Battle Creek

Battle Creek is still in good shape, but could use some scratching up. There's definitely decent purchase, but it is, in some places, pretty well hard-packed, almost as if it hasn't snowed in two weeks (because, uh, it hasn't snowed in two weeks). Nothing against the groomers, they've done fine work, and it's perfectly skiable, but could just use a bit more texture. There are a couple of totally avoidable thin spots (especially under the pine trees on the back hills) although nothing is icy. I'm being nitpicky here, it's really perfectly fine.

Battle Creek

Battle Creek is still in very good shape, but not exactly perfect any more. There's nothing to complain about, of course, but there are a couple crunchy spots with the sun and warm temperatures, and a couple spots where the edge of the trail is getting a little burned out. The snow is getting a tad thin under the pines on the big back hill, and while the classic track is deep and solid, the places where it has transformed have gotten pretty slick. It's very good, but getting a bit springy—it will be nice to have cooler temperatures, and a tad of snow would perfect it once again.

Battle Creek

Battle Creek is in terrific shape. There were a couple sections which were slightly crispy from the warm sun today, and a couple points where the sides of the trail look to be thinning a little bit, but other than that it's in very fine shape. The skate lanes were not particularly fast and were firm, and the classic tracks looked to be very solid if somewhat glazed/frozen in places. The groomer was out and had headed across the street, so if you need a respite from hills that may be the place for you.

Battle Creek

Battle Creek is stellar. It has firmed up and is in truly excellent shape all around. There are couple washboarded sections and a couple places where the track has washed out, but these are extremely minor and more than made up by the orange setting sun shining through the oaks. Gorgeous!

Oh, and is there anything more baller than doing pull-ups on the tree overhanging the trail in the field after the hill off the lighted loop? Hanging from a branch, with my skis dangling above the snow, I'd say, no, no there is not.

Firmer, better, wonderful-er.

Battle Creek was in top form today. Track set all around, and the skate lanes were slow and still pretty soft but firmer than yesterday. Just a pleasure to ski. If you go down the hill off the lighted loop (the start of the 5k and 7.5k) and see a divot in the snow off to the right side of the trail, my apologies. At least I had the manners to fall off the side of the trail and plow out a bunch of ungroomed snow.

Battle Creek

Just fantastic.

The skaters said the skate lane was soft, which I believe. The classic track, however, was surprisingly firm. The new snow is setting up pretty well—it's rather dense—and I assume a couple cold nights (it's clear, now let it be calm and cold) and Battle Creek should be in tip-top shape. Okay, it pretty much already is the best I've ever seen it, but tip-top shape and firm. Coverage is perfect throughout, of course (except the usual spot on the Lighted Loop Back Down on to the Prairie, which is merely thin) and everything is groomed and tracked (except no track on the LLBDOTTP). Just a pleasure to ski—your worries just melt away! Which this snow won't be doing any time soon, we hope!

Battle Creek

We probably should have gone to Wirth. The conditions at BC are decent, but deteriorating. It is showing that a) the base is thin and b) there is no pisten bully able to churn up the ice. The snow is clean, but rather icy. It could definitely use some snow.

After hearing that Wirth was very good, we went to Battle Creek mainly because the traffic through Mpls was rumored to be bad. It sounds like Wirth was better, but BC is still in skiable shape. The lighted loop is definitely showing wear and tear—there are a few more icy patches showing up, but with skis with a decent edge you can get a nice skate in. The classic track looks rather okay as well. It's by no means perfect, but it's pretty good for what we have. Two inches of snow and it would be superb. Still, it's definitely skiable.

Battle Creek

It's pretty good, and they were regrooming.

A high school meet had skied the snow in to the trail and it was pretty hard; in a few sections it was demonstrably icier than yesterday. Still, the course was in very good shape and the groomer was out scratching it back up so it'll probably be better tomorrow.

