Reviews for Lutsen Mountains

Read skier and snowboarder-submitted reviews on Lutsen Mountains that rank the ski resort and mountain town on a scale of one to five stars for attributes such as terrain, nightlife and family friendliness. See how Lutsen Mountains stacks up in the reviews, on and off the slopes, from skiing and family activities to the après scene. Read up on pros, cons and other comments in reviews left by fellow skiers and riders. Don't forget to submit your own Lutsen Mountains review! Scroll to the bottom of this page to let other travelers know about your skiing and resort experience.

Reviews for Lutsen Mountains

Total (2.7)
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84 Total Reviews:
5 Star Reviews (37)
4 Star Reviews (18)
3 Star Reviews (16)
2 Star Reviews (9)
1 Star Reviews (4)
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jhawkinsmn
Lutsen has good skiing if all the factors line up at the same time. Moose Mountain has some of the longest runs in the Midwest and they are challenging enough to keep advanced skiers happy. Unfortunately the lift layout of the area is less than ideal, and really limits the potential of this area. Snow conditions and weather can be hit or miss.
Large vertical and long runs for a Midwest ski area
High ticket prices and clunky lift layout
Victoria Helvey
We purchased the insurance through the Lutsen Ski package website and the numbers listed go to a scammer. They ask for personal information and credit card numbers and it is not an insurance company number! Beware Lutsen Mountain is involved in a scam! Do not fall for this! You will get all your information stolen! Lutsen will do nothing to help! They are allowing the scam to continue!
Good skiing
Insurance scam!
anonymous
okay skiing for the locale, upper midwest. Signage is terrible and there is no nav app for moving from one place to next. Many poorly planned link trails, get ready to pole across the terrain! Some fun runs but seriously limited experience during covid -
it’s about as good as it can be for this area
needs updating badly - looks like a resort from 1990s
michael connaughton
Runs mostly well groomed, with some bare and icy spots. Lifts except for recent upgrades are a HUGE problem. I have had no problem loading/unloading anywhere for many years. Here I fell several times in poorly maintained unloading areas. Once I fell heavily right across the unloading area and the operator made no effort to stop the lift. Four other skiers had to struggle to avoid running over me! Bottom line: until staffing, grooming and equipment are improved, this is my last visit to Lutsen.
Good range of terrain. More options than other Midwest resorts.
Antiquated lifts poorly staffed, maintained and groomed
REBECCA CARTWRIGHT
Besides covid restrictions and no night skiing, overall a good time and we'll be back. We're a novice skiing family not even a full season under our belt, a few professional lessons with mainly sticking to our smaller ski hills back home, but are diving in full throttle with our 8 and 10 year old, one of which has multiple disabilities. The marked greens on Eagle were way to much for my youngest who has been confident on blues at our home hill, so we were not prepared for that step up/ change... she stuck to Ullyr mnt. The whole time....myself and our 10 year old were able to get a good amount of experience and confidently pushed ourselves here... we have a scheduled trip to Squaw Valley in Tahoe in just a few short months and coming to Lutsen was a great step to get a feel for what heading out west has in store!
Easy to get around
True green runs were limited
Joseph Nauber
Many workers on the lifts did not know how to get to trails or what lift to use to get there. Trails are not marked well enough time to turn and end up in big trouble. Lifts not marked on the levels available at the top, could be more trouble. Also, for a beginner total Terror and fear!!!! Totally NOT the best place for a beginner. Save your money for any beginner, and go someone where more comfortable to learn. I have been working with my fiance for the last couple years at different ski mountains. She was doing well, until she skied HERE. On THE "EASY" hills. Very steep and not a tapered gradual decline to practice form. Overall, scared the "HELL" out of her. Myself, I enjoyed skiing here, have been skiing for years.
Many runs
Workers don't know directions ??
Joseph Nauber
Many workers on the lifts did not know how to get to trails or what lift to use to get there. Trails are not marked well enough time to turn and end up in big trouble. Lifts not marked on the levels available at the top, could be more trouble. Also, for a beginner total Terror and fear!!!! Totally NOT the best place for a beginner. Save your money for any beginner, and go someone where more comfortable to learn. I have been working with my fiance for the last couple years at different ski mountains. She was doing well, until she skied HERE. On THE "EASY" hills. Very steep and not a tapered gradual decline to practice form. Overall, scared the "HELL" out of her. Myself, I enjoyed skiing here, have been skiing for years. On net postings also.
Many runs
Workers don't know directions ??
Will lumplump
I moved to Minnesota after more than a decade skiing Big Sky Montana 70+ days a season, and more importantly, skiing the peak, out of bounds, the headwaters and in the trees. To say I had low hopes would be an understatement. A previous day skiing another prominent minnesota ski area was so underwhelming I left after my 4th run. The first day I hit Lutsen I brought a friend from Big Sky. The easiest way for me to explain the day is this: We were first in line at the gondola. We stopped one time at my truck to eat a few power bars. We stopped when the liftie said it was our last ride up. Apparently they were having an above average snow year. All I know is we found an almost endless supply of untouched powder in different spots on 3 of the 4 mountains we skied. Right under the gondola top shack is a pruned out tree run that even has a few hidden ‘keyholes’ that lead to hidden meadows complete with small mandatory drops. We found cliffs hidden in the woods. Carved turns down Moose mountain at almost 65mph. We billy goated our way onto a rock garden and dropped a few pillow lines. Ya.... for being in the Midwest, Lutsen is not only legit, it legitly huge. I’ve skied resorts out west that are half the size of Lutsen. Anyone giving this place less than 5 stars isn’t a real skier. It’s one of two 5 star ski areas in the Midwest. Mt Bohemia is the other. On a powder day, I’ll take Lutsen over Mt Bohemia any day of the week. While Mt Bohemia has bigger cliffs, and a few areas of steepish trees... Lutsen offers everything, including hands down the steepest groomed runs I’ve ever seen. So steep the cats have to tie off and use a winch. I can’t wait to ski here again after they almost double the size of it through their future expansion plan. Ye ha!
One of 2 midwest ski areas that don’t bore me to death.
None
Michael undefined
Good conditions early this week on Monday and Tuesday, and snow Wednesday as I was leaving. Nice Midwest Ski hill with good speed chair at base of Gondola runs. Bridge chair to better black runs was a bit slow. Nice resort for a family looking to save some money rather than heading out west.
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Tom
I visited Lutsen a month after I'd been in Park City, and I had scaled my expectations accordingly. So I was blown away at how good Lutsen is for the Midwest. In all ways it sits between the no-vertical ski hills of the Midwest and the actual mountains out West, but it manages to deliver something that feels more like the West than I expected. It has a lot of great intermediate runs, including all the blues and many of the runs labeled as single-black on their map, and their snow management is really very good. Lutsen is privately owned and it's obvious they don't have the big investment money that the Western resorts or the corporate-owned midwest hills have - most of the chairlifts are positively antiquated, they use paper lift tickets, and most of the facilities show an advanced age. But it all works, and they do have some nice recent investment where it really matters - in grooming equipment, and an express lift on their busiest slope. The prices may seem high - they charge a lot of fees above and beyond the official lift ticket price, putting two "last tracks" tickets at nearly $200 - but it gets you probably halfway to the West experience at nowhere near half the price.
Longest Runs in the Midwest, Great Views
Expensive for the Midwest
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