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The Official Michigan Winter Thread

490K views 8K replies 153 participants last post by  sabatoa 
#1 ·
Alright everyone since Summer is over, fall has just begun and we've already had our first rail jam of the year, it's time to start a new thread for the 10/11 winter.

Last year we had the "Southeast" michigan thread, but I think we should do all of Michigan. Sure, most of population lives in S/E michigan but we all ride the same resorts in the LP and even the UP if we get a chance, so we should have one thread to bring everyone together.

Cheers everyone we're probably only like 70 days from open resorts!
 
#3,509 ·
I'm going to try to slip over there on that Saturday but it all depends. We're going to be in that area doing family stuff so I don't know if I can. Probably Saturday night if anything.
 
#3,512 ·
Yes and yes, depending on the time of season. Mid-March weekends are hit and miss. But even when it's busy it's fun there because there are a lot of different lifts and runs to spread out on.
 
#3,513 ·
You can always play in north face(?). The back lift. That one is usually tolerable even if crystal is packed that day.

Dave and his fam, Sam and his fam, me and my fam will all be there that weekend.

Sam is out of commission still. The wives and husbands are going to do rotations on kid duty. So husbands take laps and then wives take laps.

Never tried this before. Interested in how it's going to play out lol.


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#3,514 ·
They have a pretty top notch daycare there. Also, what my wife and I have done is put our daughter in ski school while we go off on our own:D. For the boys though, they stay at grandma's who lives about 40 minutes from there :yahoo:.
 
#3,517 · (Edited)
My nephew used to have that bigtime when he was same age! He would scream like somebody was being killed, at the top of his lungs whenever my sis dropped him off. Once she was out of sight, it wasnt 2 min. And he's laughing n playing with the other kids. Funniest part was picking him back up. He'd b playing and oblivious. But as SOON as he spotted her,.. OMG!!! The screaming would begin again until she actually had him in her arms!

My point being, all those hysterics are usually harder for the parents than the kids. Most of the time I think the parents freak at the level of the kids extreme reaction and wind up never leaving the child to let them eventually calm down Maybe give it a try and see how it goes. Now if it continues for 10-15-20 min. Without stopping, then yeah, probably not gonna happen.
Jm2cents! :dunno:
 
#3,516 ·
That sucks. Just throwing it out there. My 2 year olds don't ever have that issue but they are used to always having each other I suppose.

The wife and I have taken turns doing laps at times when our daughter was with us and she wasn't in a ski class. It works fine.
 
#3,520 ·
BTW,.. headed out to Holly tonight if anyone else is gonna be there! (Hope it's not crowded or sucky snow!)
Next week, gonna try & get to Highlands! :hope::hope:
 
#3,522 ·
Trust me, it's not hard for me lol. I've attempted several times to leave him at daycare. 10 minutes later, the lady is carrying him outside trying to console him to no avail.

My 9month old daughter is the polar opposite. Hand her something to play with and she'll be content. I think she'll be fine in daycare settings.

Dylan will play fine if adults he's familiar with are around though. He'll even go play in other rooms with kids at house parties. Conundrum.


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#3,524 ·
Looks like I talked my wife into letting me slip away for a night session at Crystal on Saturday the 16th. So, I will likely be there around 5 or so.
 
#3,529 ·
Kind of slushy-ish. I guess just wet snow. It was fun though.

Some guy in a bright green jacket saw me standing at the top of whichever hill it was I was at, scared to go down for like 10 min because it looked steep to me... then he saw me fall hard a couple times...so he came by and spent some time teaching me a bit. Soooo helpful. He explained a few concepts that I guess everyone assumes are a given to know- like you are always on an edge and if you go flat board, you lose control. o_O
 
#3,532 ·
I'm guessing you were on that peak right off the sweet express lift? They really need to warn that even though that lift accesses green terrain that it should not be used by absolute beginners. That's a fairly steep blue just to get down from there IMO.

Leo, those were some fancy kicks in that other thread. Usually I can overcome my lack of skill with size and brute strength, but those flying kicks might give me trouble! Lol
 
#3,537 ·
Yeah, the hill I was on wasn't too too bad. It was flat at the top, then a steeper slope the top half, then leveled out a bit, then was a not as steep slope the rest of the way. Standing at the top seeing the long run just freaks me out.

Until I get to the point where I can successfully turn with both edges, not lose control & end up going way too fast, and not fall a ton there is no way I am going on any trails more difficult than the easiest ones (that have a chair lift... that carpet thing was so slow!). I don't want to get more injuries than I already have recovered from if I can help it. Its bad enough my knee is still bruised and swollen from Saturday.
One of my cousins is a skiier and moved to colorado a few years ago, but she and I are pretty accident prone. Her skiing has given her many injuries involving casts, and enough pins put in her that she probably needs notes at metal detectors explaining why she sets them off, lol. I don't want that happening to me too.
 
#3,538 ·
Until I get to the point where I can successfully turn with both edges, not lose control & end up going way too fast, and not fall a ton there is no way I am going on any trails more difficult than the easiest ones (that have a chair lift... that carpet thing was so slow!). I don't want to get more injuries than I already have recovered from if I can help it. Its bad enough my knee is still bruised and swollen from Saturday.
I know exactly what you mean because at the beginning of last season (2011/2012) I was exactly the same way. I went a couple times the spring before but hadn't successfully linked turns yet and my wife was pushing me beyond my comfort zone. Usually that's not a bad thing, but she didn't understand that I couldn't just point it and go without the ability to stop. It directly led to me taking a bad edge and slapping the back of my head on the icy hardpack.

So in the offseason I lurked here a lot and read a ton of posts then the following season I took that knowledge and began doing better. As for the fear of going down certain slopes, sometimes you have to ignore it and do it once you can generally link turns. I've probably progressed slower than typical because I'm cautious by nature, but I'm at the point at the end of my second full season of being mostly bored with greens, tackling a few blacks and being most comfortable and having the most fun on a steep-with-variable-terrain blue run. Columbine at Bittersweet, Canyon at Caberfae and Abbey Road and By George at Crystal, for example, are some of my favorite runs around.

So just stick with it, it comes eventually. Like I said, if Bittersweet is local to you then that's a good place to progress in my opinion.
 
#3,540 ·
Can't wait to ride with you on say Trap! I should be able to swing a few night laps since the cabin we are staying at is down the road.
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Ha, you're going to being flying past my slow ass! But I'll take any pointers/advice however they may come.
 
#3,546 ·
Trying to work something out this weekend to make it out to Crystal. Based on their website it looks like a bunch of stuff is going on Saturday and I am guessing this will be happening on a main run right out in front, so hopefully that contains a majority of the people. Since we will likely have our kids with us, I would probably be out there Saturday morning...4yr old with my wife on skis, and my twin girls hopefully can be in daycare with my mother-in-law....not sure if they will allow that though. Says it's snowing heavy up there now and have around 4" of fresh.
 
#3,552 ·
Just $55 for a two hour group lesson, rental for the whole day and a snack. Feels like a steal to me.

She's excited about it. She's telling everyone "I'm going skiing on Saturday!" haha
Yea like I said, their ski school is totally worth it too. Our daughter wrote a story about it for her kindergarten class, complete with illustrations!

FWIW, I recommend staying away from Totem Park while they're doing the class too. Kids tend to do better when the parents aren't hovering around.
 
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