Trail Conditions

Near Madison

BlackHawk Ski Area (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 2 2026	Excellent	Skate	Harry Read
🔗	The new snow has made for good, fast conditions.
December 20 2025	Excellent	Skate and Classic	PH
🔗	Magnificent conditions. Siberian Highway (nordic ski loop at the base) was groomed for classic with multiple lanes of tracks for a race this morning. Closed till 1 pm. Should be good tomorrow too, though I am not sure how the Siberian Highway will be groomed.

Blue Mound SP (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 4 2026	Good	Classic	Ann
🔗	I skied this morning. The snow cover is decent and trails are fast. The trails have not been groomed recently. It was worth going out.
January 3 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Crew
🔗	Regroomed this morning.
January 1 2026	Good	Classic	Caleb York
🔗	Got out after the snow but before the groomer. Made citizen tracks. Actually pretty good. Wish poling base in campground loop was better but take what you can get. Thanks to the groomers taking out the fallen logs.
January 1 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Friends of BMSP
🔗	We groomed most trails today. The 2 inches of new snow was very welcome. No tracks were set, but the flat deck is quite good. Best skiing is on the mound itself, but not the campground. Pleasure Valley has thinner coverage but still skiable. We did not touch the paved Military Ridge bike trail connector down to the plunge and Walnut Hollow.
December 31 2025	Fair	Skate and Classic	Razz
🔗	Much is fair to good .east and north sides better. New snow has merged with the base.ungroomedis ok also.
December 30 2025	Poor	Skate and Classic	Friends of BMSP
🔗	We set corduroy on the pool trail and most of the green loop (taking the cutoff to John Minix). It's thin and soft with an icy base. No tracks were set.
December 24 2025	Poor	Skate and Classic	Kyle Richard
🔗	There are some stretches that are good, but at this point the snow is incredibly dirty and thinning. Tracks are still somehow intact in a lot of places, and the deck has softened considerably. The pool trail and the hill up to the top are in ok shape, as is the snow around the pool and trailhead. The top loop is nearly toast. John Minix and Willow Spring, while coverage is good, the snow is just covered in all sorts of debris.
December 21 2025	Fair	Classic	Kyle Richard
🔗	I skied the yellow and green loops around noon, plus an out-and-back on Flint Rock and around the pool. It's definitely firm and icy, but I made it work with some klister. Coverage is generally good, though on Flint Rock had some partially exposed ledges that were easy to avoid.
December 20 2025	Fair	Skate	Harry Read
🔗	The groomer said it was okay to skate on trails that are normally classic only. There is good coverage generally; some stretches are good, others rough and icy, so downhills had to be taken slow. The Flint rock trail is blocked off just before it descends to the campground, so you have to turn around and retrace your steps. Pleasure Valley and Walnut Hollow were not bad; as the temperatures rose, the deck softened up a bit making it better. The skating loop on the top of the mound, and the trail up to it were okay too. So definitely worth the trip out there--and thank you groomers for working hard to make it skiable.
December 19 2025	Fair	Skate and Classic	Friends of BMSP
🔗	There is still a lot of snow at BMSP. A couple of us volunteers attempted to groom most of the trail system, except for the campground (just ice and pavement at this point, although we did see a couple of classic skiers there), the Military Ridge trail connector, and Ridgeview. The snow was rock hard, but after several passes we managed to break and soften things up a bit. We did not set tracks, though there are still some rock hard remnants from Monday's grooming. There are cones and branches blocking the downhill into the campground. Pleasure Valley is thin and icy under the pines.
December 16 2025	Fair	Classic	Joe B
🔗	The tracks were recently groomed and well formed. Lots of leaf litter in the trees from Tuesday's high winds. Lots of debris in the campground from tree removal. Wicked fast in the prairies.
December 16 2025	Good	Classic	Tony H.
🔗	Tracks holding up well, where they were put in. Unfortunately, that rascal Loki (Santa Ana?) blowing a lot of Oak and Hickory leaves onto the trail, esp. NW side of the Mound. Recommend waxless rather than sticky waxes.

