Manitoba skiers can inform other skiers about trail conditions by

• e-mailing a report to Kevin Miller.
• e-mailing a report to the CCSAM E-Mail Information Exchange List.

The Cross Country Ski Association of Manitoba does not have responsibility for the accuracy of any trail condition reports listed here. We provide this information for the benefit of cross country skiers. Please exercise caution when skiing in very cold weather and/or steep terrain.

Check out our Where to ski pages to learn more about the different venues listed below.

Ski club/venue trail condition reports (posted by the people who groom the trails)

Skier's trail condition reports (posted by the people who ski the trails)

Windsor Park Nordic Centre

• by Kym Bottomley (posted on Mar 9)
  Today Kristin and I skied at Windsor Park and it was fantastic!! I can't believe the incredible job our groomers, Jim and Vern, have done out there. Although it is melting all around us, the classic tracks had been re-set yesterday and were holding up really well -- no brown spots, and the skating was amazing for spring melt. We were able to ski the entire blue course and were very very impressed. There is still time to get out and enjoy a warm spring ski. Jim and Vern, you guys are amazing, and its only because of you we can ski at all right now. Thank you for your hard work this year. The Windsor Park ski trails have been incredible, and you are both very dedicated and it has not gone unnoticed. Thanks for the great spring ski today!!

Birds Hill Park

• by Alison Steele (posted on Mar 9)
  My dog & I ski-jored the Group Use Road at 7:30on  Tuesday evening. Although it's getting a bit soft and heavy in the occasional spot, the base is still good, and it's very skate-skiable. (And much easier if you can convince your dog to pull you!)
• by Kevin Miller (posted on Mar 8)
  Monday morning from 9:00 to 11:30. 0°C to +2°C. 98% humidity. Toko Silver Carbon klister (>0°C) for grip. Toko Dibloc Yellow Low Flouro (-4°C to >0°C) and coarse structure for glide. I had excellent grip and glide. The trails are still in good to excellent condition -- similar to what Chris Ashley wrote on Friday. Bluestem (east and west) is the worst. Lime Kiln is the best. The Group Use Road looks fantastic, but only near 0°C or warmer because it's very firm and icy. If the predicted rain and +5°C temps occur in the next few days, this trail condition report will be obsolete. 
• by Chris Ashley (posted on Mar 5)
  I skied the first part of Bluestem to the hill, then slid over to Aspen, and then skied the full Aspen loop at about 11:00 AM this morning. I was expecting a lot worse after reading previous posts. There are icy spots, debris (leaves, pine needles, pine cones, etc) in places, but no worse than early season. There are places where it's wearing thin, but not anything to worry about today. I had V50 kick wax on.. I think its klister time though -- where the snow hadn't transformed the V50 was great, but I also had a lot of slip. Glide was very fast with CH8. The Group Use Road for skating looked mint in the places where the trails crossed; I'm definitely going skating there tomorrow. Lookout Hill is probably worth walking down if you aren't comfortable with going downhill; there is rock/dirt in the middle of the downhill, and turning to Bluestem is similar before getting to deeper snow.

Pumpkin Creek

• by Brad Gibb (posted on Mar 7)
  I went out to Pumpkin Creek for the Mystery Tour. Both the Blue Moon and Club trails were in pretty good shape. Roger's Pass has a few rough stretches, mostly due to a Conservation directive to remove certain trees. The trails all seem to have a lot of snow, so they may well last for a few more weeks if the weather cooperates. It was definitely a Klister Day -- the grip tape that I run on my skis pretty much ran out of traction at 5 C. Many thanks to all the folks who put a lot of effort into setting up the tour. If you missed it this year, I definitely recommend going next time around. 

Shannondale

• by Kevin Miller (posted on Mar 6)
  Saturday: There is still *lots* of snow at Shannondale. Between the five of us, we skied all trails using both techniques. As everyone would expect, David Lumgair had the trails groomed to perfection. The snow was initially partially transformed, but by mid afternoon at 0°C and a very bright sun, the trails in the valley were moist. After freezing tonight, the snow will be more transformed. 
  The skate track had a beautiful firm corduroy top, but it was soft underneath; my poles with small baskets were sinking in quite far. Skating skis with a coarse structure and a warm glide wax with flouro were gliding well.
  Classic grip waxing was a challenge. Most of us were using a 0°C+ "hard" wax (gooey) with a hard wax base binder and we were getting good grip, but it wasn't lasting very long because of the the abrasive partially transformed snow. A base binder of green klister with universal klister for grip would have been more durable, but it may or may not have been too grippy. 

