Fuck Norm GreenQuote:
Originally Posted by dgilligan02
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Fuck Norm GreenQuote:
Originally Posted by dgilligan02
Dumping right now up here in the Northwoods. Christie Mountain this weekend should be a blast.
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Looked like Rib was blowing snow when I drove down from Merrill to Appleton last week after hunting with Dad. (he got a big spike buck)
Despite growing up in Wisconsin, Rib is one of the places I never skied. Been meaning one of these years to go back and ski all the ski areas I used to ski before I moved to Idaho.
Lots of snow in the Metro area today! Gotta love it! 6" in the Blaine area - heard a bit more to the south, so maybe Welch will have some more to open this weekend?
Welcome! MW Mags are always in demand! If you see us - or think it might be one of us - "Change for a nickel"?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom_H
This holiday weekend gone by I checked Ski Brule off of my lifetime list to make magic number sixty nine. Brule joins Indianhead and Porcupine Mountain for UPerrrrrr resorts I have skied.
The weekend didn't start out great. My daughter and then my mom had a non covid fast flu of some unknown type, or likely two different types, and so we held her back and she missed the first day of the 4 day race camp, she is max vaxxed and she quickly healed from whatever ailed her. Everybody had their government covid test kits along and everybody was negative, though my mom was hacking through the holiday.
Then the furnace went out in the AirBnb. The owner promptly refunded all of our money minus the rather pricey fees, which was cool but since we weren't cold it seemed like overkill until the last night when the septic overflowed just as we were settling down for one last beverage and cozy cabin conversation before bed. We were glad to get the hell out of there Sunday morning and leave the house's problems to someone else and the refund seemed fair after mopping up the mess.
My parents and my wife's parents grumbled about just the way a mixed family Thanksgiving holiday away should be. Thank god we all agree on our version of proper politics. Electric space heaters were furnished, and most importantly for my father in law, Hulu was working so he could watch sports, and for my dad the large property on a lake meant he could spend most of the days outside with the dogs.
Sunrises were amazing. I started each morning hanging out down by the glimmering ice covered lake with my hot mug of coffee and eager border collie while the rest of the cabin came to life.
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Brule is a very cool ski area. As friendly a bunch of people running it as I've ever met, and homey as heck. The main chairlift has to be the fastest fixed grip lift I have ever ridden in the Midwest. It makes getting 10k in a day fast work (I had 11k on Saturday without trying) on the 360 vertical my app showed for the frontside runs. Even with the racers sometimes clogging up the main lift, you could drop to the other double and have no wait. If only every fixed grip was this fast. So nice. The bar is awesome and gives you a great view of the race hill from the deck. I can see why USSA races are held here.
I had a beer at the car for lunch.
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My daughter has the green helmet. She was at camp to listen and fix some of her lazy bad habits that have been holding her skiing hostage for a couple three years. She liked her coach, small group, and she actually came away skiing better. Talk in the car home were her coaches tips.
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I skied the entire time I was up there as I always do, met many nice people on the lift. I've never gone to any race related event without booting up. There is a rhyme to my reason. The short days of fall always try to send me into a depression, but I have too many tricks up my sleeve to let the dark side win, and skiing is one of them. I do love to watch my girl and all the kids race and drill. So I stop for that now and again, and get roped into slipping sometimes by coaches that recognize me as a sorta member of the tribe, always circling the ring of fire from a distance. My wife is out for now, recovering from a mountain biking accident earlier this fall.
Look dad, I'm bending my downhill ski.
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The drive home takes us right by Granite Peak, Cascade, and Devils Head, then within a couple miles of Tyrol, though you can't see Tyrol unless you take a detour. Anyway, the Wisconsin backroads are a hoot in the VW. Wife took this sunset picture, I was busy rallying through the gears and dodging whitetails. Devils Head faces straight south and the work they had done with early season snowmaking was getting absolutely worked by the sun all weekend. We have a race at Devils Head this year even though they don't have their own JR race team anymore, moved from Cascade due to politics, or big business, or some of both.
I sure hope that green grass turns brown soon. Even with that extended cold snap we had earlier in November, the super green grass on south facing slopes persist.
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Other pictures added but came up sideways and I'm here to tell a story, not fix the glitch. So it is what it is.
^ great post uglymoney. Stoked to see your kids skiing develop.
Christie Mountain is still closed, so I’m hitting Trollhaugen tomorrow. (Friday) I will be there early for first chair, I’m easy to find. Ask for change.
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Cool program at Trollhaugen called “Take The Rake”. It’s an All-Female built and maintained terrain park. Anyone can use it, plenty of males hitting it. But liftys are all female, park crew are all female. Very cool program and great to see the younger generation taking over.
