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Thursday Nov 27, 7:30-PM

Tonight  is  22 degrees and a full moon, it should freeze up well.

We had a great day of early season skiing on 17.5 km of trail. It has most likely been the thinnest base we have opened with, but with some signage and creative connectors we made it work!

Tamarack (from Rock Fence ) downhill is the thinnest, but skiable. We do no have any big hills in the open trails.

The Dog Trails Rsacals and Spanky’s have great cover too…they are mostly wooded and shaded. they are another 3-4 km , Rudy’s is closed

we will groom as we can tomorow morning.

 

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Happy Thanksgiving

I was out on the trails at 3 pm today, they were still too soft to regroom. I put up some markers to redirect early season skiers. We will be out in the early AM to see if we can regroom or let the trail ski as is. The base is for sure thin …but is skiable. With colder temps tonight it should improve for firmness. The trails we are skiing are River Trail w Hill /bypass, Pit Point backwards w hill by pass, Popple Flats backwards to the gravel road and back 2 way Memory Lane,, Blueberry to cold feet short cut and Meadow Ridge, Cherry 2 way..maybe the loop, Peltonen to the Rockfence cabin then Tamarack and out to Sulos area before shortcutting back on Tamarack and then River and Tamarack. Looks like about 16 km of skiable trails. We are avoiding hills of course with the thin base and we encourage people not to damage the trails with snowplowing a thin base to grass but in stead walking down the edge of the gentle hills we have open.  I will try to mark up a trail map in the AM w the route and post it.

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ABR Expansion and Updates, Plus Covid 19 Plan

ABR Trails added another 13 km of ski trails on 290 acres putting them at 90 km of groomed ski trails. 9 km of the trails are remote but very scenic and intermediate to easy. They will be groomed for classic skiing. Another 4 km of flatter close skating /classic trails have been added and are rated easy. The dog trails have been modified and are now skiing the opposite direction with an additional 1 km flat trail called Darla’s Diversion

Snowshoe trail expansion is at 17 km (6 km of it groomed).

An Electric Car charging station has been added in the main parking area.

ABR has been packing the trails for the last several weeks as they get snow and as the snow melts. ABR Trails are planning to open a 10-20 km loop for rock skiing Friday November 27th at 9 AM CST. The base is thin and there are no classic tracks.

The Ski Shop sale is on for Saturday November 28th, which will be the last day for the sale.

COVID Plan Revised

ABR Ski Trails is working on our plan for a safe opening this winter. With many unknowns we are going to error on the conservative side. We are going to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

First, and most importantly we plan to have all 90 km of ski trails open and groomed for skiing as usual. We will also have the 17 km of snowshoe trails open.

We will be selling tickets from a ticket booth in front of the ski cabin during busy days and will have a walk up window on the ski chalet for skiers to buy tickets without entry. There are 6 designated parking places in front by the entrance to park while you walk up to the booth or chalet to purchase a ticket or shop in the store. We are encouraging season passes to be purchased and will continue our reduced price for the passes throughout the season.

We will have the ski shop open with limited capacity, 3 people at a time in the ski shop and 3 people at a time in the rental area.  Social distance rules and mandatory mask wearing. Sneeze guards, hand sanitizer stations and other safety precautions will be in place.

We will have the center room / retail ski area open for sale of retail skis and rentals, but no warming area and no change area and no bag storage. Same social distance and mask rules apply with limited capacity.

The back room of the ski chalet with concessions and indoor restroom will not be open at all.

The wax barn will not be open. An outdoor water faucet is available for filling your water containers. Day skiers and campers need to bring their own water containers.

We have the small building to the south configured with 5 spacious men’s and women’s change booths, unheated.

We have 8 porta potties in the unheated shipping barn including 2 larger handicap units. 4 designated for men and 4 designated for women.

The 3 warming cabins on the trail will be open for emergency use.

The Trailside houses and Rustic ski in cabins will be rented as usual. The cancellation policy will be revised for COVID.

The wood-fired sauna use is still under discussion, however if it is open it will be reserved for lodging guests and BYOT (bring your own towel).

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Nov 25 Wednesday

Just getting the trail report from our local scouter. 10-15 km very skiable, another 5-7 km skiable for the right skier. That is todays report from 4:30 PM. It will be important that skiers read the report at the trail head outside to follow the open/safe trails. We are planning to open Friday at 9 AM for early season skiing (rock skis suggested). If you only own one set of skis, you probably won’t be happy with the thin base.