Ski and Snowboard News, Deals, and Events

Ski Brule, a longtime Midwest family favorite, is offering a couple of early season weekend specials that shouldn't be missed. Brule is offering $55 Carload Days over the weekends of Dec. 20-21 and January 10-11. That's the price for the entire car or truck load of occupants. Show up with lots of friends, but no busses please; and, you have to be in a seat belt.

Brule opened for the season Nov. 11, which is typical of the ski area. They are routinely one of the first in the Heartland to open and one of the last to close. Two ski areas - Wild Mountain in Minnesota and Tyrol Basin in Wisconsin - opened at the end of October. The Midwest season got off to a good, early start this year with many ski areas in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan - Boyne Mountain, [R72, Boyne Highlands], Nubs Nob, Shanty Creek, Crystal Mountain, and Caberfae Peaks - posting some the earliest openings they've enjoyed in the last decade.

Ski Brule offers a variety of terrain - slopes, terrain parks and terrain trails, half pipes - that flow off a 500-foot wooded knob in almost 360-degrees. Many of the trails are sequestered in trees keeping them separate from the wide, boulevard-like slopes, which are often busy on weekends.

The longtime Homestead Lodge, a restored 1880's original UP homestead cabin located partway down the Homestead Trail, is a great place on weekends to sit and watch skiers and boarders go by while feasting on one of their great grilled burgers. With a new deck on a sunny day, what can be better?

You only have a couple more weeks to purchase daily lift tickets for $28, which is a $10 savings over the regular price at the ticket window. They are valid anytime during the season with no restrictions, and can only be purchased online through Dec. 24.