Endless is ripping up the Midwest

I don't care what anybody says, even skiing a 200 foot hill in the Midwest is more fun (to me) than sitting in a hotel room watching TV or wasting even more hours than I already do on the computer. ;)

Both Alpine Valley and Grand Geneva, Wisconsin, were not too shabby considering there's been no new natural snow for ten days. Alpine Valley boasts Southern Wisconsin's greatest vert, and I had to ski Grand Geneva cuz it has such a core name. :D

Tomorrow, Chestnut on the Mississippi is going down. I've never skied a resort on a river before. The fact that it possesses the highest vert in the whole state of Illinois also lures me. If I can work it out, I might even ski Wilmot Mountain before I'm outta here. Not many folks know that Heavenly is NOT the only ski area where one can ski in two states at once. Wilmot's terrain is in both Wisconsin and Illinois, making it one of the more interesting of Wisconsin's 35 ski areas.

In addition, not many people know that Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.
In fact, "Meelie-wa-kay" is actually an Indian name. It was originally an Algonquin term meaning "the good land."


[Alice Cooper doing that part still cracks me up...]

Blatz Beer, brats on the bbq, ice fishing in -30, chix of Scandinavian descent, more cheese than you can imagine, big ole' muskies and walleyes lurking in the lakes, and Endless rippin' up the region and showin 'em how its done right!!! You are a one of a kind nut!!!!!!!

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Originally posted by Endlessseason
Tomorrow, Chestnut on the Mississippi is going down.

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have fun. that place has more lift entertainment than just about anywhere i've skied (probably better on weekends when the gape factor rises exponentially though)...

Oh goodness. Where do I start?

Alpine Valley has improved things a bit in recent years. The high-speed quad is silly. It's like 360' high, which attracts the gapers. When they built it, they made it all the same pitch, which makes 2 strikes against it. If you're into his stuff, it's also the site of the helicopter crash that claimed Stevie Ray Vaughn, which make make it strike 3 in your book.

Grand Geneva is a very sad looking hill. It's not even 200' (and I don't care what they claim). They were the first snowboarding hill around and have built "decent" parks in the past few years to maintain interest. It used to be a Playboy club private hill, and now is Wisconsin Dells south with it's indoor water park attractions. Wilmot also comes into play keeping GG afloat because Wilmot has gone through a bunch of shit over time. I could go on about that hill's stories for hours, but suffice it to say, the lights are still on regardless of who owns it this week (A few bankrupcies will do that to ya).

By the way, you can't ski in Illinois (legally) at Wilmot. State Line run is completely in WI. There's a half-hour discussion on that too.

Well, have fun, if that's possible. Rail slide or die of boredem.

I played in a golf tournament at Grand Geneva once. Tough course designed by Nicklaus.

Too bad you didn't get to the Madison or central Wisconsin area. Nearly 500 vert at Devils Head, and 700 at Rib Mountain (which I guess is called "Granite Peak" now).

Alpine Valley was always the best place to get taken out or your skis stolen. Damn Chicago bombers...

You're sampling the very worst of the world's worst ski areas in existence. My old stomping grounds....

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Originally posted by Endlessseason
In addition, not many people know that Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.
In fact, "Meelie-wa-kay" is actually an Indian name. It was originally an Algonquin term meaning "the good land."

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Does this guy know how to party, or what?

Just one question, why are you in wisconsin?


oh yeah you should come up here man

If you have time try Mt. La Crosse. Just up the river valley from Wilmont. I has one of the steepest runs in the midwest, Damnation, and is my old local hill. Although there is night skiing the only good run, damnation will be closed.

Endless...you should have called bro.

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Originally posted by Spats
Too bad you didn't get to the Madison or central Wisconsin area. Nearly 500 vert at Devils Head, and 700 at Rib Mountain (which I guess is called "Granite Peak" now).

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heh, I went to granite peaks for the first time when i was down in swiss-consin last year. I almost fell off the chairlift when I saw those three "double blacks" at the top of their main chair. They couldnt be more than 50 feet long. Plus they had a trail rated double black that was groomed.

And you guys out with knee injuries, this should make you feel better. One of the guys I went with tore his ACL slipping on some ice in the parking lot of granite peaks, it would have been his first time skiing in like 5 years, how is that for a bummer?

edit-hahaha look what they have added for this year, a powder park!

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Peak Powder Park
This year, January and February are powder months in our new Peak Powder Park. Every Friday and Saturday night (weather permitting), we will make light, powdery snow overnight, leaving fresh, ungroomed powder ready for slicing and shredding each Saturday and Sunday morning.

The resulting snow will be less uniformly spread over the run than natural snow which should provide even more of the challenge and adventure that draws skiers and boarders to powder snow and off piste conditions. For this reason, the Peak Powder Park will likely contain a number of snow piles, valleys and hits that will entertain and exhilarate the adventurous for hours. The snow will be made from our specially mounted tower guns to ensure that (weather permitting) the quality of the snow is nearly as light and powdery as much of what mother nature brings to the slopes.

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http://www.kokotele.com/pm1.gif

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Originally posted by ripley ripper
heh, I went to granite peaks for the first time when i was down in swiss-consin last year. I almost fell off the chairlift when I saw those three "double blacks" at the top of their main chair. They couldnt be more than 50 feet long. Plus they had a trail rated double black that was groomed.

