2019/2020 Midwest Stoke Thread

So glad to see this thread. My wife, two young girls, and I moved from NW Oregon to NE Minnesota this summer. It's been quite an adventure for all of us, but one upside is that we're actually skiing this year. After having kids in 2015 shit was so brutal that the only skiing I got in 7 years was during the snowpocalypse in Portland and I skinned to the top of the 500 foot butte in our neighborhood to rip some turns down the steep streets and into my driveway.

Anyway, we're up here now outside Eveleth and have been hitting Giant's Ridge, but thus far 100% of my skiing has been teaching my 4 and 6 year olds. After spending my 20's and 30's skiing the Cascades and Tahoe, this is super weird, but I love it. I bought some skinny sticks to XC across the frozen lake and play Kirk Douglas and it's seriously refreshing. Been learning to ice skate but I'm never gonna fit in with these hockey kids, lol.

Thanks @Harry for the heads up on this thread and I hope to see some of you if you're local.

It's a different thing here in the Midwaste, but we embrace the hell out of it...

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

we're up here now outside Eveleth

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I’ve been through that town a bunch of times but never stopped. My gramps was good friends with an old guy up in Ely, an author named Sigurd F. Olson, and I used to ride along for the day. I was only 6-7 y/o and Mrs Olson would give me cookies and milk in the kitchen before sending me out to play in the yard, while the two old men would smoke pipes and discuss literature in Mr Olson’s library. This would have been mid-1960s. Only later would I find out Mr Olson was famous.


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Originally Posted by Harry

I’ve been through that town a bunch of times but never stopped. My gramps was good friends with an old guy up in Ely, an author named Sigurd F. Olson, and I used to ride along for the day. I was only 6-7 y/o and Mrs Olson would give me cookies and milk in the kitchen before sending me out to play in the yard, while the two old men would smoke pipes and discuss literature in Mr Olson’s library. This would have been mid-1960s. Only later would I find out Mr Olson was famous.


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Olson was the spitting image of Dwight Eisenhower. That's pretty cool. There is some really interesting history up here. I think 90% of people are descendants of Scandinavian immigrants. The named on the headstones in the cemetery are all like Heikkinen and Heino and Suomi and Tuomi...it goes on. I think it's neat.

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Originally Posted by goolick

Anyone ever ski at Wilmot? I am aware it is a tiny place with a vertical drop that I am embarrassed to even type, but for someone who 1. has an epic pass (i.e. no cost to ski there), 2. lives an hour away, 3. just wants to ski park, is it adequate?

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The park is pretty limited. Jumps are very small and all too easy to send to flat. Rails are ok, but you are getting 2 hits per lap at best. "The gully" is the only park open right now, which is definitely not worth the trip if it's the only section open. A few small boxes and basic rail or two. It's barely a beginner's park and swamped with people just skiing it.

If any Chestnut Mountain mags are around this weekend, I'll be invading from Chicago with the family.
Haven't skied Chestnut since my jr racing days, so excited to return. Probably spend most my time with the 6 year old on the easy goers and the baby terrain park hits. Will be sporting some Bob Ross Jskis to represent the zen of the Midwest. Shout out if you see me.

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Originally Posted by GAPERsauraus REX

If any Chestnut Mountain mags are around this weekend, I'll be invading from Chicago with the family.
Haven't skied Chestnut since my jr racing days, so excited to return. Probably spend most my time with the 6 year old on the easy goers and the baby terrain park hits. Will be sporting some Bob Ross Jskis to represent the zen of the Midwest. Shout out if you see me.

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Sorry for delayed response. Not at the Nut this weekend unfortunately. Have fun.

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Christie Mountain on Saturday was awesome. Bluebird sky and very few people. Did 3 hours lift-served followed by 3 hours Nordic. Loving my new classic XC skis, I got the ones with an integrated skin instead of fishscales. Way faster.

Tomorrow my old friend AxeBiker is coming over from the brainpower state to show us cheeseheads how it’s done. I haven’t skied with him in 5 or 6 years. Great guy, looking forward to it.

