A short, late afternoon skate ski on the north loop. I hesitated to file this report, after the glowing reports that preceded it. But here it is. Both Garry and I found this area was quite poor for skating, overly skied, and either "polished" or rutted. It was a perfunctory skate at best. (The classic tracks, however, looked amazing.). I hope there will be fresh grooming this week, now that the races are over.

I would also like to take this opportunity to whine a bit about yesterday's ski conditions for the 15 K afternoon race, the poor cousin of the other two longer classic races. It felt like a back country race, particularly on the parkway stretch from Pink. The tracks were almost non-existent, and the surrounding snow extremely soft. I believe the snow was simply not packed adequately before being track-set. The race was fun and the weather stunning, but the classic grooming the worst I have ever seen for a classic race, including that for the same race of previous years. End of whine.