Pinawa

• by Alison Steele (posted on Mar 5)
  We skied the Blue and English River trails this morning; and had a thrilling (sometimes bordering on scary!) ski with varying conditions from icy to soft to crusty, although it was better than expected. The glide was super-fast, and we found ourselves double-poling most of time -- hardly using our legs. The lack of snow and warm weather is reducing the already thin base to bare ground in a few places -- be prepared to dodge debris & pine needles or they will stick to your grip wax. Unfortunately, these two awesome trails are near the end of their short season.
  I also skated a portion of the south Golf Course Trail; and it was in very nice shape -- still fairly firm with good bite.

Beaudry Park

• by Gord Buhr (posted on Mar 3)
  The Wild Grape, Elm, and Basswood trails are still in very good condition but starting to accumulate debris. Given the tree canopy, I would suspect these trails will last longer than more open trails like Birds Hill as the sun starts eating our precious snow. No bare spots, no ice transformation as of Wednesday evening.

Hecla Island

• by Darryl Hrechkosy (posted on Mar 1)
  Sunday February 28th.
  Skied all the trails here and found them to be recently groomed and not used yet. Trails double tracked, firm, nice shape, fast and furious.  Plenty of snow here and should last quite awhile, since Hecla seems to hang onto the snow longer than Grand Beach, Birds Hill, and more southern trails. Seems a lot of big trees had fallen down since the fall. Trees here do not have a deep root system, owing to the fact that this is a limestone island, and therefore do not fair well against heavy winds off of the lake. Trails here relatively flat, but the beauty of them and the Island makes for a most pleasant and enjoyable ski. Cooked up supper at West Hammars Lake warming hut and skied back to the north shore parking lot under full moonlight and brilliant stars. Here again, no need for headlamps. If you are skiing the classic trails, you can access them from North Shore Estates parking lot, or if you're staying at the hotel, from the trails originating there. If you're skate skiing, you can drive to the campground where they have paved camping bay roads groomed for this endeavor, or skate ski on the lake from numerous access points. I did not go near the skate trails, so unfortunately, nothing to report on that. If you do stay at the hotel, don't forget to bring your ice skates as I believe you can skate on the pond there and/or the lake. Good ski trip and full moon to end the fantastic skiing month of February, and send wishes to the skiing gods to provide us with an exceptionable skiing in the month of March.

Camp Morton

• by Darryl Hrechkosy (posted on Mar 1)
  Saturday February 27th.
  Skied the trails on the east side of Highway 222 late into the evening under full moonlight and bright stars. Tracks had been reset, finding them decent and fast. Billions of diamonds sparkling in the trees. Single track winding through the forests, sometimes with new and old tracks merging. I suppose this is the nature of their equipment. No need for headlamps, even with the close intimacy of the trails. Seems the long bridge crossing the Ravine trail close to the lake has been removed and that route no longer used. Though I haven't been here in few years, I would suspect that this was probably due to heavy erosion occurring from the past 2 or more wet summers. The Ravine trail runs now as it had prior to that long bridge being installed, which is north/south along the highway for a short stretch going around the ravine/creek, and back into the bush. Kilometer total for both east and west sides of the highway is around 14. Not a huge amount by some peoples requirements, but the beauty and closeness of them, make them well worthwhile to drive to and ski. Nice well thought out warming huts with good chopped wood and decent stoves. Great effort and thanks to the private ski club for providing skiers a place to ski on that side of the lake. I may add that here you are close to Gimli and Misty Lake Lodge which both are great places to eat and stay. Prior to our ski we did sit down at a Chinese restaurant in Gimli across from the Lakeview Hotel and thoroughly enjoyed the "all you can eat" buffet, while watching our men's curlers win gold.

Rivendell

• by Fred Goods (posted on Mar 1)
  We skied at the Rivendell Cross Country & Uphill course on Friday Feb 26th. It was fantastique and the downhills were fast. Groomed for both skate and classique. Worth the price of admission!!!

