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

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

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

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

That was Agent doing the triple-post, not me; sorry, folks.
bw

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

I'd be up for a trip to Bohemia - what day were you thinking. Contact
me at if you are thinking of it.

Douglas