fonixmunkee's Blog

NOW the season can be over.

After Michigan's Upper Peninsula got pounded with snow in a span of two days (4 feet!), my friends and I managed to break free for some late, late, late season turns. We took the 5+ hour drive up to the U.P. and weren't disappointed.
Skiing on April 15th in the Midwest doesn't sound possible. And for the most part, it isn't Only Lutsen Mountains on Minnesota's North Shore can ever really stay open that long, due to a technique called "snow farming." This is where Lutsen amasses tons of man-made snow in piles strategically on some spots on primary runs. Then as the snow melts off, a cat pushes more snow from the reserves onto the balding spots. This works good...but when temps get as warm as they have, it's only so-so effective.

So we skied last weekend at Lutsen on moderate corn snow with many bald- and icy spots. We thought that was it, until we saw Mount Bohemia re-opened. We really missed the fresh stuff, and when we arrived a week later, the snow cover was minimal. But we were bound and determined to make it work. And we did.

We stayed slope-side at Bohemia and after fueling up on gin and Coors Light, decided to setup a small jump to get into the mood. Dave taught me a lot about spinning off jumps on skis, and soon my technique was flawless. We played for hours on our little jump, until it was time to turn in and wake up in the morrow for The Real Thing.

In the morning, we hit the main lift and went up top to cover the Bear Den and the Extreme Backcountry, where supposedly the best snow was. The Bear Den did indeed have cover, but it wasn't nearly as good as it had been the week prior. We made one turn, hiked out to the road to catch the backcountry bus (the Bear Den lift wasn't running) and went to check out the front side--where coverage looked a bit better.

We skied Prospector and found it to have the best snow. We lapped this a few times to get our legs underneath us and see who else was at the resort. We had only counted 6 cars in the lot--some of which were probably employees--and the entire time only say 8-10 other people. We had the run of the resort, but soon the lack of people took it's toll: they stopped the backcountry bus! This meant no more turns in the Bear Den, the Extreme Backcountry (which we never made it into, but scouting it showed good cover and ZERO tracks), and the Outer Limits--which was closed, but we know that the hike would be worth the fresh snow. We were bummed, but knew that we would have tomorrow to get back into that area.

We moved skier's left of Prospector and dropped into the trees right below Widowmaker for shin-deep turns in soft, soft corn snow. We were vindicated! We lapped this a few times until the snow became too sticky to get any speed on in the relatively flatness of the trees, and finished the day until last chair by lapping Prospector.

We headed back to our cabin and had some celebratory drinks while sessioning our little jump we built the night before. The weather was gorgeous, and we were skiing with just snow pants and no shirts. We found a little log and rolled it next to our jump, and spent some time jibbing that as well.

While we were playing around in our little terrain park (affectionately known as the "Bohemia Terrain Park"), the owner of Bohemia rolled up to sadly inform us that they weren't going to be open tomorrow. We were depressed but not surprised--there was nearly no one there on what should have been a busy Saturday, and the snow pack was melting away fast--visibly fast. We thanked the owner for the great season, and he told us he looked forward to seeing us next season.

We spent the rest of the day until dark hitting our jump and jibbing our log, photographing the relative goofiness of our last time on sticks for the season. We coined the entire time "The Bohemia Sessions." And it was a hell of a way to end the season.

Yeah, April 15th. Tax day. Skiing knee-deep. In the Midwest. Who would of thunk it. But I wasn't ready to give up on the season, and I got rewarded handsomely for it. The season can end now, I'll let it happen. I've already swung my golf clubs a few times and have taken the backpacking gear out of storage.

Go ahead and melt the snow. I'm cool with it for now. But my stoke for next season will be phenomenal. This season will be the one to beat. My best season to date: two trips out West, two trips to Mount Bohemia, countless trips to my local resorts, and tons of firsts for me on sticks this season. How can it really get any better than that? I'm going out with a bang, so I'm happy.

Old Man Winter: your money is on the dresser.

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