Cherokee Marsh (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 3 2026	Poor	Classic	Ed Z
🔗	Some good areas but a lot of rough patches

CXC Outdoor Rec Center (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 5 2026	Good	Skate	Dan D
🔗	Skate deck still holding up mostly, with a solid base except for an area on the west side of the north loop-getting really thin and soft there with stones poking thru. A small amount of snow relocated there would help immensely Hopefully the overnight showers forecast overnight won't materialize.
January 5 2026	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating.
January 4 2026	Good	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Deck is holding up well. Tracks also look stable but a bit dirty in places. The trail will take a hit this week. But if it doesn’t rain, it should survive. Break out your best snow dance moves folks.
January 4 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Chip
🔗	Groomed skating and some classic.
January 3 2026	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating. I'll set some new classic tracks tomorrow
January 2 2026	Good	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Conditions quite a bit better than two days ago. North end of the Upper Field is much cleaner on the deck. Tracks look good throughout the loop except for that north section of the Upper Field. Best to get out of them there for that short bit. Weekend should be quite nice before the dreaded warm returns. New snow and cold would be most welcomed.
January 2 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Chip
🔗	Groomed skating and new classic tracks.
January 1 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating and attempted new classic tracks.
December 31 2025	Fair	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Warmer than expected. Snow soft in places. Quite dirty at the north end of the Upper Field. Pick your line. Rocks fewer, but getting muddy. B or Rock skis today.
December 31 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Groomed for skating and classic on a snnowmaking loop. Trails on the golf course are closed.
December 30 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Groomed for skating and classic.
December 29 2025	Good	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Yuriy did a great job of chopping up the icy deck and grooming in the fresh powder from the overnight dusting. Only sketchy section is the very north end of the lower loop where the snow is thin and dirty in many spots with a few pebbles. Just take it slowly there in the beginning so you can scope out a good line. Enjoy! We’ve got cold again for a while. If we get some more freshies, we’ll be set once again. Happy New Year all!
December 29 2025	Fair	Skate	Yuriy
🔗	Groomed for skating. It took some time to break up the ice, but it groomed well afterall.
December 26 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Trails are closed today due to warm weather and rain.
December 25 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Merry Christmas! Groomed for classic and skating.
December 24 2025	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating including the new loop into the lower woods.
December 23 2025	Excellent	Classic	Ian Duncan
🔗	I skied on the loop this morning and tracks were really good, deep and quite firm although the snow was obviously softening. Skating looked good also.
December 23 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	The snowmaking loop have been groomed for both classic and skate skiing. A new classic track has been set. We have started pushing snow on another section of the trail. Thank you all for the feedback about the icy spot and the area with rocks. It appears that one of the first dump trucks we used to move snow contained some rocks, which resulted in dirty snow and rocks surfacing on the trail. Once warm-up period is over, the plan is to cover that section with fresh snow.
December 22 2025	Good	Skate	Dan D
🔗	Skied the man maid loop.- the north loop conditions vary from excellent to fair with varying amounts of debris and small stones poking thru some areas and a couple of icy patches and stretches. Could use some of the piles of snow they still have to cover these areas. definitely rock skis
December 22 2025	Good	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	I’d say a better rating is good to fair. Fair because the warming is bringing up more dirt and debris on the trail… particularly at the north end of the lower loop. But definitely still skiable on B skis today. It is softening up out there. This could be it for decent skiing until the new year sadly. Time for some hefty snow dancing folks.
December 22 2025	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating.
December 21 2025	Good	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Conditions pretty much the same as two days ago. I was able to remove some of those rocks on the northern portion of the lower loop. But some lurkers remain. So, use caution there until you can confirm where they are. I would not use your good skis because of this. Enjoy and Happy Holidays folks!
December 21 2025	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating.
December 20 2025	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed the man-made loops for skating and then groomed down to the switchback numerous times to try to make it skiable.
December 19 2025	Poor	Skate	Cowboybob
🔗	At 2 pm the skate deck was hard and fast. A dusting of worked snow over hard crust. Icy in some spots. Several spots with debris in the deck, but still navigable. The grooming has worked as best as possible given the rain yesterday. Classic tracks were set in several sections and were deep and firm. The Pleasant View Golf Course trails appeared to be not skiable, not groomed since the rain. Rock or your "B" skis recommended.
December 19 2025	Excellent	Skate	Brian Parks
🔗	Concur with the previous post. Just one thing to add… On the far north end of the lower loop take caution on your first lap as there are a few small rocks poking through the surface. You can scope them out on your first lap to note where they are. Heia! Heia!
December 19 2025	Excellent	Skate	Dan D
🔗	skied only the fake snow 1.5km loop as golf course closed due to meltdown. Groomed perfectly this morning with nice tracks, although a bit slow and a bit cold with 4F temp at my start and gusty nw winds. Should be much more enjoyable early tomorrow morning.
December 19 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Part of the snowmaking loop (approximately 1.5 km) is groomed for both classic and skating. The remaining section still has snow in piles. We will wait until the end of next week to push and groom that section of the snowmaking loop due to the warm weather and potential rain next week. All currently open trails have a two-way traffic pattern. Trails on the golf course are unfortunately closed until further notice following the warm weather and rain yesterday. Link to grooming reports: https://nordic-pulse.com/ski-areas/US/WI/CXC-Outdoor-Community-Center
December 18 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	Yuriy
🔗	Trails closed today
December 17 2025	Good	Skate	Chip
🔗	Groomed for skating.
December 16 2025	Excellent	Skate and Classic	Ian Duncan
🔗	Striding in morning , skating in the afternoon. Skating wins! The striding tracks were excellent in places but other spots had accumulating leaves and debris because of the wind. The warmer weather this morning led to the dreaded snow compaction. On top of that, my skin skis didn't provide good grip. Striding just good. Skating in the afternoon was much better and faster. Track was in excellent shape on the CXC trails and the golf course. Some residual corduroy from this morning's grooming. I suspect this might be the best skiing for the next few days unfortunately!
December 16 2025	Excellent	Skate	Dirk Lacker
🔗	Once again excellent conditions and expert grooming. Just got our All Access Season pass in the mail. What a deal, all this reliable effort going into the system up here. Can’t wait to see what they got coming with the snow making loop. Thanks CXC
December 16 2025	Good	Skate and Classic	Chip
🔗	Groomed all trails for skating and put in some new classic tracks.

