Late Winter-Early Spring Skiing Can be the Best

Skiing here along the Gunflint Trail does not end just because the calender says it is Spring. Some of the best skiing of the season is yet to come. In a recent article by New Hampshire ski writer, Roger Lohr, he states, "It happens every year – winter wanes and spring blooms with a flip of the calendar page. People, who live to ski and ski to live also known as snow lovers or winter worshippers can be disappointed to see springtime come. But there are a few well kept secrets about so called “spring skiing.” Spring snow conditions have many faces and offer many different opportunities. We see wet snowy blizzards that dump deep heavy feet of pillowy snow. And the warm March or April sunshine turns the snow to beads of corn before it turns to mush. The days are longer so we can ski after work or into the early evening hours."

You do not have to stop skiing just because it is spring. Long ago "local" skiers have learned to taken advantage of the hard crust formed on the snow by the alternating freezing and thawing that occurs in the spring. "Crust skiing," as it called enable you to skate off-trail deep into the Boundary Waters and other places inaccessible during the winter. Then there is the Banadad, perhaps, the last remaining trail in the state to close for the season. Protected from the warming spring sun by its east west orientation, the heavy forest shading along the trail and the use of light grooming equipment, the Banadad normally is still ski able through at least the first week in April and often longer.

Whether you want to try the fun of crust skiing or another tracked ski along the Banadad, spring skiing on the Gunflint is the place to come!