Pics from today
Attachment 401322
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Attachment 401325


Got a new desert camo jacket from Freeride Systems in honor of my 4 deployments to the Persian Gulf. N95 underneath that Buff.
Attachment 401326




Tubing Park Stoke
Attachment 401327


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SkiJ - douche your box, tried to respond to your PM


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Thanks, Harry -

watching for your message -- skiJ

PM re-sent


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thanks fer remindin a sometimes jaded totally aged utardian
where he came from and cut his ski teeth at
skied a good bit of clipped wicket wilmonts and majestics
im just gonna leave this for the mayor of midwest stokes
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

^^ FKNA !!

Awesome Midwest Stoke with that pin.


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I’ll be up at chestnut around 5 tonight and a couple hours tomorrow am


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Nice stoke all. Great pin Dibs

We’ve discovered Alpine Valley as a good spot for the family. The lessons have been good for our 4 and 6 year old girls

The last time I had been there before this year was July 1988 for the first night of Dead shows

RIP Stevie Ray Vaughn


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Anyone use the Epic Day Pass bonus days at Afton? Speaking of Afton, are they still having issues keeping stuff open?

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Originally Posted by ejj

Anyone use the Epic Day Pass bonus days at Afton? Speaking of Afton, are they still having issues keeping stuff open?

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I don't know the answer but I can't believe the Vail effect is also in place in the midwest. I was at Wilmot and there's all sorts of shit closed. Like why?

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Originally Posted by goolick

I don't know the answer but I can't believe the Vail effect is also in place in the midwest. I was at Wilmot and there's all sorts of shit closed. Like why?

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I can only speculate, and so to paraphrase what Cody and Jonathon talked about on Blister this last week Vail is a top heavy organization. This leaves a skeleton crew running the resorts so they don't have the kind of community relationships that allow them to pull people in. I know Chestnut has struggled this year as well but are finding a way. Race team moms working ticket windows etc.

Vail probably haven't given their managers the ability to be flexible with wages, benefits, etc. Plus so much comes down to relationships. When you sever those ties to become lean and mean during good times, the price is being paid during these twighlight zone never before seen times. Fucking MBA geniuses are hamstrung with their arrogance. The pricks at Harvard never saw this coming so all their disciples are just clawing chalk.

I've seen it with my own job. One chain I work with is owned by an out of town conglomerate run by MBA stuffed suits and they are barely open, sometimes closed. Next town, same chain with a local owner, staffing is a struggle but running near 100%. One old lady quit because they wouldn't buy her a salad cart. They gave her two weeks off and bought her the Rolls Royce of salad carts. She's back.

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Originally Posted by hoarhey

Nice stoke all. Great pin Dibs

We’ve discovered Alpine Valley as a good spot for the family. The lessons have been good for our 4 and 6 year old girls

The last time I had been there before this year was July 1988 for the first night of Dead shows

RIP Stevie Ray Vaughn


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Are you back in the midwest? Time for another brat fest on southpoint?

I saw this on FB today from AV. Omg.

Chestnut has barely had lines at all this year. Almost nothing on chair 3.

Alpine Valley today.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...86b501f315.jpg

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Yup. Thanks. That was a fun day at Chestnut. We haven’t seen it that crowded at AV. MLK weekend in effect!


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Originally Posted by hoarhey

Yup. Thanks. That was a fun day at Chestnut. We haven’t seen it that crowded at AV. MLK weekend in effect!


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Cool!

To be fair I wasn't at the Nut or skiing anywhere this weekend which absolutely sucked balls. Probably pretty busy.

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Made it out to Granite Peak this weekend, not to busy considering it was MLK weekend. Good conditions all around.

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Originally Posted by Harry

Tomorrow my old friend AxeBiker is coming over from the brainpower state to show us cheeseheads how it’s done. I haven’t skied with him in 5 or 6 years. Great guy, looking forward to it.

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You guys know each other? We gotta hook up.

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

You guys know each other? We gotta hook up.

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We are not related, but...