Elver Park (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
December 19 2025	Poor	Skate and Classic	Tamara Bryant
🔗	Ungroomed today with very poor conditions. Long stretches of ungroomable glare ice, Lots of leaves and debris in the woods from the recent winds.
December 16 2025	Good	Skate	MadNorSki Volunteers
🔗	Refreshed the skate deck this morning. 95% of tracks are still holding firm.

Lodi Golf Course (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
December 27 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	Dale Fanney
🔗	Trail is intact but will close until Tuesday 12/30 morning.
December 22 2025	Good	Skate	Dale Fanney
🔗	Skating is great but will be closed after 11am Tuesday to preserve snow. Classical skiing is okay- if you really have to!
December 22 2025	Good	Skate	Dale Fanney
🔗	The Lodi Trails have full coverage with 4k groomed for skating in good shape after grooming late yesterday afternoon. Plan to groom for skating again this am and have MS practice. There are several dirty icy spots that can be a avoided. I would not skate down to the turnaround but Dales bump is good. Classical is icy and dicey!Tracks are there and wont be regroomed. If you have old-fashioned waxless skis- they would great when temps are 33’F plus! Please do not skate when air temps are above 35’ Thus is all natural snow!

McCarthy Park (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 2 2026	Poor	Classic	Roger A Goppelt
🔗	Just enough snow for classic skiing. Good glide in the back trails and the bif field.Avoid road.Nice sleddibg families made good tracks for classical skiing.Not enough snow for a skate deck Definitly a B ski day lots of grass and some gravel.Just enough to ski before it warms up this week.
December 22 2025	Fair	Skate	Paul Janda
🔗	1k skate loop was groomed this morning. Still has a little bit of life in it.
December 21 2025	Fair	Skate	Paul Janda
🔗	1k loop was groomed this morning. It’s still in really good condition.
December 20 2025	Fair	Skate	Paul Janda
🔗	1k skate deck near the parking lot was groomed this morning. The 1k loop survived the rain pretty well. Rest of the trails have several ice patches.
December 19 2025	Fair	Skate	Ray Cox
🔗	We're out grooming a 1k practice loop for skate skiing with your B skis. . Sorry classic skiers snow depth is too shallow to set tracks. Come get it while you can.
December 17 2025	Good	Skate	Roger
🔗	Great skating fast icy tracks but no gravel. Nice warm weather. Get out there and enjoy before the rain. Classic tracks looked good too. I sakted the outer loop, Ddi not go on hills because of too much packed down icysnow . Outer loopwas excellent
December 16 2025	Excellent	Classic	Denny Blum
🔗	Trails are still in great shape. Only the rare dirt spot. Leaves in the tracks here and there but not bad. A beautiful day to ski, lots of people out enjoying the fine grooming.

