Trail Conditions

If you recently skied, please report the trail conditions. Thanks for supporting the ski community with your reporting and membership! 

MadNorSki Trail Reports:

Near Madison

CXC Outdoor Rec Center (Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
March 3 2026 Fair Skate Yuriy
Groomed for skating. Will be re-groomed for classic only around 5pm.
March 2 2026 Fair Skate Bryce
Was able to get a good workout in, with some ice, but still great 👍. The small black diamond hill being open was a nice surprise.
March 2 2026 Excellent Skate Dan D
Want to thank Yuriy for the excellent job of grooming today. The shortened loop .8km had a solid base with new snow groomed in with only 2 small icy spots. Get out and enjoy before the rain -no tracks.
March 2 2026 Fair Skate Yuriy
Groomed for skating. There are a few icy spots, but it should be easy to ski around them.
March 1 2026 Poor Skate Caleb
3” of powder on top of glare ice Gotta take what you can get!
March 1 2026 Poor Skate Brian Parks
Nope! Was worth the try. But it’s powder on top of often-rutted glare ice. Next season compadres! Adios.
February 27 2026 Fair Skate and Classic Yuriy
Groomed for skating and classic
February 26 2026 Fair Skate and Classic Yuriy
Groomed for skating and classic in the AM.
February 25 2026 Fair Skate and Classic Yuriy
About 750 meter loop groomed for classic and skating.
February 16 2026 Poor Skate Ryan Pewowaruk
Trails right near the parking were slushy but good coverage. Everything else was no go.
February 15 2026 Good Skate Chip
What's skiable is probably good. I had a number of issues with the ice, so grooming is probably going to be limited after today.
February 14 2026 Good Skate Chip
Lightly groomed for skating with the Piston Bully. From what I could see in the dark, the areas with snow look good. The long outer loop had a lot of icy spots.
February 11 2026 Good Classic Brian Parks
Mostly good over the manmade trail. Many places are becoming chocolate slushy and will get worse or open as we become victim to warmer weather. Was getting quite soft by noon. Advise early morning skiing. Tracks are good except for sections of Upper Field and uphill parallel and south of the parking lot powerlines. Klister was the call for the day. Crossing fingers for a late Winter miracle.

Elver Park (Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
February 14 2026 Good Skate Agron
I skied on Feb.12 and 13. The upper west wooded areas still 95% skiable. The lower west wooded areas more open patches of grass and roots but still skiable, specifically if you do the uphill and downhill from the flat area above the stadium, where you cannot ski now. It was early around 9:30 am...snow was firm and ground still frozen.
February 11 2026 No Go Classic John
Tried east side-tree management- logging/-large ruts from trucks in otherwise nice snow pack- Field shoddy with patches of snow- Your. Elver reporter signing off. ???temorarily?
February 10 2026 Good Classic John.skopek@gmail.com
Elver elves. Only few days left Pick your way on classics (no wax)West way to soccer fields Ski -still90% coverage .Even short hill at end into woods!

Lodi Golf Course (Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
February 10 2026 Fair Skate Dale Fanney
Groomed 3.2k yesterday- i would say Good golf course skating conditions - but the base is thin and probably day to day. Offers a continuous 3 k loop for Korte/Birkie skiers. Will try to update daily.

East of Madison

No recent reports found!

Just North of Madison

Black River SF (Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
February 22 2026 Excellent Skate and Classic Madeline Uraneck
Driving back from frozen trails of the north woods to the snowless south, it was a pleasure to stop by Black River Falls State Forest and ski on newly groomed (Feb 20) classic tracks and 4"-7" of fluffy snow at Black River Falls State Forest. Exit from I-94 is MILLSTON. Two trailhead options, we chose Smreckar, the southern one, which had a cabin and warm fire More trails than we could ski, but we found MadNorSki's VP Mark W. there, who said he'd skied them all! I'm afraid it took us still two hours to drive to get back to Madison, but on the right sunny day, these trails are a joy. Plenty of ups and downs.

Mirror Lake SP - Baraboo (Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
March 1 2026 Fair Skate daniel dudley
Mirror lake only received about 1" of new snow but was enough to cover the crusty base and provide some kick. Skied Ferndell backwards where it had the best coverage the new snow helped but also hid some of the bare roots on the trail-Hastings and Pioneer similar with some great stretches and others covered with twiggs and leaf debris but still great to get out this late in the season. Should still be skiable until the rain arrives Wednesday. no tracks.
February 22 2026 Good Skate Aaron
Mirror Lake got about 4 inches of snow on Friday and most (but not all of the trails) are groomed for skate. Did Pioneer which was in surprisingly good skate condition (no classic trails though). Ishanala was not groomed, but I saw skiers making their own tracks. I'm fairly certain Hastings and Fern Dell are groomed...likely Turtlville. I doubt the Northwest trail is groomed though. Conditions should persist into Monday, but we are getting a melt day on Tuesday.

Other Locations

Other
(Back to Top)

Date Condition Style By
February 13 2026 Excellent Skate Dan D
Ariens Nordic Center Took the long drive up to Ariens Nordic Center to find an absolutely pristine groomed trails. Definitely worth the trip as I skied 30km on the 4 k loops in prep for the Birkie. 18F sunny, calm winds-a skier heaven. Plus was the only one on the course for the first hour. Tracks were in excellent shape as well!

Other Sources:

SkinnySki.com has complete and up-to-date collection of trails for a wider region. We recommend reviewing their website – in particular the South West WI map and South East WI map

Blue Mounds State Park Trailhead Kiosk – Weather Underground Current Conditions & History

Close to home, check-out the City of Madison Cross Country Ski page. Check grooming status and buy your annual pass online for Door Creek, Elver and Odana Hills. 

Nordic Pulse has detailed grooming reports for some locations including the CXC Outdoor Center.

The Skiwise App includes some grooming and trail reports for ski trails in Wisconsin.

Upcoming Events

  • March 9, 2026
    Club Meeting–March
    6:00 pm
    Location: John Wall Pavilion, 402 N Thornton Ave, Madison, WI 53703, USA

    More details...
  • April 21, 2026
    Learn to Nordic Walk – Door Creek
    5:00 pm
    Location: Door Creek Park, 7035 Littlemore Dr, Madison, WI 53718, USA

    More details...