CaberFKNA! - a Midwest Midweek Middleaged Mediocre TR

[flatNshallow]

... a.k.a. "popping my TR cherry so please be gentle"


First things first: The mandatory and gratuitous BRO Placement shot:



Useless Trivia: Caberfae is the third oldest Ski Area in the US...

The "Fae" had received 6" of fresh and close to 3 feet of snow over 10 days and rumor had it that the stashes had completely recovered from the January thaw. Not much by Western standards but more than enough to get this aging gapers interest.

On the way in we were treated to this view

This slope is part of the "old" area and was called Tournament... After a steady diet of groomed this season, it looked like a feast...

Most of the morning was spent poking around inbounds looking for stashes... the back side of North Peak was looking good to go in the trees so I hiked the ridge up from the park for some Pow in the trees.

The "bootpack":


to this "line":

I was skiing by myself at this point so no action shots...

Shameless plug for a great resort: Caberfae has been called the Alta of the midwest... not for the bottomless pow or because its snowboard free (anything but!) but rather because the vibe is all about skiing and Soul abounds...

For example, they actively encourage "brown bagging" meals. So much so that the brown bagger section of the lodge is about 50% bigger than the dining area of the cafeteria... electrical outlets for every table and Crock pots are commonplace. We had nabbed the last table with a plug in the morning but made a deposit in the karma bank by giving it up to a family of 8 (only 2 of us). What goes around comes around and when we returned for lunch we were treated to steaming hot chili courtesy of our new friends at the table...

Mandatory TR meal shot:


After a righteous lunch I met up with "Gerorge", a local who graciously had offered to show me "around". (Read: The "Goods". )

We warmed up with a lap of one of the old area runs that is now OB... not epic vert and fairly low angle but it was fresh and fun. We only had time for one lap of this run as George had to get to a meeting and we had another line to hit... So of course I screwed up the turn for the shot... oh well.

I gape - therefore I am...

Nice thing about these lines is that you can ski back to the lift without a slog.

Next up was NoName chute... George described it as "an old chute we cleared out a couple years ago that hasn't been skied yet this year".

Getting to it was another matter altogether...

George sets the "skin track":

I call it the art of skinning without skins. [/Bruce Lee voice]

Eventually I opted to boot it as I wasn't making much progress...


NoName:


After leading me to the goods, George insisted I do the honors... Something about his living there and me having driven 3 hours to get there...
George is the mang!

Yahtzee!


Low Clearance ahead:


George rips and deserved much better than this crappy pic I took :



Midwest Mags... If you haven't been to Caberfae, go. Simple as that. It's not the biggest, and it's certainly not the glitziest, area in the Mitten... but for my dollar it is hands down the best value and certainly the best vibe. If any Midwest Mags are heading up this weekend, if you see Bro's in the South Peak chair line ask for change.

I'll close with the required Scenic: I call it "Sunset from M115"


Edit to add a cross link to Indys TR: [ame="http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1674766#post1674766"]CaberFKNA Part Duex[/ame]

[uglymoney]

Nice! A very, very rare shot of someone actually skiing pow in the midwest. Well done.

[GATOR BOY]

Great job. I can appreciate the effort of earning-your-turns. As a Troll, it is especially hard to remember that freshies are available "under the bridge" when all we read about is the epic year that is happening out west.

[Tye 1on]

"Don't kid yourself Flat, you're quite a slouch".

Well played. Do me a favor and skip any TR's from Bintz's or SnowSnake though.

[Nohillsnearby]

Nice!! I certainly hope you're not one of the whiners on the Caberfae guest blog..

[MakersTeleMark]

Nice POWDERHOAR avatar.

[Deutschmark]

I logged LOTS of days at CaberFKNA as youngster, and that looks to be about as good as it gets. It's great to hear that it is still being run the same as it was 20 years ago. The owners (if it's still the same family) were always great to the local families and tourists alike.
Next time you are up there, make sure you poach the gravel pit in town. Probably the steepest turns in that part of the world, and if you go at night, you might not even get arrested.

[chrzanowski5]

I was waiting to see a Michigan post up here ... I remember riding at Caberfae before they added the second peak ... looks like there may be some more fresh stuff on Friday as well. Get there before the groomers!

[dentedvw]

Good day to go today too. Stuck in a basement. Boofuckinhoo.

[INDY GS]

CaberFKNA is right! Flat, I look forward to hitting the fae up with you tomorrow. Wish I could ski both days at Cabby, but one has to be a Crustal.

Nice report and great shots, hopefully we get a repeat tomorrow.

L8.

[Trackhead]

Couloir _ _ _ _

Nice midwest stoke.