Midwest 2021-2022 Midwest Ski Resort/Conditions/Meetups

[Lift Blog]

Anyone know what's going on with Afton? Every other local hill in the TC region has made major improvements/investments in the past 2 years except Afton.

The other local hills have about 90% of their terrain not open, Afton has about 50% open.

Owned by Vail. Most of their resorts are only partially open if open at all.

 

[Dwight]

Anyone been up to Whitecap or talked with anyone up that way? Any idea if they are close to opening up the south side? That's the area with the double diamonds. Thanks.

From a few days a go." Whitecap - Kilimanjaro. North side all open, making snow on the south runs. The coverage is a little thin, but fun!"

 

[Beach Bum]

Looks like the UP (plus Whitecap) is the place to be starting this Wednesday. Let's hope current forecasts hold: 12"-18" Tues night into Thur. Going to be some extreme cold late Thursday night into Friday morning but then rest of time will be perfect north woods weather. Highs around 10 degrees with hopefully north of a foot of brand new dry Lake Superior powder. Should get 5 straight days on the slopes up there starting Wed!!

 

[focker]

GS racing starts tomorrow night at Trollhaugen. Always a fun time.

 

[focker]

Snow conditions at Trollhaugen are excellent. Their new quad is set to start running this Thursday after it passes it's final inspection. I guess the delay in getting it operating was waiting for a time when it could be inspected once completed.

Lots of complaining about Afton Alps from the people I talked to at Troll last night. There are a lot of long time Afton skiers who are saying this is likely their last year with a season pass there.

 

[Beach Bum]

At least 10"-12" down at whitecap already, nothing groomed, snowing like crazy. Ahh the good life. Though looking forward to tomorrow when hopefully south side opens up along with another 6"+ of snow.

 

[afski722]

What's up over at Afton? Vail being Vail?
Mt. Brighton is pretty lame so far this year. Granted, December weather was less than favorable, but they are so far behind the other downstate areas in terms of snowmaking, they have cut their hours significantly this year, only doing 1-9pm weekdays. They haven't yet even started making snow on their race hill and from what I hear they aren't even going to try to back terrain / lift this season.

Granted, I would never ski there or buy a pass outright but only go a bit since its on my Epic Local pass for skiing for out west.

 

[Beach Bum]

22" down and counting, still snowing like crazy here at Whitecap. Will post some pics later. Wow. Super dry fluff.

 

[DerKomisar]

Checking if anyone has been to Boyne Highlands recently? Looks like they have 19/53 trails and 8/10 lifts open. Considering a trip up there next week, worth it? Should be cold enough to make more snow and open more?

 

[afski722]

Checking if anyone has been to Boyne Highlands recently? Looks like they have 19/53 trails and 8/10 lifts open. Considering a trip up there next week, worth it? Should be cold enough to make more snow and open more?

I haven't skied the highlands, but over at Nubs and can see across the valley they have been making a lot of snow in the areas that aren't open yet, they just didn't get enough in to open up North Peak & the Valley areas for Christmas week, but they should be open by next weekend, if not this weekend. Its finally gotten consisently cold, and finally getting some natural snow as well.

The past couple of years, the Highlands hasn't been running the Valley lift or even sometimes even the North Peak area midweek.

Next weekend should be in good shape.

 

[DerKomisar]

I haven't skied the highlands, but over at Nubs and can see across the valley they have been making a lot of snow in the areas that aren't open yet, they just didn't get enough in to open up North Peak & the Valley areas for Christmas week, but they should be open by next weekend, if not this weekend. Its finally gotten consisently cold, and finally getting some natural snow as well.

The past couple of years, the Highlands hasn't been running the Valley lift or even sometimes even the North Peak area midweek.

Next weekend should be in good shape.

Appreciate the insight, definitely cooler temps these last few days. Looks like we’ll make the run up there. Hope you’re well!

 

[focker]

Skied Welch last night. Man that place is so much fun. I need to just buck up and get a season pass there next year. Trails were in good shape, but not great. They appeared to have had a VERY busy Saturday, as when we arrived at 5:45pm there were still cars parked across the highway in the overflow parking area. I've rarely seen cars parked there on any of the 60+ days I've skied Welch.

Being that busy led to the hill being pretty skied out. There were patches of ice/base all over that you needed to watch out for, but in general if you skied towards the edge of the steeper runs things were decent. Lookout had excellent snow however and we lapped it again and again.

Welch's new lift of the east side of the hill is quite nice and we used it several times. It's a longer ride that the old quad that sits right next to it however (as it starts way further out in the flat area and goes up further on the flat top of the hill).

