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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!
 
#6,940 ·
Caught up with sam for a few hours at Holly yesterday, boy is it rough out there. The crew is def doing the Lord's work, though. I don't know how, but both parks were in pretty decent shape, plenty of features available and the snow wasn't really awful.

That said, talking to some of the crew they said they have 2 days' worth of snowmaking chemicals left, and the owner would prefer to use it up. So, they'll be blowing snow again, if the temps cooperate, although the long-term is calling for rain today and thunderstorms on Thursday/Friday, so I'd say they're right proper fucked and probably will not see snowmaking temps until saturday night, which means that there is approximately 0% chance that they will open this coming weekend.

I know they'll try to re-open next week or next weekend, if they can blow, but it looks damn grim at this point.
 
#6,948 ·
Cold snap starts again tomorrow, thank god.

I've got a crazy week coming up. Saturday and Sunday I'll be up at Highlands, hoping to lap funland and the Challenger jump line. Saturday's session will bring my total days this season to my number for all of last season.

I get a one day break and then Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday I'll be riding in Utah at Brighton and Snowbasin. It looks like I have a good shot of getting about 35 days this year.
 
#6,953 ·
LoL!!! Out there in one of the "Pilgrimage" locals,… and still checking the locals??? U R a true Midwesterner(rer) >:)

With the cold returning to LSE MI,.. I just might get a chance for one more day on the local before my trip! I'm hoping to head on out to PK on Sat. They've been blowing snow & if it stays cold and they groom a few days,… It might just be ridable. Even after all that warm freakin rain Tues & Wed!! :rolleyes:


Cabbie posted they've got a few inches and still have the snowmakers going.

I'm not coming home till the last week of March, so I think my season is over. :(
I think Sab was referring to Boyne having gotten Nuked the other day! Their website was reporting 13" overnight Thursday. (…we all know how much they like to embellish those snow totals, but this time it was backed up with pics!) ;)

Boyne Highlands typically closes around the end of March, but Boyne Mountain usually stays open well into April if the base holds out! Hard to say if that will be the case this season with so many Uber rainy, warm spells coming & going!

But I think it's safe to say,… "don't count your season over just yet!!"




ps… Sabatoa!!! Quit checking the Boyne webcams!!! :blink: Concentrate on Shredding dat wunderful shit you got out there in Mormon town!!! :grin: ;)

pss… 4 Days & a wake up,… and I'm on my way to Oregon!!! :jumping1:
 
#6,956 ·
Hmmm, so you're spending time reading and commenting on the snow conditions in MI? We need to reset your priorities!!!!

When I was in UT last week I didn't spend a single minute on any forum, snowboarding or otherwise. The only online time was spent checking email and Epic Mix.

What resort are you riding today? Got any video?
 
#6,955 ·
@ Chomps:

Dude, I'm stoked you get to go enjoy the stellar season the PNW has had! Post up some pics and stories when you get back!

I'll fly my board back just in case there's a base to ride. I wouldn't be disappointed with a slush day just to ride one mo' 'gain! I'll be up in the TC area to visit a friend (and hopefully a prospective job). Boyne is a short cruise away.
 
#6,958 ·
Holly is open all weekend, 10-10 today, 10 to 530 on Sat & Sun. I'm sure Pine Knob is doing similar. Cannonsburg finally got their shit together, opening this weekend with $10 lift tickets.

I rode Caberfae yesterday afternoon it was pretty firm, but there was enough snow from the night before that it wasn't a death trap, and it was just warm enough that you could set an edge deep in most places.

I think these more southerly hills will make it through next weekend if they're lucky but unless there's a massive amount of natural snow, they'll all be done. (A few years ago, Mt Holly "closed" like 3 times, and after each time they closed, they got 8-12" of snow and were able to re-open for the weekends)

Caberfae still 100% open except the BC, they'll make it through end of March if they want to, but I won't be surprised if they shutter early.

Barring tons of rain, I would think it's safe to bet on Boyne Mountain rolling through Easter at least.
 
#6,960 ·
so glad you caught good wx out there. My first trip to UT was a mix -- 9" pow day followed by windswept ice on day 2 and then we got rained out on day 3 (in hindsight, I bet that rainy day it was straight nuking pow in the Cottonwoods, we were in Park City proper which gets different weather) but that first pow day was enough to make me want to return.

Of all the places I've traveled to ride, I've been to UT the most, and I bet I've caught at least one pow day on every trip except 2015 which was a very low snow year for them, and also we went in mid/late April, so we weren't really expecting that. OTOH, in early April 2011, I had a stupid deep day like 18" overnight at Brighton...
 
#6,968 ·
I have a 5 day weekend scheduled for the end of March. But,.. Unless they're closed, I'll be riding @ Highlands! (…I only ride @ BM Before or after Highlands is open.) :shrug:
 
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#6,973 ·
LOL

You're on my insta so you know that wasn't a highlight lol

* first double black out west
* climbed Allen Peak for fresh lines
* Hiked Ogden Bowl for more fresh lines
* an entire day spent off-piste chasing fresh

...but the bathrooms were nice! They were built for the Olympic I read. They aren't stalls but private individual bathrooms. The outer area in the bathroom feels like a lounge.
 
#6,975 ·
Thanks, yeah I'm totally fulfilled with that trip and couldn't have asked for more...except that it sucked to leave. I could stay out there forever. I'm likely taking this weekend off from riding, we haven't been home on a weekend in as long as I can remember. Then we'll prolly do the following weekend at Highlands. After that it's picking off a day here and there as long as I can.
 