Monona Golf Course (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
December 17 2025	Fair	Classic	Ken W
🔗	Nice early morning skiing today. No grooming, just citizen made tracks. Tracks were OK for no wax skis, but if you are waxing there is so much leaf and needle debris in spots you should be prepared to blaze some new tracks in areas with cleaner snow, or just generally avoid any of the areas under the trees. Speaking of trees - if you go out at night be careful of several low hanging branches that have grown out over the trail, or you will take a twig in the eye. Next time I go, I might try to take a hand pruner with me to trim things back a bit.

Odana Golf Course (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 3 2026	Fair	Skate	Tom Jeanne
🔗	Skated a few laps this evening. About half the system has fair coverage, and the rest ranges from OK to extremely thin. Grass stubble showing through in many places. Still worth getting out but don't use your best skis.
January 2 2026	Good	Classic	John
🔗	1 1/2 hrs of fun with no issues. Swix40 kickwax Good coverage. Thinning under trees of course Much better than you’d guess!!
December 19 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	Paul Quinlan
🔗	City staff tried to groom today, but conditions were just too icy. Not skiable at this point. Madison Parks is listing all of their ski trails as closed for now.
December 17 2025	Good	Skate	TK
🔗	Timing is everything. Got there as the groomer was finishing up. Thanks for your work!! The main GC loop was in good shape with few leaves and little debris. As previously noted, things were getting soft and a bit sticky by noon. Hard to know what things will look like if we get the predicted rain.
December 17 2025	Excellent	Skate	Dan D
🔗	Skate deck holdup well this morning with a freshly groomed trail. Started to get a little soft when I left due to warm temps. Hats off to groomers! Hopefully will hold up after the warm temps and rain forecast.

Token Creek (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
December 16 2025	Good	Classic	Denny Blum
🔗	Observation only. Trails looked to be in pretty good shape as I was going to the dog park.

University Ridge Golf Course (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 2 2026	No Go	Skate and Classic	University Ridge Staff
🔗	Groomer attempted this morning, but still not enough snow. All trails closed until next significant snowfall.
December 29 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	University Ridge Staff
🔗	Unfortunately, not enough snow to groom or open any trails.
December 21 2025	Fair	Skate and Classic	University Ridge Staff
🔗	We groomed skate trails this morning and conditions are barely hanging on. The Zimmer loops are ok with the inner loop (Tom's) being the best of two. Arthurs Alley is skiable but rough in spots. Bucky's Pass was not groomed and not open today. This will be our last day open for skiing until we get more snow. Open today from 10am-4pm. Please check in with the golf shop and staff we'll direct you from there.
December 20 2025	Fair	Classic	Ian Duncan
🔗	The grading by the staff was honest. In places the tracks were poor and leaf-filled but on Tom's loop, they weren't bad though shallow,
December 20 2025	Fair	Skate and Classic	University RIdge Staff
🔗	Not grooming today but we will try grooming tomorrow. Trails should be good this morning for skate and classic. Just be careful in some areas. Golf shop is open from 9-5pm today. 10-4pm tomorrow.
December 19 2025	Fair	Skate	Nancy H
🔗	Thanks to groomers for making yesterday’s rain event skiable! Zimmerman and Toms actually quite enjoyable. A few spots of debris and avoidable ice on Zimmer. Toms better. Trail from clubhouse to road crossing has some hazards - thin, icy spots and debris.
December 19 2025	Fair	Skate and Classic	University Ridge Staff
🔗	We still had enough snow on the Zimmer loops to groom both the inner and outer loops for skate and classic this morning. There are some thin and icy spots but they are easily avoidable. The trail will reopen today at noon and we'll be open until 5pm. Looking good for tomorrow and Sunday but we will post again tomorrow to confirm.
December 16 2025	No Go	Skate and Classic	University Ridge Staff
🔗	We have decided to close today through Thursday to preserve the base in hopes that we can reopen on Friday. We'll post on Friday morning with conditions after we try to groom. Thanks for your patience.