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Nice pitch there at Brûlée, Thks for sharing that one ugly, a day well spent !
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Do you know Peter? I think he patrols still at Afton. Tele skier, has a nice looking pair of kokopelli ski logiks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom_H
Not really, but I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about. He only came on in the last few years I was there, and we didn't generally ski a lot of the same shifts, as mine centered more around when the kids needed to be out there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Askel
Sounds about right. :D If you ever make it over this way for the midwest telefest, try and find me for a beer!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom_H
Wow, really rolled out the red carpet for the full UP experience for you. About the only thing missing was the dog getting into it with a porcupine. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by uglymoney
But Brule is looking good, might have to head over that way weekend after next if nothing is happening locally yet.
Christie Mountain opened today. Not only did I get First Chair, I did a lap on completely empty runs and got Second Chair too. Fun having an entire ski area all by myself.
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Friendly staff member rode up with me for Second Chair.
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Patroller on tele lost his ski while loading. LOL.
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Nice! Jerry is always lurking... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
Met up today with the infamous maggot Ski J, he grew up near Christie Mountain (although his main mountain as a kid was Hardscrabble (RIP)).
Sorry, no pics. I forget my phone. Stoner move.
Conditions SUCKED !!!!!
Temp mid-30s and snaining. Foggy AF. Boilerplate corduroy.
GARBAGE BAG PONCHOS REQUIRED. We did not have garbage bags, but we were both wearing Freeride Systems jackets, so our upper bodies stayed dry at least. Everything else got soaked, gloves, pants, everything, and combined with the shitty skiing we bailed to the parking lot around noon.
Nice endorsement for Freeride Systems jackets on a "character building" day of skiing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
Finally enough snow to bust out the mqt backcountrys to terrorize the neighborhood.
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All the vertical you want, 25 feet and 3 turns at a time.
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And the apres ski is pretty nice.
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Hopefully bigger and better things coming soon.
Northern Wisconsin pounded with wet heavy snow. Power out all over. Christie Mountain closed due to no power. My grampa’s old place is on Day 2 of blackout with no ETA from power company. Fortunately Mom’s place in town is OK.
Edit: SkiJ, not sure if Christie will be open Saturday or not.
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Oooh…Hopslam. Nice choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Askel
Johndee seems to be having a heck of a time keeping his website up lately.
John Dee's just been having a heck of a time lately, sounds like he's fighting some serious health issues. Happy to see he can still get a snow forecast out for us on occasion.
But turns out he was his usual optimistic self on the last round. Snowpocalypse was pretty sad up here. Maybe an an inch or two along with enough rain and warm temps to turn that and whatever survived into a crunchy mess. Will make a nice base if it survives until we get some fresh snow, but looks like another weekend of fatbiking up here.
Whereabouts are you?
I didn’t even see the can sitting there the first time I looked at the pic. Agreed, excellent choice! Speaking of, I just bought a few sixers a couple weeks ago. Why is it out right now?!? It’s usually a late January or February release.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mustonen
Houghton.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mustonen
Hopslam was release early because apparently it was fucking up everybody's dry Januarys.
Ha! Fair enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by Askel
Took a break to walk the dog. Godamn #2 quad is broken again with parts on backorder and weather not quite brutal enough to keep people home so dealing with line ups on the old triple. Hoping they can get chair 3 quad open tomorrow. They could have it open now with a bit of snowcat whale tail aggression...let's fucking go!
On the plus side, free refills via the fan guns. Skiing pretty good and back in our happy place.
River is still open but not for long. Picture taken from Northpoint.
Edit suddenly quad startee spinning...rejoice!
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Lake effect machine is back in gear, but it's kind of sporadic right now. Today was my one day off this month, so I figured I'd load up the whole quiver in the truck and see what I could see. It was kind of a coin flip to decide to head north or south, but the Silver City MIDrive cam was looking promising so I chose south.
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Porkies doesn't technically open until the 30th, but they've been getting hit pretty good the last month. My gamble paid off better than I imagined. Had the whole place completely to myself. 3-4" of fresh snow on top of a pretty good base made for good times with the lightweight gear. Back/sidecountry could use another foot or so but the front was as good as it gets.
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Kinda odd though, other than some tracks from snowmobiblers out joyriding, there was nothing going on there. No prep going on at all for the upcoming season. They have two weeks I guess, but I'm kind of worried about how this new management is going to work out. Especially since they probably could have opened this weekend.
Oh well, at least the secret après-ski bar was open for business.
