Skiing

CCRunner123 · 05-14-2006, 11:56 AM

Is there a ski team or club at Mich? I've heard there are a few mountains, albeit small, up in Northern Michigan, so I'm planning on bringing my skis.

dilksy · 05-14-2006, 12:05 PM

http://www.umich.edu/~mskiing/

You could also always just go on your own with a group of friends (I know people who did that some weekend this winter).

tetrahedr0n · 05-14-2006, 01:48 PM

So unless you go to the UP, skiing is going to pretty much suck because the ski resorts are all man-made hills. In the UP, you can find a few much more decent locations, but they aren't all that great either. And the UP is very far away.

cadreaminnd · 05-14-2006, 02:11 PM

i want to come skiing too! i luv skiing! just got new skis this year.. i heard that the skiing sucks in michigan which made me sad. how far is the UP? does mich have buses there?? or do ski groups go together or is all individual?

how much would it cost to go on the ski trips to telluride or whistler??

CCRunner123 · 05-14-2006, 02:59 PM

My family and I usually take about three big trips a year (Vail, Tahoe, Banff mostly) on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break, but I'd like to also try some of the areas around Michigan just for fun, especially since Michigan has so much snow. If possible, I'd like to ski regularly in the winter (maybe a 2-3 of times a month?) I'm really into it and I don't think I could go without skiing for such a long time.

filler · 05-14-2006, 06:09 PM

I grew up in Mich but left decades. Last I knew the skiing action was not in UP, but nothern LP--Boyne, Boyne Highlands, etc. Withing about 5 hours of AA.

cadreaminnd · 05-14-2006, 08:18 PM

i'm not from michigan so how far is it to the UP (upper peninsula)?

what does LP and AA stand for??

its so much easier in cali all we have is LA and the OC..

tetrahedr0n · 05-14-2006, 09:46 PM

filler is right - for some reason I was convinced Boyne was in the UP.

LP = lower peninsula (the glove one)
UP = upper peninsula
AA = ann arbor

dilksy · 05-14-2006, 10:36 PM

It's roughly 6 or 7 hours to get to the UP, and a few more if you want to get anywhere. For some kind of scale of how big Michigan is, at least as far as driving time goes, Washington DC is closer to U of M than Michigan Tech (located in Houghton, near the top part of the UP).

Everytime I've heard people talk about skiing, they've never made it sound like Michigan was that bad. Probably doesn't compare to the huge mountains and their double black diamond trails, but still an enjoyable experience.

momofthreeboys · 05-15-2006, 04:00 PM

Go to the web and look for Mt. Bohemia and Marquette Mountain which have some challenging terrain. But you are at least 7 hours from these two places when the roads are good. Boyne isn't too bad and would be about 4-5 hours (depending on the weather). Caberfae you might have some fun at for a weekend but really if you are a hard core skier you won't find it in the lower penninsula.

momofthreeboys · 05-15-2006, 04:11 PM

CC: the really hard core skiers in Mich are at Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan. Bring your skis though, we do have fun in the winter even if you can't get to the UP and with the skimpy elevations in the lower penninsula. You'll still have fun. Conditions are definitely closer to eastern skiing than western skiing. Maybe learn to snowboard if you can't stomach the skiing or can't get to it or take up snowshoeing or hockey. My son's #1 passion and #1 requirement for college is that he be within a 1/2 hour of skiing so other than Northern Michigan he's got a college wish list full of schools in Colorado and California.

CCRunner123 · 05-15-2006, 04:56 PM

If I was gonna drive 7 hours just to ski some dinky mountain, I might as well fly out to Colorado or Wyoming for a long weekend.

CCRunner123 · 05-15-2006, 04:59 PM

So would it even make sense to bring up my skis, or would they just take up space and hardly ever be used?

dilksy · 05-15-2006, 05:22 PM

Personally, I think they'd just take up space. Nothing's really that nearby, and you never have as much free time as you think you will during the school year.

On a side-tangent...the hockey situation at U of M currently stinks. Due to either budget cuts or too many fights (never got a conclusive answer), IM hockey got canceled, and as far as I know it's not coming back. So unless you're good enough and have the time for club hockey, or have some kind of way to drive across town to play in a Men's League, college students are SOL as far as hockey goes.

cadreaminnd · 05-15-2006, 06:36 PM

long weekends??? i thought there was only about one long weekend in october and november <not too much snow then

and then feb for spring break. are there more?? i hope so..