Homer - Baycrest

  [Kenai] - 6:00 PM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Skied the Marathon Trail today from Upper Baycrest to Lookout in wonderful spring conditions. Trail is in great shape for either skate or classic. At 11:00 am start temps were in high 20s. We made it in a leisurely 3 hours with a lunch break on Crossman Ridge and lots of breaks to enjoy the views. Passed one group of 8 skiing it from Lookout.

Report by Billy Day.

Kincaid Park

  [Anchorage] - 4:00 PM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Perfect klister skiing at Kincaid - tracks are clean, firm and fast. I used TOKO orange & silver mixed - good kick, fast glide.
Skating also looked good - plenty to edge in, also fast.

Report by Ellen Toll.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 12:00 PM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Crunchy new corduroy. Firm carving for skating. Deep tracks. It was as good as it gets on Besh-Hillside this morning. Service loops were not groomed as recently and were icy in places.

Report by Doug O'Harra.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 10:00 AM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Matt - thank you, thank you. Timely updates (esp this time of year) are exactly what we need. I wasn’t planning to ski today figuring the trails wouldn’t be groomed but now I’m on my way out the door with skis in hand.

Report by jay peabody.

Kincaid Park

  [Anchorage] - 10:00 AM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Crust skiing pretty good on Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. It will only last a few more days. I accessed it from the motorcross area, skied to the access by Discovery Bay Dr. and Southport Dr, then back to Kincaid via the coastal trail beach. I would recommend the Discovery Bay Dr. access over the next few days. Directly below Kincaid I had to walk a little bit, but skiing looked good all the way to Potter. Just because the NIMBY's who live along here blocked the South Coastal Trail Extension doesn't mean we can't crust ski there. Enjoy. Kincaid trails had fantastic hard Klister tracks and firm skating...probably best in early afternoon.

Report by Gary Snyder.

Alaska Pacific University

  [Anchorage] - 9:00 AM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Still some cord left from the grooming, but hard pack in many areas. Heaps of walkers and their dogs on the groomed trails, and a few bike ruts, but since that's how it is, and nothing will change that, best just to ski around them. Lovely spring morning to be outside and on the trails.

Report by RSD Owens.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 2:00 AM, Sun Mar 21, 2010

Snow was hard to work, but was able to groom up the Hillside lighted, Besh Lighted, Double Bubble, Gasline. Finishing up at 0130 and noted fresh bike tracks (3 sets to be exact) set out on what was just completed on the lighted loops. Grrrr. Should be fast and fun at the AM. 22 F when I left the barn.

Report by Matthew T. Pauli.

Beach Lake Trails - Chugiak

  [Anchorage] - 6:00 PM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Old lighted loop, appendix, railroad, hill loop, agony hill, the yo-yo's, another old lighted loop and back on mainstreet. No angry moose seen, but stayed away from the chalet as advised. Icy and fast. No recent grooming, but some frozen cord on the edges.

Report by c kase.

Talkeetna area

  [Mat-Su] - 4:00 PM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Skied up Gold Mint Trail 6-6.5 miles one way. Started around noon, 27º and dry snow, first 2.5 mi. packed by walkers and skiers, occasional postholes. Up valley, good tracks, great trail conditions, hot sun, blue skies, fantastic scenery. Saw dippers in the Little Su. Snow bridges holding up. Skied out to the huge boulder near the back bowl. Nice downhill return was semi-fast in tracks, a little wetter with warming temps. Awesome ski out in the sun, felt like 70º, probably upper 30sº. Almost double poled all the way out. Could speed out to soft snow and back on trail. Fun! Overall fantastic conditions on the first day of spring!

Report by PJ Phillips.

Kincaid Park

  [Anchorage] - 1:00 PM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Leckish, Margaux's, Johdpur all excellant with fresh groom for skating. Thanks Groomers. Beautiful.

Report by Sandy N .