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That looks pretty sweet. We got a fair bit of snow (and rain....) this week, but was heavy as fuck with the temps hanging in the 30's. I broke the ol' collarbone on Thursday when closing up shop, so I'll be hanging at the bar for the foreseeable future when I have to chauffer the kids to the hill. Plenty of time to be back at it before our spring break trip though. Hopefully I don't get to fat for the snowpants by then...Quote:
Originally Posted by Askel
https://youtu.be/myHg9s2IX2M
Frankie MacDonald !!!!!!!!!
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Late report - got out to Welch on Sunday, and they've got about 75% open now, which is grreat. The last couple years have been tough early season, so it's good to see the conditions cooperating for snow making! Anyway, temps were hovering around zero when I pulled into the lot at 9, but there were a surprising number of cars there already! And about 6 buses...Blizzard Day...ugh... :nonono2: But anyway, took my first run on my Elan Wingman 86's, and it was FIRM, which got my hopes up, since I had brought out my Elan Ace SCX's along! It's been too soft up til then - man...they ARE FUN!! Multi-radius beer-leaguers are tough to beat on a "packed powder" day in MN! SO much fun! Skied with a classmate I hadn't seen in 30 years, which was really cool - great to catch up! Also got to meet his daughter who had just gotten home from basic training, and she was a sweetheart as well - great kid with her head screwed on right!
"Storm of a generation" happening this week - lots of snow the last couple days - about 8" so far I think - but the wind is supposed to come in today and make shit real... I have to drive out to SW Minnesota for family X-mas, which could be sporty, since it's pancake-flat out there, and drifting and blizzard conditions can get interesting.
Also got a call from my Elan rep, and my skis are here!! Ripstick 96 Blacks and Wingman 82 CTi's - can't wait to get them mounted up!
Obligatory cool new gear pic...
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Christie Mountain has been down for power outages, so I spent Christmas Eve at Trollhaugen. -5F when I got there, +5F when I left. Place was deserted. Roads sketchy, Blizzaks FTW.
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Nice Harry!
Axe good Elan and Welch TR.
Askel...great trip report. I've been to the Porkies and overnighted in a tent up on the backside of the hill. It was a blast. But that cabin looks awesome.
I had to work Thursday and Friday down here. Friday was cold af and I was the only one who had to run here because the local operations shut down. Somehow things made it across I80 from Omaha where they were a day behind a bit out of the heart of the storm. Reminded me a bit of 1997 when I had to take care of west central Minnesota during the worst winter in memory, but frankly, conditions never quite deteriorated that far because we didn't have a good base of snow to really let the new snow fly in the wind. Still fun. Something about that weather turns my crank and makes me feel alive and happy. So discouraging that the 7 day turns warm and raining...wtf...I hate these hot to cold to hot to cold extremes shit fuck what snow we have. Make up your mind already, but I know that winter is winter ship sailed a couple three decades ago.
Xmas with family today. Stepson is home from Gunnison and he has an awesome gift coming since his grades at Western were damned good last semester. Presumably skiing on the new gear tmmrw at the Nut.
JH maggot Telee’s wife is a professor there. She is cool, I have fly fished with them multiple times. She is a better fisherman than most of us maggots. Great on the oars too. They split their time between homes in Jackson and Gunnison. No idea what she teaches, but your son should introduce himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by uglymoney
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Yes!Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
Tele was actually quick to offer a helping hand if my (stepson) needed something in another thread (Blister)...when I first sprayed/humble bragged about my stepson living in Gunny. He's has a lot going on trying to figure things out there, but yes...that would be cool. My lifelong friend who is from here also lives in Salida just over the pass so we are pretty well covered if he needs something.
Just happy things are working out for him so far. He's a fish out of water back here now. Just like us.
Hey UP maggots,
I may be in Ironwood tomorrow. Anybody not working and want to go skiing ?
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I’ve heard through the grapevine they have parts for a groomer but no one that knows how to fix it, no lift mechanic, and haven’t hired concessions folks yet. (All speculation of course).Quote:
Originally Posted by Askel
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Got a text from SkiJ about Ironwood area skiing. Thanks!
Ended up at Big Powderhorn. Snow conditions were excellent. Lots of people, but lots of lifts and runs all over the place so never a problem skiing.
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Couple inches at the Nut yesterday. Dusty on crusty good clean fun following the kids down the hill. Nobody home early. We skied onto every chair before lunch and I had 10k before my first beer.
Rain and warm for the next weekend sadly.
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That is f-ing gorgeous.Quote:
Originally Posted by uglymoney
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More stoke from Big Powderhorn
UP skiing rules !
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