Read skier and snowboarder-submitted reviews on Tyrol Basin 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 Tyrol Basin 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 Tyrol Basin review! Scroll to the bottom of this page to let other travelers know about your skiing and resort experience.
Reviews for Tyrol Basin
Total (2.7)
A ski resort's overall star rating displayed here is not calculated based on a simple average but takes several factors, including the age of a review, into account.
This is a small hill, close to Madison with three basic triple chairs, a magic carpet in the beginners area, and a rope tow dedicated to the terrain park. The runs are short because the total vertical is only about 280ft or 85m. There are some steeps, but they are very short. There is some tree skiing, even some very steep and challenging tree skiing with small cliff drops, but again it is extremely short, maybe 100ft of vertical, enough for maybe 5 turns and then you are out of it. The parks are very good for those who are into that, and they build a couple of enormous (by midwest standards) jumps, that honestly are probably a waste of snow given how few of the local skiers can actually send it off them. The bad part is that it that they seem to make inexplicable decisions on which lifts are open and where they are going to make snow. I was out there recently in December on a cold day, and they had snow guns blasting on every single open run, leading to really inconsistent conditions, getting blasted by snow guns even on the lift, and snow whales in the middle of runs you were skiing. These runs all seemed to have a sufficient base of at least 24in of artificial snow already. Meanwhile, half of their runs were still closed, yet they weren't making any snow on them at all even when the temperature was like 0F. It's now 3 days later, it has been below freezing for most of that time, but they haven't opened any additional runs. I was considering going back out there but not worth it to ski the same half of the hill I skied 3 days ago again and again. Their decision regarding snow making and lift/run opening make no sense to me.
Matthew Millar
This place is a gem. I've worked here as a bartender, and also have season passes for myself and my three kids. The new management is great and it really gives the place a fantastic buzz. The snowmaking is amazing, and the terrain parks are thoughtful, challenging, and fun. It gets busy, (especially on Tuesdays) but the lines stay short, especially on the West chair lifts. I love it here, and so do my kids!
Tyler Bukachek
Tyrol Basin:
Nearly $500 down the toilet today as Tyrol is unwilling to simply move 19 tubing tickets, that we had to buy ahead of time, to next week when there isn’t freezing rain and a winter storm advisory out. They’d rather 19 people take their chances on the road to go go tubing together. I’m not asking for a refund, I’m simply asking for it to be pushed out to next week when it’s safe for people to drive. If it were just snow we’d be going today but it’s the combo of freezing rain and snow that makes it unrealistic. This is not a way to conduct business especially when you already have the money and the capacity for us to come out one week from today. In a time of COVID and supporting local business I would think the logical response could and should be that we can move our tickets out a week. This doesn’t make anyone feel good about supporting a business that doesn’t understand this.
Dmitri Andreev
Lines overwhelming, not all runs open, chaotic parking/blocked vehicles occasionally, overcrowding, suggested improvements were scorned by the owner. Considering switching to a different local resort next season.
Izabela
The management is rude, aggressive, and threatening, and then they turn around and tell you it's your fault and that "you made them do it". I felt I was being gaslighted.
First, my husband called to ask about private lessons for our kids. The woman on the phone was annoyed that she had to talk to us and she refused to give us any information. She said she was just about to post the info on the website.
We later booked the first lesson and it was great. We were told we could request the same instructors during booking, which we did for the following lesson.
A week later, we got different instructors. Not a big deal and the new instructors were very good. We figured someone else requested our original instructors earlier. We happened to run into those instructors on the slopes and we struck a conversation with the people taking lessons. Turns out they in fact did not request the instructors. I thought that maybe my online request didn’t go through so I asked the manager about it. She got very angry and pretty abusive and she basically lied to my face about the fact that someone else had requested the instructors first. I don’t mind if they can’t accommodate a request, but I do mind if people yell at me and if they lie. Another thing that happened that day is that the instructors asked me to get ski ties from the front desk for the kids (to keep the skis together). At the front desk, I was met with suspicion and cross-examination and I was treated as if I was trying to steal the ties. They would only give ties to the instructors directly, even though they knew I had a private lesson.
