Midwest Upper Midwest 2020-2021

[Dwight]

Whitecap was the hill for today. 7" of new snow starting at 8am.

 

[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.

You had your touring bindings on to get back to the lift?

 

[Dwight]

Just some random pics of the 3 day trip. Not great skiing conditions but a great time.

 

[Beach Bum]

I have the sad feeling that Midwest skiing is over for this guy this season. Skied a bunch and had some great days. Was hoping to go this next weekend up north to UP but it's looking doubtful. If cold and snowy I'd be going.

 

[Dwight]

Sunday's snow in U.P. will help some. Levels are low though. Especially if you like non-groomed areas.

Central Wi, it will be done. 1 more shift Wed night, maybe.

 

[focker]

Sunday's snow in U.P. will help some. Levels are low though. Especially if you like non-groomed areas.

Central Wi, it will be done. 1 more shift Wed night, maybe.

View attachment 126199

Yeah I'm wondering how long hills can stay open with this weather we're having? 2 weeks at most right? I'd think most hills around here will be closed by March 15th or so.

 

[Dwight]

This is the local hill update for me. Going to be hard to make 13-14, if we get much rain.

 

[Nelliefj40]

Any guesses what conditions will be like at spirit and lutsen match 13-17?

 

[focker]

Any guesses what conditions will be like at spirit and lutsen match 13-17?

Spring like.

We're at Lutsen March 17th and 18th. Hoping for the best.

Luckily the temps up there drop below freezing each night which should help a lot. Snow possible on Monday the 15th also...

We plan on skiing Moose in the morning and Eagle in the afternoon to let the Sun loosen up the surface some.

 

[Dwight]

Any guesses what conditions will be like at spirit and lutsen match 13-17?

They shouldn't lose much base. Temps below freezing for at least the next 10 days. But a crap shoot.

 

[Slim]

You had your touring bindings on to get back to the lift?

no, Skinning was just to get up to the radio tower. At the bottom of the glades just use the groomer to tuck, then skate, back to the lift.

 

[Dwight]

no, Skinning was just to get up to the radio tower. At the bottom of the glades just use the groomer to tuck, then skate, back to the lift.

Only when snow is below freezing.

 

[focker]

Anyone skied at Afton lately? I'm wondering about crowds and such. The wife wants to ski Tahoe in the 2-3 years, and to do so we've need to buy the Epic Pass (we've want to ski Heavenly and stay in South Lake Tahoe)

I cringe at the thought of it to be honest, but tickets are just way too expensive at the Vail resorts to do anything but this plan.

 

[wallyk]

Anyone skied at Afton lately? I'm wondering about crowds and such.

You already know the answer...........

 

[Beach Bum]

Anyone skied at Afton lately? I'm wondering about crowds and such. The wife wants to ski Tahoe in the 2-3 years, and to do so we've need to buy the Epic Pass (we've want to ski Heavenly and stay in South Lake Tahoe)

I cringe at the thought of it to be honest, but tickets are just way too expensive at the Vail resorts to do anything but this plan.

We went down that road this year for an upcoming trip to CO but only did several days Epic pass. Works out to be about $100 per day per adult and 50 per day per kid. Not bad. And it gives matching days at Wilmot but after trying that once we didn't return, have preferable places to ski.

In your case, I wouldn't stress that you need to ski Afton because of epic pass, especially if you do something like a 4 or 5 day epic pass. But depends how frugal you are. At end of day if you bought a pass somewhere else in your area plus the epic several day pass you're only out a few hundred at most compared to if you just skied Afton for matching days.

 

[focker]

We went down that road this year for an upcoming trip to CO but only did several days Epic pass. Works out to be about $100 per day per adult and 50 per day per kid. Not bad. And it gives matching days at Wilmot but after trying that once we didn't return, have preferable places to ski.

In your case, I wouldn't stress that you need to ski Afton because of epic pass, especially if you do something like a 4 or 5 day epic pass. But depends how frugal you are. At end of day if you bought a pass somewhere else in your area plus the epic several day pass you're only out a few hundred at most compared to if you just skied Afton for matching days.

Yeah the 3 or 4 day pass is likely the better option for us, as we just don't want to deal with the crowds at Afton.

I really wish a place like Welch, Trollhaugen or Wild were available on the Ikon pass. That would really work well for us. It's likely never going to happen though.

 

[wallyk]

@focker Welch season pass provides discounts for lodging and passes Grand Targhee and Lutsen.

 

[rcc55125]

The past couple of weekends have been pretty busy at Afton. During the week, not so much.
The snow in Highlands softens quickly due to being east facing. This upcoming week isn't going to help much.
Starting March 8 hours will be 10 AM to 7 PM.

 

[focker]

@focker Welch season pass provides discounts for lodging and passes Grand Targhee and Lutsen.

Good point. I miss Welch...

 

[focker]

We skied Wild last night for the first time this year. The snow was NOT GOOD.

It was like skiing ice with a layer of slush on top of it. One turn would be icy, the next slushy. As the night went on the slushy snow firmed up some and allowed a bit more edge grip but overall it just wasn't great conditions. We managed to have a great time though. It was very slow there.

Couple things about Wild. The parking lot has a paved section and a dirt section. Since it wasn't busy we parked on the paved section but the dirt section is quite muddy right now and parking in it would not be fun at all.

The chair lifts at wild seem to run slower than any fixed grip chairs I've been on this year (spirit, welch, troll and Big Powderhorn). They seem to crawn to the top. This was really evident after just skiing at BP where some of their double seem to be going much fast.

We skied Wild as sort of a 'test run' of if we want to go back to having season passes there, which we concluded we do not. We're going to go back to the Indy Pass next year and figure out our local skiing from there. The Indy Pass just has too many options to not buy it again.