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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!
 
#6,854 · (Edited)
aight, wife has a ride to Holly so I'm down for Cab and picked up my liftopia ticket.

Rumor has it that @Leo might be joining me at Highlands on Jan 28/29. These three days prolly will round out my January.

We're working on details for a west trip. We're thinking Lake Louise/Sunshine Village, Big White (BC), Utah, or Mammoth in Cali. I think Mammoth is too far from airports without connecting a billion times, so it will be Utah or Banff.

The original plan was Big Sky but prices were cray- like $3k+ for 4 nights all in. Funk that shiat.
 
#6,861 · (Edited)
aight, wife has a ride to Holly so I'm down for Cab and picked up my liftopia ticket.

Rumor has it that @Leo might be joining me at Highlands on Jan 28/29. These three days prolly will round out my January...
:sad: ….bummer! I've got a 4 day weekend the following week!! :facepalm1: I really would have liked to see & ride with you & Leo again!! Give him my best!!


….Snowbird probably too gnar, there's plenty of blue and even a large bowl on the back side that is essentially green, but maybe not enough begintermediate terrain for Lori...
Love that term!!!! "Begintermediate!!!" Perfectly descriptive turn of phrase!!!:grin:

Imma steal that,… OK? ;) :laugh:

also if u take the earliest flight out of Detroit at 6am, you can be on the slopes by lunchtime. assuming your connection isn't late.

looks like best airfares are Friday depart, return Tues or Weds. might I'm seeing that in the 450 range late February.

leaving Fri AM, optional half day then you still get 3 or 4 full days to ride even if you take an early flight home. or, take the 4:55 flight home which lands around 1145pm in Detroit, and you can ride Brighton until 230 and still make your gate on time.

ask me how I know lol.

Hey Dave,… You got any of those frequent shredder, awesome, super secret insider tips for flying into Redmond Oregon?? ;) :laugh:

@sabatoa,…. Remember what I told you about airport vehicle
rentals!! If you can swing a shuttle or a cab or whatnot to your hotel or the general area in town where you'll be staying,… Renting a veh away from the airpot could save you BIG $$$!

While researching my PNW trip in Mar. I discovered that by taking a $32 dollar shuttle from Redmond airport a few miles into Bend? I saved over $460 off the cost of the very same SUV, for the same number of days!! :blink: That savings paid for my room!!!

Also,… Auto Slash web site will find you the steepest discounts on rentals for whatever area you're traveling. (…using them to find where to rent outside of the airport still applies for the best savings!!)

:thumbsup:
 
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#6,855 ·
I'd agree Mammoth is too far you'll easy burn a full day on each end if not more.

UT is killer, flights are probably around 400 on Southwest, and SLC airport puts you 45 minutes from several mountains. and they're having a good snow year, too.

Stay in Park City for the resort town vibe. Otherwise stay in Sandy/Midvale area and save a few bucks. I personally prefer Brighton/Snowbird/Solitude (never ridden Solitude but it's adjacent to Brighton) but Park City is fun enough I'm not trying to dissuade you its just is flatter, busier, expensiver, and averages 300" instead of 500" in the Cottonwoods... From PC proper you're still within an hour of those other mountains I think.
 
#6,856 · (Edited)
Good call on SW, I forgot about them- we were price comparing on Expedia and I don't think SW uses that site. We'll re-factor with that in mind.

How were the lines when you went to Brighton? They only have 5 lifts, kinda scary to think how busy it might get. Snowbird looked too gnar. Lori can do blacks, but she doesn't prefer them and it looked mostly black diamond. Is there more to it that I'm missing from the map? Are the blacks not really "out west black"?

*edit*

I read up on Snowbird, I don't think she'll like it. Still a lot of options there though.
 
#6,857 ·
Southwest doesn't do any of those websites. Also factor they check TWO bags per person, free. that includes a board bag. easily saves you 50 to 100 bucks in nbaggage each way.

Brighton is small byout west standards but it's a great mountain and while I'm sure it gets busy on occasion, the only time I waited in lift line more than 2 minutes was for first chair on a 15" pow day

Snowbird probably too gnar, there's plenty of blue and even a large bowl on the back side that is essentially green, but maybe not enough begintermediate terrain for Lori.

Solitude might be better for her.

But there's also Powder Mountain and Snobasin up near Ogden (this about 90 mins drive), PCMR and Canyons in Park City, and Sundance about an hour SE of PC.

Sundance also small and inexpensive, but some awesome scenic views, among the best out there I think. worth the drive for a day trip but that about it.

variety is the spice of life.... in 2011 we stayed in PC for 7 days and rode 5 different resorts. 2 days each at PCMR and Brighton, a day at Snowbird, Powwow, and Sundance. I lost 10 pounds.
 
#6,859 ·
also if u take the earliest flight out of Detroit at 6am, you can be on the slopes by lunchtime. assuming your connection isn't late.

looks like best airfares are Friday depart, return Tues or Weds. might I'm seeing that in the 450 range late February.

leaving Fri AM, optional half day then you still get 3 or 4 full days to ride even if you take an early flight home. or, take the 4:55 flight home which lands around 1145pm in Detroit, and you can ride Brighton until 230 and still make your gate on time.

ask me how I know lol.
 