#6,977 ·
Looks like at least a few hills are gonna make it through another weekend. Holly, Bittersweet, Pine Knob, probably Cannonsburg, etc.

Cannonsburg was running $10 lift tickets all weekend which is surely a sign that they're just about done, but at least it got people out and the weather was great.

I crashed my jeep in to a dirt bank on some back road after missing my turn on the way to Caberfae on Thursday, but the riding was decent. They've got pretty much everything open still.

My riding for the remainder of the year is probably limited to Caberfae, then my out west trip on 3/30, and then I'm holding out hope for the slight opportunity that Boyne Mountain is still open the weekend of 4/22 because I'll be busy with kids' birthdays and Easter the weekends of the 8th and 15th.
 
#6,982 ·
I'll be doing a day @ Crystal with Wrathfuldeity on the 14th. Then he & I are driving up to Bellingham to ride Baker for three days. I think it's between 2.5-3.5 hour drive. (...traffic & road conditions dependent of course.)

Have you been to either before? If not,.. I'll be sure to let you know my impressions of those mountains! (...altho I obviously won't be going into the park! ;) If you like, I can keep an eye out for what they offer in that regard.) :grin:

Btw,... just curious! Bellingham & Baker are about 2+ hours from Seattle. Is there some particular reason you arent flying into BLI instead of SEA? Pretty sure You'd be less than an hour from Baker if you flew into Bellingham. :shrug:
 
#6,981 · (Edited)
Oh man you shouldn't have. WALL OF TEXT, INCOMING:



So this was totally last-minute on my part. Having spent a few weeks beating myself up over various options (mostly Colorado, just because it's easy enough to get in & out, and a short flight, and Adam's living there), IDK what happened, but yesterday morning I guess I was just doing my due diligence, and said "OK, who's got the most snow" and it was the PNW, Tahoe, and Utah.

Utah is out, although I would have no problem going back there, we really are trying to get away from just mailing it in to UT or CO every year, trying to ride some new-to-us mountains in new-to-us places. That said, in a year like this, the "change of scenery" can wait until next year IMO, I could easily justify saying fuck it you guys, remember the last time we rode Utah in April in an 800" season? Because I do, and it was tits.

Tahoe is out, because I just couldn't make the timetables work. There's no direct flights to Reno, and non-direct flights sap too much time, we'd end up only 3 days on the mountain and frankly while I'll take that if I have to, it's just not enough. Nearest direct would be San Francisco which is 4 hours drive after a 5+ hour flight. And there's the very real risk, although later in the season not as much, that you get snowed *out* of the resort. Shit just happened to Tyler and some of those dudes they had to stop at Diamond Peak because the roads were closed couldn't get up to Boreal or wherever they were going.

Colorado sounds good enough, but again, I've ridden Colorado on 5 or 6 separate occasions? Twice in Winter Park, Breck and Vail a few times each, and some cruddy November turns at A-Basin. There's a lot more of Colorado to explore, of course, and I was looking forward to checking out some different mountains, but I didn't want to spend the entire trip at only one place, and the various spots we were looking at, being off-the-beaten path, there wasn't any good way to string a few of them together. Sure, we could've tried a day each at Loveland, Monarch, and then 2 days at Crested Butte (or Wolf Creek, alternate), or a day each at Loveland, Copper, and 2 at Steamboat, but IDK, that whole thing was predicated on taking an early-ass flight and trying to salvage a half-day at Loveland in order to make "4" days happen.

And then there's the fucking legendary Mt Baker which has gotten like 630" of snow already (season average is 650). And for shits and grins I said can I get to Seattle? Well, there's a redeye home from Seattle, and if, instead of taking an early flight out there I take a late flight the night before... we can end up with 4 full days and still end up getting home basically a full day sooner (ok, not really, I'll be home at 9am instead of midnight). Lift tickets are also like $65 instead of $100-150.

Arguably could've bumped my outbound flight to Denver and I was thinking of doing that actually, but the allure of Baker was too much. Plus, with Colorado being a short flight, there are no redeyes to Detroit, and even the latest flight out of Denver means you really can't ride that day of departure, unless you're riding Eldora or maybe an early morning half at Loveland. So in order to get 4 days out of Colorado, I was going to have to leave Wednesday afternoon, and wouldn't be home until Monday night. To Seattle, I'll be home Monday morning. That makes a difference IMO.

Finally, I posted a poll on Facebook with a few destinations, people could add other choices as well, but Baker just destroyed the entire field. Utah was a distant second.

 
#6,985 ·
Fares are up across the board this year, Denver is usually like $250, maybe $300ish. I have no idea why it's $450+ this year.

I redeemed 52,500 frequent flier miles that I've been slowly collecting over the course of probably 9 years, saving for just such an occasion when either the airfares are steep, or the bank account is low (or both). If it weren't for my miles, I wouldn't be going anywhere this year that's for sure.

I think the cash price was $610 which, yeah, that's steep.

There were some cheaper options available on Travelocity like, if you didn't mind a 3 hour layover at 6am, after spending 5 hours on an airplane, you could have saved about $100, or flying back Monday night would've been about $100 less as well (but then you've gotta pay an extra night hotel, extra day rental car, and if you're there, you're going to spend another $70 on lift ticket... so you save $100 on the flight but easily spend $200 more on the trip).
 
#6,987 ·
Looks like Mt Holly plans to be open all week (noon-8pm weekdays, 9a-530pm weekend).

Cannonsburg is done, although they were blowing snow in preparation for Jibs n Salsa. Bittersweet was still open as of yesterday, but not sure what their plans are moving forward. Caberfae still holding out pretty well and should be getting 2-4" of snow today.
 
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