Como on Monday, Battle Creek Tuesday

Como on Monday was pretty atrocious. There wasn't much to deal with on the ground, with windblown snow across the ice. I wrote:

Had there been no wind, most of Como would have been in fine shape. As it was, there were sections with new snow and sections which were quite icy (especially the U-turns at the bottoms of the first couple of hills). In any case, it is marginally skiable, but not a whole lot of fun.

It really wasn't pleasant.

Tuesday, today, we went to Battle Creek, hoping that at least, according to earlier trail reports, the woods would be nice. But while we were there, the groomer was continuing to make rounds, and the skiing was surprisingly good. There were a couple icy spots, but on the whole trail I could count them on one hand, and none was on a downhill or somewhere else it would have been especially problematic. There were some powdery areas, too, especially in the woods, and the track which was being set was shallow but looked pretty solid. I skied the whole course on rock skis with no edges, but there are no thin spots so you could use better skis—with better edges—for best results. Still, there is good purchase nearly everywhere, and even the big hills out back are in fine shape if you are comfortable on them.

The only area which was not groomed was the flat section on the lighted loop back down on to the prairie (the LLBDOTP). The hill down was groomed, and the hill up had good coverage of new snow which was skied in. The bottom was in pretty rough shape—with a couple of brown spots—but the icy/windblown sections were a testament to the grooming. Great work grooming!

Battle Creek

Battle Creek is still in fine shape. I went no-poles tonight and had no issue with edging. Some of the way-back hills are getting pretty icy, but if I can make it down in the dark without poles, they're probably fine. Otherwise, it was a splendid, warm evening to ski. Many thanks to the groomers for their continued work.

Battle Creek

Excellent. Collin and I did hill repeats on the prairie hill and, except for one burnout spot on the hill back down on to the prairie (for lack of a better name) the trail was in terrific shape. We didn't venture on to the back hills but everything else was superb.

Battle Creek

The trails at Battle Creek are still in fine shape. The skate lane is pretty well skated in, but rather soft with the warmer temperatures, and the classic track has been reset and looks very good. The back hills were pretty light with the clouds, although they are getting a little icy on the corners; I bit it trying to go to the outside of the last one when I skied—blindly—through some of the snow plowed up on the outside, but the landing was soft. It's great skiing and will hopefully hold up for some time to come.

As I was skiing up the prairie hill I saw someone skating up the steep downhill along the trees. I'm usually not one to question the practices of others, but it was pretty fast and that hill is rather blind, so this could be construed as dangerous. I caught up with him at the top of the hill and started to give him a lecture when he turned to me and said "you know me." "Oh, hi Steve!" He'd apparently never skied Battle Creek before so I gave him a pass, and we shot down the hill, threading through a group of skiers congregated on the level section of the middle of the hill—which was also fast.

Battle Creek

Day one of the meltdown, thanks to a wicked inversion, wasn't too bad. Battle Creek was powdery with a good classic track, and would have been perfect save three very minor defects:

a) the corner at the bottom of the first hill off the lighted loop has some dirt. Stay left to avoid it.
2) the pole plants on the outside of the classic track are soft and break through in places.
d) the classic track is obliterated in a couple sections, most notably up the big hill off the prairie.

Other than asking skaters to please stay in the skate lanes, Battle Creek is great. Hopefully it will survive the melt.

As for the meltdown—the latest model runs give a slight bit of hope on a few fronts. First, the sun is still rather low in the sky, so even temperatures of 35—especially if they don't hit until 3 in the afternoon or so—won't do too much damage to the snow. Second, next weeks temperatures don't look to get much above freezing, so there could be a lot of 35˚ afternoons with 20˚ nights. Also, the storm which may be headed our way next week is all over the map, so it could wind up throwing down some snow. So there's something to do the snow dance for, anyway.

Battle Creek

I took a couple loops of Battle Creek around midday (too lazy to head out early to Como) today with Double Birkie looming tomorrow. The trail is "relatively okay", by which I mean that while there is good snowcover, there are some icy and uneven spots. The surface is hard and fast, and with a bit more snow and grooming it should give a fine base for weeks to come. Unless you are confident of your downhill skills, I'd stay off the back hills, they're scarier going down in the light today than they were in the dark earlier this week. It's close to being awesome—and it's no fault of the groomers, who are doing yeomans work—but it's not quite there. If there's not new snow this week the classic race next week should be fun and/or carnage.

