Midwest Upper Midwest 2020-2021

[Beach Bum]

Hopefully UP remains good thru following weekend too as I hope to make last minute trip up there.

 

[focker]

If you do get up here I recommend dinner at the Iron Nugget in Hurley, WI. Very nice meal there last night.

 

[Dwight]

Highly recommend Jagger's Ore House between Bessemer and Wakefield, if you happen to be in the Big Snow area.

 

[Dwight]

Porkies on Friday, Whitecap on Sun. Sat could be BP, Ripely or Porks again

 

[focker]

Skied Big Powderhorn for the first time today. First time skiing anywhere in Michigan.

We liked the place quite a bit. Kinda reminded us of Welch Village.

Positives:
Great views from the top. Very scenic!
Parking lot is right by the lifts. Very easy access. Also a very nice lodge
5 miles from our hotel ($100 a night) to the hill. Cheap and easy access. Ironwood/Hurley is a fun town!

Negatives:
It's official. I hate center pole lifts with a passion.
Terrain is a benchy IMO. Not many runs here have consistent pitches down the fall line. You find a steep run, then it flattens out, then it gets steep again.
The snow today was not good. 2" of fresh snow on top of an icy layer that you could punch through to an old layer of powder. Weird snow overall. Going off piste was not possible at all.

Overall I don't think we got a good view of what this area can offer. Locals are telling us this is the worst snow year they can remember in the past 7+ years.

We've decided to ski at Spirit Mountain in Duluth tomorrow, since we haven't had a chance to ski there yet this year and the tickets are free on the Indy Pass.

 

[focker]

Porkies on Friday, Whitecap on Sun. Sat could be BP, Ripely or Porks again

We heard several locals raving about the conditions at the Porkies today FYI.

 

[Lift Blog]

Heard a rumor of another new lift coming to Devil's Head this summer. They have not responded to my inquiry about it though.

 

[Dwight]

Overall I don't think we got a good view of what this area can offer. Locals are telling us this is the worst snow year they can remember in the past 7+ years

Pretty much nails the conditions this year and I'm heading during an above freezing time. U.P. is known to get some decent late snow, so there could be more in the next month.

If any hill groomed yesterday or the night before, the runs had to be sketchy. When temps do not get below freezing, grooming almost creates worse conditions, and when it does cool down, frozen trenches.

Forecast for the next few weeks is not looking good for at least Central Wis. When management starts planning ski trips, sooner than normal, places may be closing earlier than hoped.

@focker, glad you liked the area. Come again on a good snow year and enjoy it. The area is about 100" below normal.

 

[Beach Bum]

Tough year for the ironwood resorts. Just one season ago they had 100" before Dec 31st and on multiple occasions had reported 12"+ of snow. Albeit that was close to record.

Flash forward a season and they have less than that total thru end of Feb basically. Porkies and the Ontonagon area have done better then the Keweenaw much better thanks to the past two weeks lake effect but even they are down to average.

If not much new snow over coming week with daily highs above freezing how will Porkies or Mt Bohemia ski the following weekend (Mar 6)? Eyeing a trip up then, wouldn't go to Whitecap or BP with lack of snow.

 

[focker]

Fun day at Spirit Mountain today! Full sun and 32 degrees made for a gorgeous day of skiing. We started just after 10:00 and get in a solid 3 hours of skiing before we pulled the plug. I love the views so much and when the sun is shining and the snow is soft it's hard to beat a day at Spirit.

 

[Slim]

@focker , funny, I rather liked the center pole lifts! And the benchy terrain, I like the variety in a run.

 

[focker]

@focker , funny, I rather liked the center pole lifts! And the benchy terrain, I like the variety in a run.

Yup everyone loves something different for sure.

My son and I loved the padded chair at Spirit and Gandy Dancer quite a bit (as usual). Love the little rolls and bumps on that run.

Locals in MI said Indianhead offers a more consistent pitch than BP does.

We did venture over to what BP calls their 'glade'. IMO they need to clear it out more. It's pretty tight in there with a lot of little tiny 6'-7' tall trees that should be thinned out some.

 

[Beach Bum]

To maximize Ironwood area skiing (aka Big Snow Country from the 90s) it needs to have normal snow. This year was/is crap and they're more on par with Granite Peak, etc. Even inferior some.

BP has some runs like Upper Smoke" then into the steep bottom face of Double Barrel that give you leg burn. Lots of Gs higher up then some flat followed by a steep and section (of which one is groomed one of the DB runs isn't).

Indianhead doesn't have that. The blacks until the last face are just green/blue cruisers that don't do much and then you hit the steep part and it's fun but over after a few turns.

That's a key example of why I prefer BP terrain. Stuff like that, or Cannonball with occasional Louis Chute or Katie's Catwalk."

Indianhead has longer runs but if you ski fast like I do the upper half of BP sets it apart.

 

[focker]

To maximize Ironwood area skiing (aka Big Snow Country from the 90s) it needs to have normal snow. This year was/is crap and they're more on par with Granite Peak, etc. Even inferior some.

BP has some runs like Upper Smoke" then into the steep bottom face of Double Barrel that give you leg burn. Lots of Gs higher up then some flat followed by a steep and section (of which one is groomed one of the DB runs isn't).

Indianhead doesn't have that. The blacks until the last face are just green/blue cruisers that don't do much and then you hit the steep part and it's fun but over after a few turns.

That's a key example of why I prefer BP terrain. Stuff like that, or Cannonball with occasional Louis Chute or Katie's Catwalk."

Indianhead has longer runs but if you ski fast like I do the upper half of BP sets it apart.

We really like Cannonball and lapped it several times. Really fun pitch to that run. The also really liked Blunder. That had some really good snow but was ungroomed. We did that run several times as well. We enjoyed doing the upper part of Blunder, then cutting over to the bottom half of Caribou to avoid the long flat green under the short lift there.

The day we were there, Louie's and upper smoke really weren't skiable. There was visable gravel and rocks all over, and anyone skiing them paid a price on the bottom of their ski's. Louie's was the worst. Upper smoke you could ski, but you had to be pretty careful. We didn't get into either as the snow was just too thin and crusty that day.

Dynamite was probably our favorite blue run. Was that a shack we saw for dynamite/avalanche mitigation in that area?

 

[Dwight]

Porkies was nice. First time here. Should be here twice a year. Snow sucked, but knew that going in. Might hit it Sunday with a fresh 4" coming. Views are great and terrain is fun.

 

[Slim]

@Dwight , at the Porkies hit the glade farthest skiers Left once it get’s skied out. Those were where we found untracked powder, even on the second day of the week.

 

[Beach Bum]

Beautiful day in northwest Illinois, can't beat it.

 

[Dwight]

@Dwight , at the Porkies hit the glade farthest skiers Left once it get’s skied out. Those were where we found untracked powder, even on the second day of the week.

Unfortunately hard Ice every where. Still had fun with a broken groomer and some trees.

 

[Dwight]

Another great view. Mont Ripley. Probably the steepest runs in the U. P.

 

[Dwight]

Stay tuned for tomorrow's slush, snow report. ️