Mad Jaxx has a fun atmosphere although due to them being very short staffed there were no longer serving food at 7:30pm which was a bummer. Their wings are excellent if you ever get in there.

 

[BaconMeCrazy]

Welch on Saturday was packed. Overflow parking was in effect and that usually means long lift lines. However, they had 4 quads running on the front side (not including the couch) and I never had to wait in line. The runs were busy but no lift lines. That was excellent. The ticket line on the other had....

 

[whitefeathers]

Trollhaugen on Saturday was super packed also. Everyone in the state had the same idea as me, to ski on the one warm day of the weekend.

 

[focker]

Welch on Saturday was packed. Overflow parking was in effect and that usually means long lift lines. However, they had 4 quads running on the front side (not including the couch) and I never had to wait in line. The runs were busy but no lift lines. That was excellent. The ticket line on the other had....

It sure is nice there when they have all 4 main quads running. They can move a ton of people up the hill that way. I like that they pulled out that old double at the bottom of Chicken as well, as it was kind of in the way and getting to the bottom of the older quad from Chicken isn't very hard.

Speaking of Chicken, it seems to me that they did some regarding to the run. It doesn't have as sharp of a drop off any longer it appears. Sort of increases in steepness more smoothly.

 

[focker]

Trollhaugen on Saturday was super packed also. Everyone in the state had the same idea as me, to ski on the one warm day of the weekend.

The new lift is now running correct?

 

[Mister Tea]

I haven't skied the highlands, but over at Nubs and can see across the valley they have been making a lot of snow in the areas that aren't open yet, they just didn't get enough in to open up North Peak & the Valley areas for Christmas week, but they should be open by next weekend, if not this weekend. Its finally gotten consisently cold, and finally getting some natural snow as well.

The past couple of years, the Highlands hasn't been running the Valley lift or even sometimes even the North Peak area midweek.

I skied the Highlands Friday, Sunday, and Monday (today). The front side is open from Camelot over to Amy's Run with the exception of the terrain park under the Challenger lift. Challenger runs were closed due to racing, but that's over.

North Peak is open, but I didn't make it there. Runs serviced by the Valley lift are not open yet, but probably will be soon. The Valley lift rarely ran on weekdays the last couple of seasons, but the North Peak was usually operating every day. Can't predict what they'll do this season.

Conditions are generally good. Heather had been beaten up pretty badly by the racers by 9:15, but K2 and Olympic were in great shape. Rob Roy was a little bony. Snowmaking on Camelot made that run "interesting". All this can change day-to-day, but the season is ON so don't wait.

Overall, Nubs is in better shape (skied there Saturday and most of last week) , as could be expected since they're more meticulous about their snowmaking and grooming. All the groomed runs are open and in excellent condition. A few glades are open and the bump runs and more glades should be open soon.

NOTE: The Highlands faces east, Nubs faces north and west, so I pick which to ski based on where the wind is coming from. Wind out of the west Friday, Sunday, and today favored the Highlands. Probably Nubs tomorrow.

 

[Mister Tea]

Checking if anyone has been to Boyne Highlands recently? Looks like they have 19/53 trails and 8/10 lifts open. Considering a trip up there next week, worth it? Should be cold enough to make more snow and open more?

Relying to you directly, yes it's worth coming up. The season is on, and everything worth skiing at the Highlands is open and in decent shape. I probably do 30 days a year there and the North Peak and the runs serviced by the Valley lift are a once or twice a season thing. North Peak is open, Valley is not, but I can't say I care.

If you're a park rat, they don't have their big park open yet, and if the last couple of seasons are indicative it won't be open for another month or so.

The main runs I ski - Heather, K2, Olympic, Rob Roy, North and South Challenger - are all open and in shape for the season.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait. Winters in Michigan are cruelly short and if you wait for perfect conditions you won't ever ski.

 

[focker]

We bailed on the Red Lodge trip and went CO instead. Doing a 1 day each at Loveland, A Basin and Copper in March. Funny, as soon as we booked this my wife wants to go skiing way more often lol.

 

[afski722]

Nice.....I was at Nubs Fri night, Saturday, and Sunday. (and Mt. Brighton Thursday night too FWIW).

Friday night was around 0 but actually felt warmer than Sat morning.
Saturday started out super cold but actually was super comfortable later in the day.
Sunday the winds were blasting the front slopes, and the place was surprisingly empty for a Sunday more like a weekday crowd.

The skiing overall is midwinter shape. However the lake effect hasn't kicked in yet this year. The past few seasons I feel like the lake effect hasn't really dumped in the area. I would love to have some deep pow glade skiing days, but its been probably two years since I've hit one of those.

TL/DR - things are good in Northern Michigan.