Hi all! I thought it would be helpful for any of you looking at going to Brule Lake (Entry Point #41) anytime soon, to provide some info on conditions as of 12/13/17. I drove up from Silver Bay in the morning and parked at the intersection of The Grade and Brule Lake Road. It had snowed about 6 inches overnight and snow flurries continued throughout the day. The plan was for a long (sunup to sundown) day of skiing with a daypack so had no means to check ice thickness but there was more than enough, I would say around 10 inches. Found mixed conditions on the lake - a fair amount of snow but it varied from bare ice, to drifted snow, to powder to crust and everything in-between - very very little slush anywhere and no open water anywhere I made it to. Brule Lake Road was still passable with 4WD and high clearance (there have been times I have drove down in December) but with only one vehicle and being alone I opted to park up top off of the grade and ski the 6 miles down since I was in it for the workout anyways - beyond December I could never envision trying to drive down. Going was slow with the fresh snow and not having anyone else to help break trail - ended the day with 24 miles of skiing in about 9.5 hours. It was great to get out and a good primer for an upcoming few day trip between Christmas and New Years. Photo Album HERE

Long ski, good report, fun pictures.

Looks like as much fun as in the summer.

Great report and it looks awesome with like you broke trail. That is a nice long day trip with daylight hours on the short end. You guys were moving pretty good in fresh snow.
I love doing all day trips into the BWCA. So many nice areas to go and so quite. Maybe next week I may make it.

What were your ski type. I think I may have figured it out from the photo's.

Thanks for the nice report and photo's.

Thank you for the report and great pictures.

Thanks for the information. I'd be glad to hear anyone else's report on ice-snow-slush in other areas in the next couple weeks too.

Pinetree, the skis are Fischer Traverse 78 (78-61-69) with NNN BC bindings in the 179 length. They are almost identical in spec to the long-time backcountry and polar standard Fischer E109 (82-60-70) (and I should mention the E99 as I am assuming many on this site have those as well) - my understanding is that there really is not anyone importing the E109 into the US anymore and the Traverse line is Fischers equivalent ski for the US market. As much as I love them, more and more often I am finding myself reaching my Altai HOKs 125 (there are a few other skin based skis on the market again as well, like OAC) I find that I am not moving much faster on my BC skis unless conditions are perfect and the HOKs are much more versatile / adaptable for all conditions, super capable over portages and when you completely loose glide due to slush, cold temps etc., much more comfortable to walk / shuffle in than the longer skis. Years past I would bring skis and snowshoes on a sled-hauling trip but when I bring my HOKs, that is all I need. That said, I am very happy to have these in the quiver with all my other skis and snowshoes and they will always have a place!

Thanks for the good info WildDog.

Yes I just got the a new pair of E 109 Fischer last year with a Crown base in a 200Cm length BC NNN binding from BackCountry store last year. I love them and get good floatation but could see how in certain situation the HOK would be nice.
I think like you said the E109 is getting very hard to get in this country this year. I could see in the woods the HOK would be great for turning. But would thing the skis like you use or E109 would still be a more all around ski.
I have used a much narrower back country ski for winter camping and actually got by pretty good even on long trips pulling a sled.
Something special about back country skiing this time of year.

I think one of the longest day trips I have seen and maybe they are on this board. I know the one person lives in Ely. They skied from Moose lake landing up to Carp lake into Canada than up into the Man chain (fished trout) about 4 miles and skied back out. They did mostly skate ski late in the season.

Thanks for the trip report and especially the photo album!