:wink:

Chairlift stoke from last night and this morning at ChestnutAttachment 401576Attachment 401577Attachment 401578Attachment 401579Attachment 401580


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heavy which brand/model of nordic did you go with with the integrated skin?

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Originally Posted by NBABUCKS1

heavy which brand/model of nordic did you go with with the integrated skin?

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Madshus

Bought them at Out There Nordic in Rice Lake WI. Support your local brick & mortar shop. Great experience. He is a former elite level competitor and really knows his shit. He (Bjorn) took all sorts of measurements and did the paper under the camber trick to get the correct flex. So glad I did not buy online.


http://outthereshop.com


Attachment 401602


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Saw in the forecast they’re supposed to get hit tomorrow night -> Thursday with some snow. Has anyone been there recently?

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Originally Posted by mcphee

Chairlift stoke from last night and this morning at ChestnutAttachment 401576Attachment 401577Attachment 401578Attachment 401579Attachment 401580


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Thanks for the photos!. I had to postpone my Friday plan to ski so wife and I will be there tomorrow, and I was wondering about the coverage .. Looks good..

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Originally Posted by SmileyRiley

Saw in the forecast they’re supposed to get hit tomorrow night -> Thursday with some snow. Has anyone been there recently?

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haven’t been up but planning to this weekend. will report back on the conditions!

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Originally Posted by NBABUCKS1

heavy which brand/model of nordic did you go with with the integrated skin?

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Here's what I'm using, which is very similar in design to what Harry's got (mine don't defy gravity quite like his do however):

https://www.salomon.com/en-us/shop/p...ml#color=46186

So Harry and I met up yesterday morning at Christie Mountain. It snowed all the way there, leaving us with AT LEAST 1/2" of FRESH SCONNIE POW to schralp!! Temps were chilly, but not frigid for once. Harry was as good a guide/ambassador in WI as he was in MT. With every 30 seconds of skiing, we had about 4-5 minutes of chair chat, so it was great to catch up after a few years. Not sure there were many topics we didn't hit... After an "exhausting" 3 hours of absolutely cooking our quads on the long, steep pitches of Christie Mt. (and a clinic put on by yours truly on how to recover in front of a crowd after crashing on a T-Bar), we retired to the parking lot for lunch and a beer. Also, I joined a club FAR more exclusive than the Yellowstone Club...

Attachment 401623

Then we zipped down the road over to the nordic area for a quick tour, followed up by another little jaunt to Harry's Island! Gotta say, LOTS of potential for his future retirement compound, and he'll never have to have a load of wood brought in from anywhere as long as he is alive!

It was great to re-connect yesterday, and look forward to more escapades in the coming months. Fun day for sure!

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

You guys know each other? We gotta hook up.

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Axe & I first skied together back when Moonlight was its own separate area, before it got absorbed by Big Sky. In fact, the day I first met Axe was also the first day I met uglymoney (OP of this thread) The three of us skied together that day. What was that, 8-10 years ago ? Man, time goes by so fast. Since then, I’ve met up with axe multiple times over the years. Uglymoney too, but never again the 3 of us together. We need to change that.

Skiing with friends is what it’s all about.


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Originally Posted by up an down

Thanks for the photos!. I had to postpone my Friday plan to ski so wife and I will be there tomorrow, and I was wondering about the coverage .. Looks good..

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It’s great out there, have fun!


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Originally Posted by uglymoney

Sorry for delayed response. Not at the Nut this weekend unfortunately. Have fun.

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Chestnut was a blast. Lots of fun stuff to poke around in on the sides of runs. A few inches of fresh snow Saturday morning was pretty great before the crowds filled in around lunch time. Nearly exploded when I lipped that little headwall on Mineshaft to flat, but the fresh snow was too enticing to not go for it at full send. Lines got long at times but skating around to the lift underneath Warpath kept it short enough to not be terrible.

Spent a lot of time playing on the side hits of Old Main, which has to be one of the more enjoyable green runs in the Midwest.
Here's a pic of the grom crew getting comfortable on the blues:
Attachment 401718

Bad ass GPSRex. Great place for little rippers to cut their teeth and learn to love the sport. Not a mountain that ever gets boring.