HAIRIES

There are few things better than hairies. Crust skiing might be, if the conditions are exquisite. But the thought of scraping your skis clean, roughing up the kick zones and striding around is fantastic. And rare. But today, with freshly-falling snow and the temperature at exactly freezing, I got excited—hairies!

I drove over to Battle Creek, strapped on the striders, and went out for a spin. With no kick. Apparently the bases of my skis are not as clean as I thought they might be. So, it was back to the car which is, luckily, a depository for all things ski (I only really use it to go to rollerski or hike in the summer, so it retains assorted ski detritus through the summer.) and the search began for sandpaper. A snippet was found. Then, a kick scraper. I didn't have one, but figured the scraper I use for my windshield (try it, ski scrapers beat the heck out of gas station scrapers) would suffice. Five minutes later, I was ready to go. A fellow walking by said "it seems like a great time to cross country ski." Indeed.

The kick was almost magical. I had no wax on my skis, but was able to stride a lot of the hills. I spent some time skiing in a bit of a track to go back and forth in, and skied around the whole loop. There's about a foot of snow in the open, and the trail has packed down really well—this snow should stick around a while—skating seemed good and a classic track should set up deep and firm. There are no thin or sketchy spots, which happens with heavy, dense snow. I went down the singletrack trail to practice my backcountry tele turning (with varie success) and didn't touch dirt. There's a lot of snow.

If they can roll the next batches of snow as well as the first, Battle Creek will have pretty epic conditions. Perfect timing for a race!

(I took a couple of pictures of the lighted course afterwards)

Battle Creek

The new snow overnight skied in quite well and anything in the woods, with a couple exceptions, is in very good shape. The prairie is skiable but with rock skis of course (probably advisable for the whole thing). With light off the clouds, the unlit trails were fine through dusk.

Now, just waiting for the big pre-Christmas dump. Please?!

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Battle Creek

The classic tracks do have grass in places, but for my first time striding this year, it was not half bad. Kick was whatever was leftover from last year on my rock skis, and glide was surprisingly good. The tracks are solid, if thin in a few places. Getting the classic technique back will take a bit of trying, though. Note to self: when temperatures are below 0, remember all your pants. Long underwear and spandex won't cut it.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Battle Creek

Back to Battle Creek, with a couple inches of fresh powdah, for very good skiing. A few thin spots, but mostly over grass or mulch. During the day good skis would be fine. I hit the trails for about 75 minutes and did a few repeats with a headlamp up the big hill on the back loop. Hopefully they'll be able to comb it and set a classic track tonight (it was just rolled) which should set up real well.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Battle Creek

Same as yesterday—until proven otherwise, we'll stick with Battle Creek. I stayed off the big hills thanks to forgetting my headlamp, but the rest is good. A couple leafy sections on the wooded part of the lit loop, but nothing too bad. A couple inches of snow (Sunday?) would do wonders.

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com

Battle Creek

I called Burnsville and they reported that Terrace Oaks was fair. So, I headed over to Battle Creek and it was quite good. The prairie is skiable, but pretty grassy. The woods, however, are very good. With more grooming and cold temperatures, it's much firmer than yesterday with a good skate deck and a definite rock ski classic track (dirt and leaves in places). You could probably get away skating on the wooded sections with good skis during the day, but not at night.

A couple non-prarie sections to watch out on: after the big climb off the prairie and the second half of the big climb on the back hills. However, the main climb up the prairie is in very good shape. The lights are on, but, of course, there's only a couple K with good snow and lights. A headlamp is nice, but it can probably be skied on ambient light. It's exciting to be back on snow!

I can only get to two trails at most, on a good day! Check out all the trail reports at skinnyski.com