East of Madison

Lapham Peak - Delafield (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 3 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Darren Blankenship
🔗	Man-made snow loop is now totally complete and was freshly groomed and tracked upon arrival early this morning. Joanie and I skated and strided the trails for a couple of hours. Very good conditions overall. Thanks to the snowmaking and grooming teams for making this happen. New shelter is a very nice addition to the trail system. Well worth the hour drive from Fitchburg.
December 27 2025	Excellent	Skate	daniel dudley
🔗	The man made loop over at lapham is still in great shape-skied early morning on freshly groomed trail-started to soften up mid morning tracks were in god shape as well-hopefully will survive the rain before the snow tomorrow
December 20 2025	Excellent	Skate	dan d
🔗	Made the trip over to Lapham early this am-perfectly groomed trail on the man made loop. Only bad part was at the top of ascent to magic carpet-about 30yrds of minimal snow and ice-made one pass over this and decided to loop backwards as most others did. Magic carpet had good coverage-some were skiing up and down it avoiding the icy part of the trail-tracks appeared to be in great shape. only 10 folks there when I arrived- parking lot full when I left.]The new lodge is awesome-hopefully cxc will be similar when its done.

Just North of Madison

Iola Winter Sports Park (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
December 31 2025	Excellent	Skate	Dan D
🔗	Arrived early to 1" of new snow-groomer was out grooming the trails. Skied blue green and purple loops-all freshly groomed-the black still closed due to downed trees. In all full coverage-a tad slow due to fresh snow . Tracks looked very good and intact s well. a great skiing venue-definitely worth the trip

Mirror Lake SP - Baraboo (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 3 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Brock
🔗	Conditions were good for their torchlight ski Saturday night. Solid skate deck with leaves/detritus only under densest trees where snow is also thinnest. Only skier set tracks, most of which were groomed out before the torchlight ski after dark for safety reasons. They do a nice job with this event, so if snow in February, the second one could be great.
January 2 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Aaron
🔗	Hastings was groomed today and is in good condition (skate only no tracks). A bit of leaf/litter here and there but not bad. I understand Fern Dell and Turtleville were also groomed, and supposedly the rest of the trails should be done by tonight. Park should be in good shape for skiing on Saturday.
January 1 2026	Fair	Skate and Classic	Aaron
🔗	There is enough snow in Mirror Lake for skiing but trails aren't yet groomed. I talked to the park office and there is a chance they groom Fern Dell and Hastings this afternoon. They said if they do, they'll post an update on Travel Wisconsin. Once groomed the trails should be in good condition.

Standing Rocks (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 4 2026	Good	Skate and Classic	Darren Blankenship
🔗	Thanks to Josh Nemec's report on SkinnySki that the trails were groomed early this morning, Joanie and I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to make the 1 hour and 45 minute drive here from Ftichburg. The trails had just enough snow to be in very good condition overall, with solid skate decks and tracks. We strided all the trails and then did a short cool down on skate skis to finish the day. Thanks again Josh for the early morning grooming report!
January 3 2026	Excellent	Skate and Classic	Ben Neff
🔗	1" of fresh snow fell Saturday morning, Jan 3, on top of set tracks, and a good skate deck base of corduroy. Overall terrific skiing conditions for both skate and classic. Fresh snow did not slow things enough to diminish the experience as cold temps kept things fast. Fat biking looked great, too.

Other Locations

Other (Back to Top)

Date	Condition	Style	By
January 3 2026	Excellent	Skate and Classic	daniel dudley
🔗	Tower Ridge Eau Claire Skate skied early morning 10 km loops on recently groomed trails- solid base with enough fresh snow for good edging. 10f calm winds Took granddaughter out at noon to do some classic skiing- tracks were in very good shape with no icing-granddaughter- only her second time out kept repeating. this is a lot of work but lots of fun-did 6km with her. she had fish scales I used skins both worked really well.
December 23 2025	Good	Skate	Dan D
🔗	Flew up to Winter park for some skiing this morning-well worth the trip-skied base, tornado, survivor .yukon, C&D ,island hop ,wolf tracks, nebco cruise. Varying conditions from excellent to good. very few brown spots -all most recently groomed, varying leaf liter on the trails and in tracks. wolf tracks was fun even though not recently groomed -had a fresh layer of 1/2" snow made for good edging. Need a little more snow to make it excellent!