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TR: Mt. Bohemia, New Years weekend
Trip Report: Mt. Bohemia 12/30/2005- 1/2/2006
Wifey and I left Ann Arbor at 12:30 Thursday afternoon, heading north out of the rain. We found the shores of Lake Superior six and a half hours later and stopped to sup and view the Pistons vs. Heat game. We felt lucky that the Best Western had all the modern conveniences including cable TV. Friday morning saw a dusting of new snow so we weren't in the biggest of hurries to get to the slopes. We arrived at Mt. Bohemia about 10:00am and were able to check into our trail side cabin immediately. By 10:30 the lift op had checked out my newly minted season pass and admitted me onto one of the two chair lifts. A few words about Mt. Boho: part Mad River Glen, part Silverton and amazingly, within the coast line of Michigan... although barely within... if you picture Lake Superior as a large semi-circle with one of Michigan's secondary peninsulas sticking up into the middle of it, Mt. Boho, located in Lac La Belle, is at the tip of that peninsula. For all intents and purposes, it's in the middle of the largest fresh water lake in the world. By no means does it measure up to the size of even the smallest Rocky Mountain ski areas I've been to (Monarch or Wolf Creek) but the terrain is truly up to Rocky Mountain standards. Wonderful tree runs abound and the cleared runs on the front side have lots of terrain features unlike Michigan's other "major resorts" (Boyne et al.) whose runs remind me of bowling lanes. With 900' of vertical, it's tall enough that a good fast top to bottom run is enough for my thighs to welcome a six or seven minute chair lift ride. Friday I was able to do about five or six laps each of four different runs while evaluating two new pair of skis. My impressions of the hill: this place is tons of fun. I sure wish they had some new snow. My impressions of the Atomic M:11 (172): these skis carve and track like a mofo, but they seem stiffer and less lively than the ones I demoed last winter. I'm definitely not used to a wood core ski, I've been on Pocket Rockets the last three years. Maybe I was just a little stronger and more aggressive last winter. Any input on this would be appreciated. Do wood core skis tend to break in or loosen up with use? My impressions of the Volant Chubbs (175): I bought these skis without demoing them because they were a great bargain and because I thought they would behave more like my Pocket Rockets which are by now much closer to worn out than brand new. My first run on the Chubbs felt like putting on a nicely worn pair of leather bedroom slippers. It felt like finding that long lost friend that I never had. It felt like eating garlic mashed potatoes with lots of butter. Yeah man, they were comfortable. Solid, stable, amazingly quick edge to edge considering their sizable girth, always willing to tighten the radius of any turn with a bit of pressure on the tip and to top it off, a huge sweet spot. It's a very forgiving ski. I can't wait to get them into a couple of feet of fresh where they should excel, or into some big Mary Jane bumps where I hope they'll be as good as my PRs, which I love to ski bumps with. What a freak..... yup, guilty. A few more words about Mt. Boho: Last year they added eight ski in, ski out cabins. Well actually they're four duplex cabins. Each side has four bunk beds, a small table, two chairs, a bathroom w/shower, a mini fridge and ten electrical outlets. We had reserved one for three nights but were a bit apprehensive about being stuck in a cold, drafty, dirty cabin with noisy neighbors. It turns out our fears were unfounded. These were solidly constructed, well heated and very well insulated. Our duplex mates were a family of six (!) and we seldom heard them. We brought a stereo which we made good use of and we made many other possibly objectionable noises, but our neighbors said they couldn't hear us at all. You can usually find me occupying one of the more "budget conscious" abodes in town. So I was just tickled pink to be able to click into my skis on the front porch to start the day, and then end the day by skiing fast through the woods, around the back and side of the cabin and make a long, snow throwing hockey stop back to the same porch. Yahoooo! They have a funny, home brewed way of issuing lift tickets. There are no printers or anything, just a few different colors of tickets and a word of the day that gets written on each one with a sharpie. Friday's word was "dump" and it did, in a minor way. It started to snow around noon and didn't let up much until after midnight. Saturday's word was "fluff" and