#6,863 ·
Sab - Might want to throw Steamboat in the mix. You can fly into Steamboat (Hayden Airport) for about $360 from Grand Rapids/Lansing/Detroit. They have some decent deals going now too for lift and lodging. The town is awesome, and they have night riding Thursday - Monday which you can go for free on the night of your arrival if you fly into Hayden....so just don't arrive on a Tues or Wed.
 
#6,865 ·
#6,866 ·
There's gotta be more to it than that, though. Dude only blew a .16 which is like, fairly intoxicated but it is nowhere near full-retard. I mean I've gotten extraordinarily drunk in my lifetime, in college drinking a full bottle of whiskey or a case of beer was "normal". So I've done some really fucking dumb stuff -- like have you ever seen a La-Z-Boy on top of a "No Parking" sign fully engulfed in flames? or did you ever think it was a good idea to demolish a house from the inside out using nothing but baseball bats? -- but the thought of burning down a hotel never has crossed my mind.
 
#6,868 ·
are they sure he wasn't on anything else?
Article I read said yeah there were multiple substances involved.
off topic but how has Highlands been the last week or so? A group and I are heading up there next weekend.
Can't say for sure as I haven't been up there lately but I know not too long ago when we got hammered with rain in Grand Rapids and Detroit, they were getting nuked with a foot of pow. That was a few weeks ago though, but they're still faring better than the rest of the state and by a pretty wide margin.

For what it's worth, Sabato and I were at Caberfae on Saturday and I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions which were not at all icy (it was pretty warm, mid-40s though) and PLENTY of coverage, still 100% open and you could still ride glades if you didn't mind the occasional dirt patch. Boyne/Nubs has seen a lot more snow than Cab, so...
 
#6,883 ·
Jerk face lol
x2!!!! :mad:

….Yer gettin' the crap sprayed outta you next time we see you!!! ;) >:)






:grin: Enjoy your gift from Ullr!!!
 
#6,885 · (Edited)
Just got back from Highlands, a trip for the kiddo for her birthday weekend, so that and a nagging injury kept me from really riding as much as I want or the way that I wanted. Still got some air time, and still took my first stab at some rails and boxes that weren't simple ride-ons.

The pipe is in at Highlands and it's in great shape. They don't have the Challenger jump line in yet. I didn't ride the McGully park, but I did see a couple jumps at the end in a line, they looked like 10-15 footers or bigger. Boyne builds the jumps pretty tall so it's hard to say. I rode funland though, a series of down-flat boxes and rails, nothing was ride-on but they were lower to the ground than the McGully park. They has two rows of two table top jumps. I would have preferred a small but legitimate jump instead of the table tops so that I could get more air, but still smaller than the larger kickers on McGully. They need something between those sizes IMO.
 
#6,886 ·
One was too big, one was too small and one was juuuuuust right. Need Goldilocks to find us the perfect jumps haha
 
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#6,887 ·
^ LOL

I know, I sound like I'm being weak sauce.

The story behind the story is that I got wrecked bad a few years ago on a bad jump. After that I was asked not to jump anymore, plus I was gun shy about it too, so I didn't do any jumps for a while. Last year I began popping off side hits again and slowly getting used to be off the snow a little. This year I've worked back up to small jumps like the one you saw on Instagram, but I'm not mentally ready for 10+ foot kickers and I'm working to build up super slow. So those stupid little table top jumps are meh because the air isn't enough for grabs, and I'm not ready for the bigger gaps yet. blah!
 
#6,893 ·
Oh I just recently got the backstory on you ;) I didn't mean anything against you just that I feel the same way. The medium jumps I've done in the past I went through them two weeks ago (just much pow for jumps!) and it was way different, from what I remember anyway and kept knuckling it made me so mad ! And I agree with you on smaller ones for grabs . I keep working on tail grabs but only one of the jumps is big enough to really get it. The one pic of you was super sick too
 
#6,890 ·
Yeah, Lansing is pretty flat. We had a backyard setup at my buddy's in Okemos back in the day, but it was a nice mellow downward slope.

Wasn't there a public park at Hawk Island or Grosbeck? Is that still open? I never did check it out but I thought they had a good selection of features in the past.
 
#6,894 ·
Thanks! Yeah I like...NEED to get on a good jump (my size) soon because I want to keep building on the progress. No offense taken either, it's totally a goldilocks moment lol.

My home hill is the one I was bitching about earlier. The jumps are either too big for me or small and boring. The jump that Dave and I were sessioning a couple weekends ago was on his new home hill.
 
#6,895 ·
Are you still planning on heading to Lake Louise for a vacation? Their park set up is fantastic, plenty of jumps of all sizes and they maintain it religiously, from the Glacier chair there's basically 3 different park areas, uppermost is all small features, middle is S/M, bottom riders right has 4 lanes, XL, L, M, and a box/rail section, then just below that is a few more S/M boxes and rails. So in a single run you could get in 2 small jumps + 2 features at the top, 2 medium jumps + 2 features in the middle, and then 1 small + 2 medium jumps + 2/3 features at the bottom.
 
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