[kawicivic]

My gf got me into snowboarding last year and now I am hooked. She said one of the more local hills (to No IL), Chestnut I believe, has dollar days that start in Dec if the weather will support snow.

I was just hoping to see when some of the hills further north (mid to upper WI and UP)?

I have some PTO to burn, but my company likes it to be on the books and not sitting there unscheduled. Any advice if I am looking to book some PTO and safely plan on boarding during it?

I'd like to get a good 4-5 days in the snow if possible. I won't need anything too fancy as I am still a noob.

 

[snowklinger]

I introduce this caveat just because I get the impression that the midwest and east are alot harder to know if they will have ANY snow during a specific time period. At least a trip west will gaurantee you snow to slide on, if not pow.

If ur gonna spend the time on the road to go farther why not hop on a plane and enjoy some shit? There are millions of topics about how/when/where to book and spend a cheap good US trip.

Ill give you two: fly into denver, stay in georgetown (cheap), shred loveland (15min from Luv), or stay in Idaho Springs and shred Winter Park. Super easy quick access, cheap towns to stay in, relatively mellow resorts money- and disney-wise.

SLC is super convenient but probably a little more $$ but not sure.

I think Chomps shreds up them there parts u mentioned if u stick with that.

 

[killclimbz]

I think SLC is more expensive to fly into, but unless there is a big shift this season, lift tickets by the day are generally much less expensive than Colorado areas. Especially the big boys.

Lodging is pretty affordable is you stay in the Salt Lake Metro too. Just look for hotels south and east of the airport. Sandy is usually a good town to stay in that is close to the Cottonwood Canyons.

 

[kawicivic]

I will check out those options, but even a cheap flight can't compare to a tank of gas. Based on what people around here tell me, I probably should get some more time in around here before hitting the big mountains if I really want to enjoy and take advantage of them. I made it to blacks around here last year, but I wouldn't say I was overly confident. My goal is to be able to ride switch comfortably and pop off a few easy tricks. I was hoping to have this stuff nailed down early in the season and attempt a trip out West later in the season.

Thank you for the advice though - I will make sure to check out flights as I hadn't thought about that.

Anyone else have any ideas what the projected open dates are normally?

 

[chomps1211]

I introduce this caveat just because I get the impression that the midwest and east are alot harder to know if they will have ANY snow during a specific time period....

If ur gonna spend the time on the road to go farther why not hop on a plane and enjoy some shit? There are millions of topics about how/when/where to book and spend a cheap good US trip....

....I think Chomps shreds up them there parts u mentioned if u stick with that.

SK is right about the snow that early in the season! It's damned hard to predict! The last two years, I've been making a B-day trip north to a twin resort I like in the upper part of the LP of MI,... Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands. (Highlands is 30 min. north of Boyne Mt. and definitely the better of the two. But lift tickets from either are good at both!) Last year, even as late as the first 2 weeks into Dec. They only had a small hand full of runs open and they were covered in crappy Man Made. It was actually even raining on the day I arrived! *meh?* :dunno: At least they were open!

The later into Dec. you can go, the better your chances of enough cold days for them to make a decent base or even getting a storm to put down some real fresh!

Oh, also, Nub's Knob is another pretty decent hill, (...for the midwest anyway!) and it's literally right across the street from Highlands. so "if" they're open, "if" we have the cold, and "if" they make enough snow early enough, This area in and around Gaylord and Petosky MI. would offer you 3 different hills to choose from!

I can't comment on any of the resorts in WI. or MN. as I haven't been up that way yet! You can check out the Midwest Forum in the Regional section of this site to get some more dope on places up that way!

Good Luck, and welcome to the Addiction!! :thumbsup:

{edit}
Well Fuuuuck!!! I got into this thread from the "New Posts" page. Never even noticed that it already WAS posted in the regional forum! thought it was General Chat!
Oh well! Guess I'm gonna have more & more of these "Senior" moments as time goes on, eh??? :dunno:

 

[slyder]

I'm based out of Milwaukee so maybe I can help a bit more. If I recall correctly Chestnut is just south of the WI/IL border.

Last year it was bad here for nearly all of December. It got real cold during the week, hills blasted tons of snow. Then it rained and melted everything on the weekends. It happened like this till the week before Christmas.

Like many have said it is really unpredictable to say the best. I know you need to schedule time off and sorry we can't give you a better estimate. It really is week-week.

Several of us try to keep ppl updated here in the "Midwest Section" since we are a smaller community of riders in this area we try to help each other more on the type of conditions. I have friends from Chi-town that text me asking how the conditions are. I tell them straight up what some of the hills I've been to are like and others do the same for hills they've been to.

My best advice is to follow posts in the Midwest Section or make a thread asking the conditions. You will see posts from me mainly about Alpine Valley and few about Tyrol Basin. Not sure where you are considering riding but Cascade and Devils Head are also fun hills but depending where you are anywhere from it looks like Chestnut Mtn is 2.5 hours from any of these resorts I mentioned. Again I don't know where you are located but that is the drive time from there.

If your ever at Alpine Valley hit me up, always love meeting forum members and taking some runs with them. I've made many friends from the forum that I ride with when we can all schedule it

 

[C.B.]

Your best bet is probably twin cities area hills for that early in the year(within driving distance). By mid December every hill should have good coverage. Fuck wild mtn opened oct 7 last year, I have been riding late oct-early nov or the last 3 years.

 

[digZ]

Ah the good ole chestnut dollar days, those were some good deals. Most of those places(Chestnut, Sundown, Tyrol, Cascade) likely won't open until around Thanksgiving on a good year. Mid december on normal years.

There might be some places in northern MN that will open at comparable times to the CO resorts(Early november), but it's pretty hit and miss.