there was about six inches of it. Yeah yeah yeah, bwaahaahaa and all that, six inches of fresh was welcome and fun fun fun. I went out fifteen minutes before the lifts opened, on New Year's Eve mind you, and was the only soul at the lift for quite a few minutes. Finally the lift ops, a half a dozen patrollers and another thirty or so paying customers showed up. When the lift started to move, naturally the patrollers made their way to the front of the line but I was able to squeeze past one of them to get the last spot on the triple chair. When we got to the top, the five of them paused for just a second to chat or something and I was past them in a flash, 900' of pristine snow just waiting for me smoke it. Please excuse my glee but this has happened to me a precious few times. On my fourth run of the day I followed one of the patrollers into the woods and smote "S" shaped wounds into several hundred more feet of unblemished white. In my vast experience at Mt. Boho (six days) this was by far the busiest, crowd wise. I'm pretty sure the parking lot was more than half full and on half a dozen occasions I actually had to wait a minute or so to catch a chair, yet that six inches of snow provided soft turns for at least two and a half days. At which point I had to go home. South, into the rain. So this may read like a promo for Mt. Bohemia, but in my opinion, the place rocks. It does have its down side (location, location, location, lack of night life and luxurious accommodations) but if you've even thought of considering the trip, I doubt you would be disappointed. In fact if you want to go in the next few weeks, get in touch with me, maybe we can share a duplex cabin. Chris |
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On 3 Jan 2006 12:23:18 -0800, "bumpfreaq" wrote:
Trip Report: Mt. Bohemia 12/30/2005- 1/2/2006 (snipt) Sounds like a pretty nice trip; thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about the crowding ;-) What woods did you hit? Looks like we'll be up for Presidents' weekend - usually stay in Copper Harbor for the jumpin' nightlife (i.e. the pool table at Zik's bar....). Might see if we can get up there earlier, but odds are against it. bw |
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On 3 Jan 2006 12:23:18 -0800, "bumpfreaq" wrote:
Trip Report: Mt. Bohemia 12/30/2005- 1/2/2006 (snipt) Sounds like a pretty nice trip; thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about the crowding ;-) What woods did you hit? Looks like we'll be up for Presidents' weekend - usually stay in Copper Harbor for the jumpin' nightlife (i.e. the pool table at Zik's bar....). Might see if we can get up there earlier, but odds are against it. bw |
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On 3 Jan 2006 12:23:18 -0800, "bumpfreaq" wrote:
Trip Report: Mt. Bohemia 12/30/2005- 1/2/2006 (snipt) Sounds like a pretty nice trip; thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about the crowding ;-) What woods did you hit? Looks like we'll be up for Presidents' weekend - usually stay in Copper Harbor for the jumpin' nightlife (i.e. the pool table at Zik's bar....). Might see if we can get up there earlier, but odds are against it. bw |
#5
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That was Agent doing the triple-post, not me; sorry, folks.
bw |
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bdubya wrote: On 3 Jan 2006 12:23:18 -0800, "bumpfreaq" wrote: Trip Report: Mt. Bohemia 12/30/2005- 1/2/2006 (snipt) Sounds like a pretty nice trip; thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about the crowding ;-) What woods did you hit? Looks like we'll be up for Presidents' weekend - usually stay in Copper Harbor for the jumpin' nightlife (i.e. the pool table at Zik's bar....). Might see if we can get up there earlier, but odds are against it. bw Oh man, and I was all excited that there were four responses. I hit all the runs in the Haunted Valley but only on my way back to the cabin... nice shots but too short with too long a run out. Most of the Extreme Back Country was closed but I did a ton of runs on Tommyknocker, Bohemia Bluffs and The Badlands (newly thinned trees between TK and the EBC, not on the online trail map). I'll be starting my Colorado stint by President's weekend but have big fun. I'm currently trying to get a group together for a Bohemia weekend sometime in the next few weeks but...... odds are against it. Damn. Chris |
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I'd be up for a trip to Bohemia - what day were you thinking. Contact
me at if you are thinking of it. Douglas |
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