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)

Burwalde Woods

• by Bob Grafton (posted on Mar 15)
  Today we skied at Burwalde Woods. It was a wet ski, but still a ski. If the temps drop as predicted, it'll be good there this weekend. Phil continues to groom and there seems to be no shortage of snow.
  
• by Maria (posted on Mar 14)
  I did the Boundary Trails Distance Challenge at Burwalde Woods today. I got there a little later, at 11:00 AM when most of the participants had probably done a few laps. The trail was soft when I started, but very skiable. When the sun came out around noon, the trails became very wet and slushy. It was definitely a challenge, but we all enjoyed it. It clouded over for a couple hours and the rate of melting seemed to slow down. It seemed that the snow even hardened a little bit. There's still a lot of snow there, and if they get well below freezing temperatures, we can still get a couple of weeks of skiing there. Keep checking the forecast in Morden. There's no grass or dirt poking out of the trails. I heard they shut down the trail for a few days leading up to the event in order to preserve whatever snow that's left. I did my longest ski of the season under considerably less than ideal conditions, and I'll definitely be back next year to do the Distance Challenge again! These guys really love skiing and it showed with the way they maintained the trail for this event

Birds Hill Park

• by Kevin Miller (posted on Mar 13)
  Saturday morning from 7:00 to 8:30 AM. +2°C.
  Group Use Road: 5cm to 10cm of wet dirty snow (no ice), with a fair number of human and animal footprints. The track was a bit soft to very soft, and slow to very slow. It couldn't have been too bad because I skied 3 laps. The west end is the best, but that's also where the thinnest snow is.
  I had actually hoped to classic ski, but the classic tracks are almost non-existent, and with the challenges of grip and glide on the wet snow, and knowing that grass/dirt would be showing in many areas ... skating on the Group Use Road was better. (Looking up Chickadee at the ascent to the tower, I saw as much grass/dirt as snow.)
• 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. 

(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 15, 2010