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Granite Peak may be another area guily of "embellishing" it's vertical. First of all, some people (not the ski area itself) claim that Rib Mtn. is WI's highest point, when it actually ranks 3rd. Some sort of marketing blunder. Secondly, all the vertical is used up in the first 1/2 of the hill, making for a huge runout of nothing. The double-blacks were finally chair served when the new ownership arrived and built a chair to the "top". The chutes are interesting. They're steep and you can pick multiple lines down. Yes, they only 50 feet or so high, but you don't need to get on a plane to ski something like that. It's a decent ski area and nothing beats the smell of the Wausau paper mill industry.

Mt. LaCrosse is nowhere near Wilmot either. More like a 5 hour drive.

Endless, I'd highly suggest Tyrol Basin, and (gulp!) Cascade. Cascade has an 80' S-rail this season and is building a superpipe 100' longer than the X-Games pipe. Just a marketing FYI for you. Tyrol is Tyrol, and is always good. So steep they had an avalanche there a couple of seasons ago.

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Originally posted by Skidawg
Granite Peak may be another area guily of "embellishing" it's

Mt. LaCrosse is nowhere near Wilmot either. More like a 5 hour drive.

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5 hours seem like a long time if Wilmot borders WI and IL on the Mississippi River considering it only takes 3 hours at most to get to Dubuque, IA from La Crosse. Either way an argument could be made that is too far for that hill.

Why ski Wilmont, dont waste your time or money. Chestnut mtn, hell does that bring back memories. I used to drive from Chicago to Tyrol every weekend for their park, fun shit.

There's no way Granite Peak is 700 ft. vertical unless they include the cell phone tower on top of the hill. I skied there Sat. for the first time. As stated previously, the first 20% of the run is a nice pitch, and then it just flattens out.

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Originally posted by Skidawg
The double-blacks were finally chair served when the new ownership arrived and built a chair to the "top". The chutes are interesting. They're steep and you can pick multiple lines down. Yes, they only 50 feet or so high, but you don't need to get on a plane to ski something like that. It's a decent ski area and nothing beats the smell of the Wausau paper mill industry.

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I skied at Granite Peak last winter and they'd blown so much snow it actually filled in their "chutes" and groomed over the top of it... It was sweet.

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Originally posted by Grange
5 hours seem like a long time if Wilmot borders WI and IL on the Mississippi River considering it only takes 3 hours at most to get to Dubuque, IA from La Crosse. Either way an argument could be made that is too far for that hill.

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Mapquest distance

240.82 miles.

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Originally posted by Skidawg
The double-blacks were finally chair served when the new ownership arrived and built a chair to the "top".

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Did they hail this as a triumph of engineering? I'd say it's right up there with landing a man on the moon!:D

What?!?! No one's asking me for trip pics?

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Originally posted by Endlessseason
PDA update from East 20 @75 mph: mission accomplished.

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i believe the speed limit is 55 on highway 20; i've taken the liberty of notifying the proper authorities. how'd you enjoy the skate at the end of the day?

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Originally posted by Endlessseason
What?!?! No one's asking me for trip pics?

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Where are the pics man? Let's see the midwest stoke.

PDA update from East 20 @75 mph: mission accomplished.

And P.S. Truth--I did. Remember you didn't want to go on Pres wknd?

Matt Sterbenz started out at Grand Geneva.

http://www.squaw.com/freeride/images...zlevinthal.jpg

http://www.squaw.com/freeride/athletes/sterbenz.html

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Originally posted by Endlessseason
PDA update from East 20 @75 mph: mission accomplished.

And P.S. Truth--I did. Remember you didn't want to go on Pres wknd?

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Did I say that? Shit...Sunday was no good but Saturday I could have met you anywhere. My bad.

Endless:

Where are the pics, mang? I wanna see you tearing it up on 200' vertical hills!

Heh. I thought I'd be able to get to them last weekend, but the piles of stuff to do are too big. Hopefully I can post 'em this weekend, but don't get too excited. Since I mostly had to ask total strangers to take the shots, most of them are very underwhelming.
Besides, you know how the camera flattens out the slope angles... I think that's prolly what happened with the pics I took in the Midwest. Yah, I'm pretty sure that's what it was. :D

just putting in some MW pride

alpine is the coolest.

Endless - you should have let us MW maggots know you were coming...

Two months later... Midwest Ski Pics

good call
http://www.endlessseason.com/2004/30days/w3.jpg

Yeah, the Illinois side of that is Gander Mountain and is now a park. It used to be a ski area waaaaayyy back and da 'mot was going to take it over, but ran into insurance issues (so the story goes). Now it's a decent mountain biking area and because it's owned by forest preserve, it's safe from Thelen Sand & Gravel Mining Co. So they just went ahead and took over the ski area to surround it. :rolleyes:

[hijack]
Utah Mini Summit '04
Doh! I knew I should have copyrighted (?!?) those pics, just think of the royalties I'm missing out on! ;) BTW, that pic of "Roadtrip" is actually Simon (I think). [/hijack]

When you gonna make it down my way Endless? At least we've got more than 500 vert at most places.

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Originally posted by Lumpy
Blatz Beer, brats on the bbq, ice fishing in -30, chix of Scandinavian descent, more cheese than you can imagine, big ole' muskies and walleyes lurking in the lakes, ...

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awww, makes me miss home. Except for the scandinavian chicks, of course. ;) :p Damn I love beer brats!

Welcome to my hell next season:

http://www.endlessseason.com/2004/30days/w.jpg

note: not my actual place in hell, but very similar

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Originally posted by crashnburn'd
Welcome to my hell next season:

http://www.endlessseason.com/2004/30days/w.jpg

note: not my actual place in hell, but very similar

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*Sigh*, yes that's the homestead. I learned to ski there and had some of the best times of my life on that "enhanced" moraine.

Just remember - "It's a mile wide!" . That's not even half of the terrain!!!