Next time, as advised, we called 2 hours before the lesson to ask about the instructors so that we could give heads up to our kids, if the teachers changed. First thing we were told is that it is going to be 1 instructor, not 2 as before. That was a bit confusing because we booked the same lesson as before, but we understand that there might be mistakes at the beginning of the season and we were fine with 1 instructor. The problem was that the manger lied to me again by telling me that the reason we had 2 instructors before was because somebody cancelled lessons (twice?). I knew it was a lie because we do chat with instructors during the lessons. Why lie about it? Then I was told that although I can request a specific instructor, there is no guarantee. I get that, but at that point I decided to tell the manger that we know we were lied to the week before. The manager interrupted me mid-sentence and chastised me for talking to people on the slopes about booking. A classic gaslighting — when caught on a lie, they aggressively accused me of being inappropriate. At that point I was peeved, and I said that that if she didn’t want to listen to me, she would read about it in a review. She suggested I take my business somewhere else and I agreed. However, she refused to give me a refund for the upcoming lesson so I said I would come for the last time. After arriving, I was told that I need to talk to the owner after my lesson. I basically felt like I was being called to the "principle’s office". The owner told us not to come back. It was the first time we ever met him, and he was intense and intimidating. We really tried to be nice on the off-chance that he wanted to hear us out. I told him how happy we were with the instructors and I asked if he wanted to hear about our experience. He very clearly said “no, because I believe my staff”. To be clear, the owner came up to the customers, was aggressive and intimidating and did not want to hear a word of what the customer had to say. The owner also said that I physically threatened his staff on the phone. Wow! Ok, first of all, what I “threatened” to do is to write a review. Secondly, how would that make sense for a mother to bring two 5 y.o. children for a ski lesson in order to physically threaten the staff at the resort? The owner said he recorded the phone call. Probably a lie again, but if he did in fact listen to the call, he should know what I actually said and not try to gaslight me again. Just wow!
Mike Carpenter
Great place to ski.have ski bike and let us use lifts.friendly, great price for weekday
Taatjes undefined
Great job with the park and switching it up frequently. Great place to work on your park riding and do advanced tricks.
Angela Martinelli
Visited 1.4.20 lots going on but the place is just a dump no visible upgrades for years. Womens bathrooms long lines and dirty. Everyplace you look the place needs to be cleaned up.
Bob Butler
The racing programs here are very good and you are sure to have a great experience with the teams! The park is amazing and great for beginners learning tricks and experts perfecting their tricks!
Adam
Since you can get am 8-hour lift ticket for as little as $15 on liftopia, Tyrol can be a very good bargain depending on what you're looking for. I have no interest in the terrain park, so there isn't a whole lot here to keep my entertained. A couple of the black diamonds (Twister, Yodeler) can be fun if there's no lift line and you can run laps.
I come to Tyrol when I'm skiing with my 4-year-old son because it's a bargain. Ski lessons are pretty inexpensive here compared to other nearby resorts, as is equipment rental for kids. Tyrol only puts 2 kids per instructor if they're 5 or younger, Since my son is 4, he typically ends up getting a private lesson. Yesterday we went and including my $26 liftopia ticket, his $30 lesson, and $10 rental (to keep the skis after his lesson), we spent $66. This is as much as a 1-hour private lesson by itself costs at other nearby resorts. The beginner terrain could be better, though. The rope tow only serves a tiny bunny hill, which my son was bored with quickly. But, the runs accessible from the chair lifts were a little too much for him at first. The hill served by the cable tow is great for learning, but the cable tow itself is terrifying to my son.
When I want to ski on my own or with other adults, I'll go elsewhere. But for skiing with my kid on the cheap, Tyrol is very hard to beat.
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