Harry and Axe...yes. Been too long.

Been a rough stretch for the uglymoney family. Thank god I worry about everything and made sure our vacation plans were 100 percent refundable.

The covid finally caught us through the vaccinated but in school daughter who barely had a sore throat and kept testing negative on the at home tests but it was probably covid. So we were in covid jail for a bit. That shit never touched me (get boosted bitches) but the boosted but immune compromised wife had a bouncy ride. Thankfully she qualified for expedited rapid PCR testing at the U of I and they got her in immediately after the positive for convalescent antibodies on top of her 3X strong Modernas and she kicked covids ass. All hail the University of Iowa. Fauci let her out of quarantine jail in time to save part of our completely recomposed vacation.

Current status.


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...66cf9e596d.jpg

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As newly minted imposter Minnesotans, we rip the fucking flats now.

The 6 year old on her new setup. I might have gone too short on the skis (rossi evo xt 55 jr) but she's in the middle of the weight range for a kid's touring ski per the Rossi site.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

She's stoked to start training for biathlon on a lake with no backstops.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

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Originally Posted by uglymoney

Bad ass GPSRex. Great place for little rippers to cut their teeth and learn to love the sport. Not a mountain that ever gets boring.

Harry and Axe...yes. Been too long.

Been a rough stretch for uglymoney family. Thank god I worry about everything and made sure our vacation plans were 100 percent refundable.

The covid finally caught us through the vaccinated but in school daughter who barely had a sore throat and kept testing negative on the at home tests but it was probably covid. So we were in covid jail for a bit. That shit never touched me (get boosted bitches) but the boosted but immune compromised wife had a bouncy ride. Thankfully she qualified for expedited rapid PCR testing at the U of I and they got her in immediately after the positive for convalescent antibodies on top of her 3X strong Modernas and she kicked covids ass. All hail the University of Iowa. Fauci let her out of quarantine jail in time to save part of our completely recomposed vacation.

Current status.


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...66cf9e596d.jpg

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Glad you all made it through relatively unscathed. Extra glad you all get to salvage a vacation and get after it


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by uglymoney

Been a rough stretch for uglymoney family. Thank god I worry about everything and made sure our vacation plans were 100 percent refundable.

The covid finally caught us through the vaccinated but in school daughter

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Dude that sucks... Been waiting for the other shoe to drop as I have two in school, kindergarten and preschool. Just got the call today that a classmate tested positive.

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Originally Posted by bio-smear

Dude that sucks... Been waiting for the other shoe to drop as I have two in school, kindergarten and preschool. Just got the call today that a classmate tested positive.

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I think omicron is a different beast. We've been getting those notices all year and our filters and masks and other bullshit kept us safe. Really I am just glad it is over and the wife made it through. Tired of being the only one around taking this shit seriously.

And welcome tenured maggot. I remember you well from back in the day. You made quite an impression back then. Always been an aviation fan and built and flew nitrous powered models as a kid and would have been a pilot if puberty and misdirection hadn't thrown me under the rug.

Uglymoney - glad things worked out in the end for you and the fam. It seems that it's no longer "if", but "when" in terms of catching this shit. I'm vax'd and boosted (boosted 12/15), and it's just me and Mrs Axe here, but we went to a neighbor's house on NYE - about 10 of us in total - and by Monday, they started dropping like flies. They all have kids as well, so I'm guessing that was probably where it started. I finally started feeling some minor symptoms on Wed evening 1/5, tested negative Thursday, and then positive Friday 1/7. Worked from home all last week and this week. Symptoms were pretty mild, and I only felt rough for a day, which is better than the experience I had with the vaccine & booster. My wife miraculously didn't get it - she was the only one of our group of 10 who didn't.

I've got a lingering scratchy throat and dry cough, and a little fatigue, but no biggie. Glad I have it out of the way.

Looks like we're going to forgo the "Small MT Ski Area" tour this year, and just go out to Crested Butte for a week at the beginning of March. Can't wait!