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 12:00 PM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Excellent classical skiing from Service to the Campbell Airstrip Road Mile 1.1 parking lot and back. Twenty-year-old Swix Special Red wax was just the ticket for everywhere except the steep side of Antenna Hill, but I usually end up herring boning a section of it anyway. The skate lane was freshly groomed and the skate skiers were really flying today. Thanks, groomers!

Report by Skijoring Ladybugs.

Kincaid Park

  [Anchorage] - 10:00 AM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Wore out my 7-year-old skiing Kincaid from 10am to Noon. Excellent fast fresh curduroy everywhere. Classic good as well from the look of it. Mudflats skatable with a reasonable proto-crust. Beautiful morning; wonderful skiing.

Report by Howard Earl.

Arctic to Indian Traverse

  [Anchorage] - 10:00 AM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Anyone want to swap cars???

Party of 2 or 3 + 1 dog will be skiing Sunday from Indian to Arctic, opposite direction to most traffic.

If another group wants to swap keys, we can drive each other vehicles out and save lots of staging time.

Call Jeffrey Bannish 562-6284.
Leave a message

Calling late OK ... I will be out until 11 tonight.

Report by Jeffrey Bannish.

Glen Alps

  [Anchorage] - 10:00 AM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

Powerline Pass area looks like a battlefield with hundreds of snowmobile tracks that have completely torn up the valley :-( Still ok to ski in the soft afternoon snow, but probably not much fun when all the tracks are frozen solid in the morning. And certainly not very nice to look at. A shame that they had to open the area to snowmobiles ...

Report by Thorsten Eiben.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 7:00 AM, Sat Mar 20, 2010

This morning's skate took us up and around the Hillside lighted loops, across the Gasline and down Rover's Run, and back up the Tour trail. The conditions are great! The Hillside loops and the Tour trail were freshly groomed last night and are really nice, with good soft grip and decent glide. The classic tracks looked good also. Rover's was a bit rough and icy, but will probably get better later in the day when it softens up a bit. Excellent trails; thanks groomers.

Report by Scott Digert.

Chester Creek Trail

  [Anchorage] - 6:00 PM, Fri Mar 19, 2010

Hard, fast and a bit slick skating from Valley of the Moon to Lynn Ary Park. Skiable, but much better for bikes than skis at the moment.

Report by katie hickey.

Glen Alps

  [Anchorage] - 5:00 PM, Fri Mar 19, 2010

Information on the opening and closure of Chugach State park to snow machines can always be found here:
http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/asp/chugachsnow.pdf
if you are on facebook, you can find it under the Chugach State Park under notes.

as it now stands, the Anchorage Hillside is closed to snowmachines.

great skiing up at Glen Alps this evening. Sweet skies, great snow fast conditions...yippie!

Report by funhog fundogs.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 3:00 PM, Fri Mar 19, 2010

Beautiful skiing at Hillside; fresh grooming on Spencer and lighted loops - classic tracks are great, skating is too. Swix VR 55 was working well; some places with South exposure were getting a bit glazed but it was all GOOD.

Report by Ellen Toll.

Unalakleet Nordic Ski Trails

  [Other] - 2:00 PM, Fri Mar 19, 2010

The path out to The Dogs and beyond is excellent!

You can now enjoy a nice skate out to The Dogs (3km), Round About Hill (5km), Big Drift, SBS Loop, and Top Loop (7km).

All are groomed for skating and most have a classic lane. Drifting has filled the path in smooth!

The Ski-to-the-Top and Picnic is tomorrow at SBS Loop. Come enjoy some eats and skiing (hopefully as sunny as today).

Get out and enjoy the warm temps under the clear blue!

Report by Christian Persons.

Hillside

  [Anchorage] - 1:00 PM, Fri Mar 19, 2010

perfect easy skating conditions lighted loops Gasline to Service. Really nice grooming. Thanks.

Report by Sandy N.