrying on the tradition, his mom and dad ran the Stratton Nordic Center way back in the 70’s and early 80’s and were very much a part of kids programs.

This is Sverre, known world wide for his coaching at Stratton Mountain School, for about 40 years. But also known as Johnny Caldwell’s son, and Sophie’s dad. And behind Sverre is Simi Hamilton, from Colorado, now on the US Ski Team, and helping his father-in-law play with kids on skis.

And here is Sophie. Home for a breather before continuing onto the last three world cup races. Playing a quick game of Sharks and Minnows with the littles.

There were so many smiles at yesterdays practice. From the kids, from the volunteers, and from the parents.

There are many, many more volunteers that I didn’t get a photo of or note here. A special thanks to all that make this kids program successful. A note on one particular missing volunteer picture is “Mrs. Forbes”. Jeannie started helping with the Nordic ski program when George was in kindergarten. Now she and George both help out, and George is in his early 30’s. You do the math.

Open today. 21º at 6:30 am and sunny.Good spring skiing. Fast in the morning and late in the day, slower in the middle of the day. 25 km open for classic and 6 km skate. Ian is grooming the low trails, if you get here before it gets soft, the groomed skiing is fast early, but really fun.

This picture above is from this morning. Ian is grooming the low trails.

The skiing is beautiful spring skiing. There are a lot of animal tracks on the Middle Blue Jay, and a few on the Upper Blue Jay. I saw mostly coyote, rabbit, squirrel and chipmunk tracks.

The picture below is from yesterday afternoon.

The skiing and the weather were so great yesterday, I went out to ski the Woodcock and Snow Goose. I ended up skiing the Peregrine. The Peregrine was so nice I then skied the Middle Blue Jay. Which was so nice I skied the Upper Blue Jay. You might want to give yourself extra time.

This picture is from this morning. About 6:40 am. WOW!

Open today! Really good skiing early, good skiing in the middle of the day. At 7 am the temperature is 29º and it is sunny. An inch of snow overnight and 1 inch yesterday. Ian is grooming the low trails this morning. The upper trails are skiing as is. It is all good skiing.  25 km open, 25 km classic and 6 km skate.

We are now to spring skiing. Conditions change. We had snow all day yesterday, off and on. There wasn’t snow in the Village of Peru. We will take it. Yesterday’s snow measured almost 1.5 inches. And it snowed 1 more inch overnight. But the snow was wet and compressed down to 1.7 inches total by  measuring time this morning.

The skiing early will be the best. The forecast high today is 39º, the sun is out. Which is good for our mental health and feels wonderful. But, it makes the snow softer and sticky. So get out and enjoy. Bring along the Maxiglide, just in case. It is a beautiful and if you can’t ski today, all I can say is I’m sorry.

Another picture from today. What’s not to love!!!!