Bittersweet

• by Kevin Miller (posted on Feb 27)
  I skate skied on Saturday afternoon while my wife and two friends classic skied.
  All 10.5K of skate track was perfect corduroy. It was a good compromise of firmness (best for speed) and softness (best for maintaining balance and control). I hadn't skied there before, so I really appreciated the exceptional signage that told me where I was and what I was about to encounter (e.g. trail names with descriptive arrows, terrain names with descriptive arrows, caution and why, do not enter, etc). Not once did I have to refer to the trail map in my pocket (available at the trail head and on the CCSAM website). When skied in the correct direction (see "exceptional signage"), almost all sections of trail flow nicely and have adequate or better run-out on descents, but there's a lot of elevation change on these trails so cardio fitness and downhilling skills are a definite asset. It was the best physical + mental ski I've had all year: up, down, around, a bridge, crossing classic trails -- always interesting. I've heard opinions that the skate trails are a bit narrow, but IMO, the track is wide enough to enjoy the speed and power of skating, while also enjoying being on intimate forest trails.
  My wife and friends thoroughly enjoyed the classic trails for many of the same reasons that I enjoyed the skating trails. They spent some time taking in the view at Lookout Point.
  Another nice touch is the four outhouses spread around the compact (3K x 2K) trail system. There is a Ski Hut that is well-used.

(On January 18th and 19th, I received two Skier's trail condition reports from Birds Hill Park that detailed damage to trails. One was an eye-witness account.)

It appears that on Monday January 18th in the afternoon, three yahoos on snowmobiles damaged a number of kilometres of Birds Hill Park's classic ski trails. It appears they started from the riding stables, drove along either the outbound or in-bound Esker to where it meets Chickadee, drove to where Chicadee shortcuts to Bluestem, then drove west then south then east along Bluestem back to the riding stables.

I phoned the Birds Hill Park office at 222-9151. The phone answerer (Edna) was not aware of this. I explained everything to her, then she forwarded me to the Park Warden's voice mail where I left a brief message and my contact info. He phoned me and we had a good talk. Four things:

• For years park staff have been dealing with problems like this. They've set large rocks at some access points, but it's impossible to stop snowmobiles from going anywhere they want to go.
• It's not easy, but if you can get the snowmobile's license plate and a description of the machine and rider, the park will follow up on it.
• Park staff will try to repair the damage on Wednesday morning, but there isn't very much snow to work with.
• The only way snowmobiles will ever be banned from Birds Hill Park is if skiers get together (through CCSAM) and lobby the Minister of Conservation . You can contact me.

Reporting damage to Provincial Parks trails

If you see any inappropriate activities in a Provincial Park (such as ATVs or snowmobiles wrecking trails), you should report the activity to the park.

• Grand Beach District Supervisor Jeff Houghton is at (204)754-5040 or jeff.houghton@gov.mb.ca.
• Birds Hill Park is 222-9151. The Birds Hill District Office is (204)654-6730 (weekdays).
• Turtle Mountain  District Park Supervisor Shawn Lamb is at (204)534-2045 or Shawn.Lamb@gov.mb.ca.

The more complaints they receive, the more likely they will be given the resources to enforce regulations.
The Minister of Conservation should also be informed so he is aware of the problem (mincon@leg.gov.mb.ca).

As for grooming, the parks like to receive compliments (as we all do) and that probably motivates them to a higher service level. Also, as taxpayers and skiers, you certainly have the right to contact them with complaints (or better, constructive criticisms).

Grand Beach trails discussion

On Monday December 8, 2008, I (Kevin Miller) had a detailed conversation with Grand Beach District Supervisor Jeff Houghton and the park's Operations Manager (James Lockie) about the Grand Beach cross country ski trails.

A trail report about a 4x4 truck having driven along the trails:

• The tire tracks were made by the park's truck delivering fire wood to the warm-up shelters.
• I asked why a snowmobile pulling a trailer wasn't used. The answer was that a snowmobile doesn't have the capacity to transport the required volume of wood to all of the warm-up shelters.
• I asked why the shelters couldn't be stocked in late October. The answer is that the wood would be stolen by people in pick-up trucks.

Jeff explained the operation of the Grand Beach cross country ski trails from the park's perspective:

• Until the trails have been groomed, they are closed. If www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/winter_reports/cross_country_skiing_report.html says "trails closed", then skiers shouldn't be using them.
• The park's grooming operator has been doing that job since the mid 1960s, and he takes great pride in providing the best possible ski trails. If the trails are groomed before there is sufficient snow, sand and gravel is churned up. In addition to obviously degrading the snow conditions, the sand and gravel also acts as a melting agent on mild sunny days.
• Unauthorized motor vehicles using the Grand Beach trails are a problem all year round. It's a problem everywhere, and it's something parks take seriously, but enforcement is very difficult. Provincial laws allow park staff to confiscate and impound any motorized vehicles on trails that prohibit them, but whenever parks post "motorized vehicles prohibited" signs, they are quickly torn down by the perpetrators.

And so, we're probably going to have to accept these realities.

  This page was last updated on March 9, 2010