shadoj
Angel Diva
Took a short trip to the west side of the UP earlier this week with 3 friends. Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort is located just north of Ironwood, MI (<15 min), which has plenty of grocery options. Beer, wine, & spirits right in the grocery; wonderful selection of local brands to choose from. The area is known for its abundant lake-effect snowfall, usually >200" per year. Bring snowshoes if you have an extra day to explore the trails!
We stayed at Black River Lodge, just a few miles down the road. It might be turning into an event center next year, unfortunately -- otherwise highly recommend. Group townhouse with full kitchen for 2 nights was very affordable, and we got to meet the owners' sweet Great Dane. There are a couple dozen ski-in/ski-out rentals available on the hill, which will need further investigation for future visits.
We first arrived Sunday evening, with the last 45 minutes of the drive getting a bit snowy. Drove slowly, got there safely, and the snow just kept coming down. And down. And down.
Monday, Feb 7:
Woke up to >8" of snow covering everything. Fluffy, out-west-style dry powder, as light as I've ever seen. Temperature range in the 20F's, no wind, sunshine until ~2pm. This may have been my most perfect ski day ever. All of my group just knew there was something magical about it... and there was *no one* at the hill! The parking lot maybe had 30 cars by midday, and we literally skied onto every lift. Still saw our morning tracks on the last lift of the day, and still found untracked powder on the last run of the day. So perfect.
Tuesday, Feb 8:
No new snow overnight. Temperature starting in the teens, but up to ~35F. Windy in the morning, causing varied snow conditions and filling in hidden moguls and divots from the day before. Light was flat in the morning, but the sun peeked out a bit midday. Could actively watch the snow compress as it warmed up, and things got a bit spring-like; more and more thin cover revealed itself. More people than Monday, but only had to wait behind one person in line. Unfortunately, one of my favorite chairlifts was not running due to low staff. Discovered a hidden mogul trough with my downhill ski during a turn in untracked, "flat", semi-compressed powder, got sucked down, and did the most comical slow-motion backwards fall into a big pile of fluff, giggling the whole time. I got cheers and "send it!" from the lift
. Definitely made for some funny-looking tracks interrupted by a body print in the snow. I had forgotten I had only skied groomers before that and didn't have my boot buckles tightened fully yet. Oops! Everyone was tired from skiing hard on Monday, so we called it a day ~2pm and began the 5-hour drive home, already talking about coming back for another visit!
I used my Black Pearl 82's and they did surprisingly well in the deeper fresh fluffy stuff, and wonderful in the chopped powder. They were "ok" in the denser sun-softened-deep-mash, but that was expected. Super fun in areas that were getting bumped-up, super fun carving on soft natural snow, super fun getting to make big arcs due to wide runs and few people!
All the chairs are fixed-grip double Riblets with center bars and low sides, so not the speediest nor most reassuring things, but functional. Bunny hill area has a paddle lift. Pretty easy to get around the mountain and back to the main base/chalet area.
The scenery is gorgeous! Mixed conifers and deciduous trees really add variety and charm. You can see the Copper Peak ski-flying hill (a few miles away) standing above the horizon when you're up at the top. The jump is *giant*!
The mountain is ~600' vertical, with a variety of pitches and groomed/ungroomed terrain. A little bit of everything for everyone, though the shallow-slope terrain park in underwhelming. Only a couple runs were closed due to thin cover; I skipped Upper Smoke/Louie's/Vertical Drop because I love my skis too much at the moment. Pretty much skied everything else. Favorite runs were Blunder, Double Barrel, and the Tamarou/Slingshot/Ramrod area, but I honestly wasn't paying attention half the time, taking whichever fork/line looked fun down to the chair!
Food was quite affordable; there's a grab-n-go snack area + assorted tables/chairs in the main part of the Gun Barrel chalet, plus a sit-down restaurant with more food selection and a bar upstairs. The Caribou Lodge next door supposedly has even fancier food, but is only open Thurs-Sun. Rentals appear to be Elans, with Ripsticks available for high-performance. Tickets are $85/day walk-up, discounts for multi-day, and they're on the Indy & Ski Cooper passes. No online tickets available, no reservations needed for parking/food/etc. Apparently you can rent one of their Wine Huts and get a meal from one of the local restaurants delivered to you on the hill, mid-slope!
One of my buddies volunteer patrolled while there. We met the director, Alex, and he was a really cool guy, passionate about the hill, despite the short staffing. Got to see the wood-with-non-collapsible-pipe-handles toboggan that they used in the 60's! They are desperate for patrol help, and will apparently comp you a ticket+guest ticket if you do.
