Sold out! Currently scheduled for Sunday, May 24, 2026, something like 500 teams have signed up for this iconic race. While it’s too late to get your own team together, there are still teams looking for cross-country skiers of all abilities! The Ski-to-Sea race is composed of 7 legs (8 people) that travel 55 miles past the 6500 foot level of Mt. Baker to the shores of Bellingham Bay in Fairhaven.

• The main Ski-to-Sea website.
• Description and map of the cross-country leg.
• Message board for teams looking for racers (part of the Ski-to-Sea site).

I. Grooming, Current Conditions, and Practice Sessions:

Mt. Baker Downhill will be grooming the race trail so that skiers can practice (Thanks, Mt. Baker Downhill!!). As always, the specific course is dependent on snow conditions and can change from year to year. It’s a good idea to ski it ahead of time!

Grooming for 2026 practice sessions is scheduled for the following dates:

Breaking news: If you’ve already read through this page and are wondering what the latest news is, I’ll put it in red, in this section. (last updated, 5/15/26)

• Monday, May 11: Will and Pete (and maybe others) will meet at the parking area next to the lodge (tentatively at 9:00) to lead medium-fast and slow tours of the race course. Beautiful day! Grooming was done by 9:00 and we had a great ski. The snow was getting mushier as time went on, but I think you could ski it any time during the day with classic skis (no groomed tracks). And I think that you could find the course with no trouble tomorrow or the next day (bring a copy of the map and Will’s description.)
• Thursday, May 14. See above. I think that you can identify and ski the course any time through the weekend. Not as fast as the front of the pack in the race, but a nice ski. Bring a copy of the map and description.
• Monday, May 18:
• Tuesday, May 19: Will hosts a ‘guided tour’ at 8:30 AM. RSVP (see below) if interested.
• Wednesday, May 20: we understand that grooming is happening every day this week.
• Thursday, May 21
• Friday, May 22: we understand that grooming is happening every day this week.
• Saturday, May 23: we understand that grooming is happening every day this week.
• We’re guessing that grooming will be done by 9:00 in the morning. Time to go ski!

If you are planning on joining us on May 11 or May 19, please RSVP to ski2sea@nooksacknordicskiclub.org. We can then be on the lookout for you and can send you information if plans must change by email on the evening of May 10 or the morning of Monday, May 11, with last minute details. But if you didn’t get the email off to us, you’re still welcome to come meet up with us!

We were hoping that grooming on Saturday, May 16, would be added to this list, but that does not appear to be happening. The S2S newsletter mentioned a ‘do-it-yourself’ race on Saturday, May 17, but that was a remnant from last year’s schedule. Nothing yet is planned for this year. Check here for late-breaking changes.

A reminder from Ski-to-Sea and the groomer: “the XC course is typically groomed in the morning. Please stay clear of all grooming equipment while it’s operating and completely avoid the groomed run if the machine is in the area.”

• Sunday, May 24: Race Day!

Check out the map and go ski! (Click this image for a larger, printable pdf version and a description of the loops ) This map shows the expected 2026 course. One 50 yard portion near the start of the 2nd loop has not been groomed yet. The idea is to preserve snow for race day at which time it will be groomed. Just follow thewell-packed user-created tracks. The grooming picks up again on the other side of the slope. Note that the course is shorter than last year and the entire course is to be skied in the clockwise direction.

** COURSE LENGTH AND ELEVATION: Will and friends measured the course yesterday. 3.1 miles / 5 km, with a total elevation gain of 516 feet.

**** See this page for Strava map and Elevation Profile and link to ‘Activity’ ****

Some notes from Will on what to expect for snow quality as the grooming ages: “It’s best to ski the course within an hour or two of grooming. After that, it tends to change to deep sugar/slush. Then the pollen goo/debris starts to accumulate on the grooming. This time of year, that can mean minimal (or sometimes no) glide. It also means cleaning the pollen goo/debris off your skis after your work-out.”

II. More general background information:

The Nooksack Nordic Ski Club has nothing to do with the Ski-to-Sea race, except that many teams have trouble filling their cross-country ski slot and are looking for experienced skiers who can finish a 4 mile loop in ‘soft’ conditions. So this page is designed to provide wanna-be Nordic racers with some additional information.

To calibrate things, I (Pete, age 68 when I last skied it, relatively experienced, middling athletic condition) skied it with skinny classical fishscale skis and finished in the middle of the pack. And the team that added me appeared to be happy with what they got…

You can peruse all the results. You can scroll down to find me at place 201 in 2019…

If you are interested in entering the race and looking for a team, check out this message board (part of the Ski-to-Sea site). There are several teams looking for Nordic skiers, as of April 29.

The course is listed at 4 miles. It’s relatively hilly (it is part of a downhill ski area) – it’s either going uphill or downhill – but having said that, the hills aren’t all that bad. Unfortunately (but understandably) they do not set any classical tracks. The course is usually fairly solid at the start of the race, but with 4-500 skiers, it gets churned up fairly quickly. Given the late May date, the weather is warm and the snow soft – picking a kick wax would be difficult. Skin skis, fishscales, or skating!

I did the ski to sea in 2017 and 2019. As an experienced, but not fast, skate and classical skier, I chose skinny (48 mm) fishscale classical skis rather than skate skis because of all the uphills and how the snow gets churned up. I finished a little slower than right in the middle. There is no question that skating is faster, but you need the stamina to blast up the hills in soft snow. I’d say that if you are aiming for the top 30-40%, you need to skate – go out fast enough to be with the quicker skiers and then stay with them (general strategy in a mass start race is to line up on one of the edges, so you can work forward along the edge and not get caught in the jam in the middle.). But if you are aiming for more the middle of the finishers, get the fastest classical skis you can find and ski your own race through the heavy traffic. I felt that I was limited by my stamina, not by the traffic. All this is of course just my humble opinion…