Going down to South Peak, gonna have myself a time...

Did I mention the great day today at the Mighty C?

Yah, but only in passing. Care to expound?

I don't have time to write a long trip report, but these are small
resorts so a small TR will probably do.

Saturday: Crystal Mt. Left the house at 6:30, got the the hill at
10:30 and it was already mobbed. Longest lift ticket line I've seen all
year. Bright sunshine, temps in the 40's and an east facing mountain
add up to seriously soupy skiing. Their new North face area held the
snow quality better, but it's not very long or high. Neither is
anything else there, but when the whole damn hill is only 375' of
vertical, you don't want to spend all day skiing a lift that is less
than that. I ended up skiing laps on the Buck chair and dropping in to
Gorge - although (or because) this was a bump run it had seen less
traffic than most of the rest of the hill and so the snow held up better.

Crystal Mt is a serious destination resort for Chicagoland and as such
it has the ammenities that the tony family skiers want - HS quad chair,
fancy lodge, condos condos condos. It was named the #1 Resort in the
Midwest by SKI Magazine, but there's really not much for the serious
skier. I can quickly name 5 better hills in the lower peninsula alone.

Sunday: The Mighty C : About a decade ago when Crystal Mt was putting
$$$$$ into a high speed quad and real estate development, Caberfae's
management invested in dirt. They brought in earth moving equipment and
heaped a bunch of dirt onto the hills making them higher. Vertical: now
that's an investment that I understand. As a result, the Mighty C has a
hundred feet more vert than neighboring Crystal, and the overall terrain
is better. Lifts, lodge, etc are still "old school", but that's ok. It
helps keep the crowds down. The old school lift ticket price (I had a
cupon for a $9 lift ticket) doesn't bother me either.

The forecast called for another sunny day with even warmer temps, so we
got there early (8:20 or so) thinking it would be soup by noon. This
was the first day of DST, and the sun hadn't come up over the hills yet.
It had gotten cold the night before and the previous days soup set up
*hard*. I mean really hard. As in they broke two out of their three
groomers trying to break the stuff up, and the one groomer that was
still standing was still out at 9:45 trying to finish up. Fast
conditions for the first two hours.

Well, it did turn soft, but it sure took it's time doing so. Since the
Mighty C faces north, and since they effectively opened an hour early
due to the time change, it was still very skiable when we drove away at
3:30.

I'd only been to the Mighty C three or four times before, mostly as a
beginner, and had never had a chance to ski the South Peak. SP is where
the good stuff is. Fully half of the SP was left ungroomed, and once it
softened up provided some very agreeable bumps. Despite a thorough
search I never managed to find the Zwyic hidden in the Stagshead Bowl,
but I'll be back to try again.

So, if you're still reading this, please take my recomendation and go to
Vail. If you can't go to Vail, go to Crystal. Leave the Mighty C for me.

//Walt