The original owners still run the place and do all the snow grooming. Felt good to support a place like this; seems the area could really use more outside $$$ coming in. It's not the only ski hill in the area; could make for a great future Diva mini-midwest-meetup location!
I'll post a couple pics when I get them from my friend!
We stayed at Black River Lodge, just a few miles down the road. It might be turning into an event center next year, unfortunately -- otherwise highly recommend. Group townhouse with full kitchen for 2 nights was very affordable, and we got to meet the owners' sweet Great Dane. There are a couple dozen ski-in/ski-out rentals available on the hill, which will need further investigation for future visits.
We first arrived Sunday evening, with the last 45 minutes of the drive getting a bit snowy. Drove slowly, got there safely, and the snow just kept coming down. And down. And down.
Monday, Feb 7:
Woke up to >8" of snow covering everything. Fluffy, out-west-style dry powder, as light as I've ever seen. Temperature range in the 20F's, no wind, sunshine until ~2pm. This may have been my most perfect ski day ever. All of my group just knew there was something magical about it... and there was *no one* at the hill! The parking lot maybe had 30 cars by midday, and we literally skied onto every lift. Still saw our morning tracks on the last lift of the day, and still found untracked powder on the last run of the day. So perfect.
Tuesday, Feb 8:
No new snow overnight. Temperature starting in the teens, but up to ~35F. Windy in the morning, causing varied snow conditions and filling in hidden moguls and divots from the day before. Light was flat in the morning, but the sun peeked out a bit midday. Could actively watch the snow compress as it warmed up, and things got a bit spring-like; more and more thin cover revealed itself. More people than Monday, but only had to wait behind one person in line. Unfortunately, one of my favorite chairlifts was not running due to low staff. Discovered a hidden mogul trough with my downhill ski during a turn in untracked, "flat", semi-compressed powder, got sucked down, and did the most comical slow-motion backwards fall into a big pile of fluff, giggling the whole time. I got cheers and "send it!" from the lift
. Definitely made for some funny-looking tracks interrupted by a body print in the snow. I had forgotten I had only skied groomers before that and didn't have my boot buckles tightened fully yet. Oops! Everyone was tired from skiing hard on Monday, so we called it a day ~2pm and began the 5-hour drive home, already talking about coming back for another visit!I used my Black Pearl 82's and they did surprisingly well in the deeper fresh fluffy stuff, and wonderful in the chopped powder. They were "ok" in the denser sun-softened-deep-mash, but that was expected. Super fun in areas that were getting bumped-up, super fun carving on soft natural snow, super fun getting to make big arcs due to wide runs and few people!
All the chairs are fixed-grip double Riblets with center bars and low sides, so not the speediest nor most reassuring things, but functional. Bunny hill area has a paddle lift. Pretty easy to get around the mountain and back to the main base/chalet area.
The scenery is gorgeous! Mixed conifers and deciduous trees really add variety and charm. You can see the Copper Peak ski-flying hill (a few miles away) standing above the horizon when you're up at the top. The jump is *giant*!
The mountain is ~600' vertical, with a variety of pitches and groomed/ungroomed terrain. A little bit of everything for everyone, though the shallow-slope terrain park in underwhelming. Only a couple runs were closed due to thin cover; I skipped Upper Smoke/Louie's/Vertical Drop because I love my skis too much at the moment. Pretty much skied everything else. Favorite runs were Blunder, Double Barrel, and the Tamarou/Slingshot/Ramrod area, but I honestly wasn't paying attention half the time, taking whichever fork/line looked fun down to the chair!
Food was quite affordable; there's a grab-n-go snack area + assorted tables/chairs in the main part of the Gun Barrel chalet, plus a sit-down restaurant with more food selection and a bar upstairs. The Caribou Lodge next door supposedly has even fancier food, but is only open Thurs-Sun. Rentals appear to be Elans, with Ripsticks available for high-performance. Tickets are $85/day walk-up, discounts for multi-day, and they're on the Indy & Ski Cooper passes. No online tickets available, no reservations needed for parking/food/etc. Apparently you can rent one of their Wine Huts and get a meal from one of the local restaurants delivered to you on the hill, mid-slope!
One of my buddies volunteer patrolled while there. We met the director, Alex, and he was a really cool guy, passionate about the hill, despite the short staffing. Got to see the wood-with-non-collapsible-pipe-handles toboggan that they used in the 60's! They are desperate for patrol help, and will apparently comp you a ticket+guest ticket if you do.
The original owners still run the place and do all the snow grooming. Felt good to support a place like this; seems the area could really use more outside $$$ coming in. It's not the only ski hill in the area; could make for a great future Diva mini-midwest-meetup location!
I'll post a couple pics when I get them from my friend!
