The grooming report this morning listed only the parkways as "recommended", so I opted for a skate ski from P8 to Mulvihill and back on the GP and CP. Sadly although temperatures were only slightly above freezing over the past two days, the trails have lost their pristine powder surface. From P8 to Mica I found the north side of the skate lane noticeably crusty with a coating of frozen drizzle, while the south side was soft sugary granular snow. From Mica to Mulvihill both sides of the lane were crusty. No doubt this reflects when grooming was done. Even the crusty surface was quite skiable, just noisy. The crust provided effortless glide. The classic tracks were deep and well-formed with a sugar granular base, offering fast descents. Classic skiers I spoke to noted that the granular snow was abrading grip wax- a binder would probably be a good idea. Overall it was a very enjoyable ski (4.5 stars?), and as I write this report I note that a lot more of the network is now recommended. I hope that Demsis continues making grooming passes to break up the crust and keep the skate lane from hardening to rock as temperatures drop overnight.