OK...the previous reviews are not giving welch any credit....what the crap!!!
I think Welch is by far the best you can get in MN outside of the big three (Lutsen,Spirit, Giant). Obviously it's not like the mountains, but it has some great stuff!! There are some great steep runs like Chicken, Dan's Dive, and Bakki(something).Chicken is the steepest at 30 some degrees! And there are a couple "chutes" on the west side called Tree face, Rock Face, and and the lesser Lift Face. These runs are short however. Most people just bomb down them.

A strong intermediate can ski anything here. A beginner will be happy on the beginner double or the triple on the east side. An expert should not expect much.....though there are some reletively hard runs.

My favorite run is Birch Ridge. It's on the west side and is long and narrow and fairly steep.

Call before you go. We were planning on staying in Red Wing
Fri and Sat Went to Welch Fri Night Disaster, kids running wild, chalet was a garbage pit, no place to sit eat couldn't even get part of our money back as we left 45 minutes after we got there. We went to Woodbury Wildwood Lodge. They gave us a deal on the room, breakfast voucher and discounted tickets to Afton Alps. They even left the pool open a little longer for our kids after we told them about our situation. Afton was really crowded yet they had people busing tables picking up trash, directing traffic, even running a schuttle so people didn't have to walk to their cars that were parked in the far ends of the parking lots.

Our family came to minnesota this year for a break instead of colorado
We stayed in Hastings so we could ski Welch and Afton. Welch had good terrain and grooming, but for the price It's Afton. They had packages set up for families with the hotel we stayed at and more options once we got to the area. Don't get me wrong Welch is a nice area but if we wanted to spend that kind of money we would have gone to Colorado

Welch is the best ski area I have ever been to. It's a lot better than Afton Alps. Whoever wrote the first review must have fell and hit his head.

Welch has excellent terrain. The lifts as someone else mentioned, are old and somewhat strange, but hey ...they work. I'm disappointed that Welch chose their premier run (Lookout) to put their terrain park on. If Welch had only this one run, I'd still go there. It's very wide with a good incline. It's really too bad that they decided to litter it with jumps and obstacles. Their other good runs like Dan's Dive and Bakki are good but usually taken over by various race practices. I also think Welch is a bit overpriced, especially on weekdays, but they have good deals on season passes if you can make it there often.