TR: MT. Bohemia (long-winded, rambling and with visual aids)

We (we being girlfriend P. and myself) took advantage of the 3-day
Presidents' weekend to run up to the uncut diamond of midwestern
skiing, Mount Bohemia. I've put a few visual aids up at
http://tinyurl.com/2k8hd .

Pulling into the lot around 10 AM Saturday (hey, we didn't get into
our room until about 3 AM), we found typical holiday-weekend crowding;
there had to be as many as two dozen cars in the lot. The base
facilities have been upgraded from the old chemical terlets to a
restroom yurt with actual plumbing and sewer lines. They've also
streamlined their ops; it used to be a separate yurt for tickets and
rentals, but now you get your ticket from the guy running the chow
line, and as near as I can tell, they don't bother with rentals
anymore, which makes sense since it's a "no beginners" hill, so most
folks will have their own gear already. And for food, they used to do
a hot lunch from 11 to 2 (cafeteria steam-table style, like spaghetti
& canned sauce for example), but they've cut that bit of overhead;
now you have your choice of microwaveable entrees, or just-add-water
instant soup. A final interesting change this year is the sexist
pricing structu $38/day for doodz, $0/day for chix (more on this
later).

They don't groom much (I'm pretty sure the whole frontside had been
groomed within the week prior to our arrival, but I'm not positive),
so being able to navigate the bumps is a pretty essential skill here.
The terrain has been expanded a bit since my last visit, including one
nice addition to the front-side runs, a gladed zone called Widowmaker.
It's marked a double-black, but really it would be a nice easy blue
run if it wasn't for the trees, which, although nice and widely
spaced, are still trees. More significantly, they've opened up the
north face of the hill, calling it "Haunted Valley"; on the map they
divide it into four runs, but it's really just one big densely gladed
area. I mean really densely, dense enough that I didn't bother
taking pictures because it would have been just trees and brush. The
Haunted Valley also faces north, so it catches the brunt of the
moisture-laden wind off Lake Superior, and it gets less traffic, so
the snow here tends to be a lot fresher than on the rest of the hill.
I'm not sure about the spooooky names they chose for the runs here;
"Raging Goblin"? "Thirsty Vampire"? Eeeek. P and I agreed that it
would be better to name them after old Pixies tunes; seriously, would
you rather ski "Cursing Werewolf" and "The Bad Seed", or "Debaser" and
"Wave of Mutilation"?

The terrain gets even more interesting in the front-side gated area,
where you have your choice of a double-black called Tommyknocker's
which feeds out to the front chair, or the full-on hodcawr
triple-black Xtreem Backcountry (they call it "backcountry", but they
patrol it and sweep it at the end of the day), with terrific views of
Bete Grise Bay (translatable as either "Gray Beast Bay" or "Stupid
Gray Bay", depending on your mood), some fairly tight secondary-growth
glades as well as some steeps that are, by midwestern standards,
simply not allowed. Worth noting that the patrol here is a pretty
tolerant bunch, and both days, I showed up at the gate for a final run
just as the patrol was roping it off. I don't think I've ever had a
patroller personally lift a "closed" rope for me to duck under before;
it's a nice feeling.

About that rampantly sexist pricing structu if it keeps the lifts
running, I'm all for it. Guys only pay $38, so if you're a guy and
you bring a woman, you can tell yourself it's only $19 each, which (if
you ignore the agonizing drive to get there) makes it a nice cheap
date. The "free tix for females" seems to be linked to a shift in
their overall marketing strategy; last time we were there, it was
about the serious terrain and the eco-friendly, low-impact character
of the hill. But this year, the marketing strategy has shifted to
"T&A, party, party and T&A". I hope that this pays off financially
and helps keep the hill open, but I'm a little concerned, because on a
holiday weekend they had maybe one chair in four occupied., which
leaves me wondering how they do for the rest of the season. There
were a lot of groups of girls (presumably coeds from NMU or MTU), all
looking like they were there for the terrain rather than for the
guys...

Skiers and boarders are present in roughly equal numbers (with
telemarkers a close third), but you wouldn't know there were that many
boarders from the condition of the snow or the rhythm of the bumps.
The terrain is tough enough that pretty much everybody there knows
what they're doing, and that seems at least as significant as the
"skiers-only" policy of some of Utah's finer hills. All the boarders
were making turns instead of just scraping their way down; I saw
precisely ONE boarder doing a heelside scrape for more than a few
feet, and she looked embarrassed about it.

Great, great place to ski. Terrain that would fit right in at Crested
Butte or A-basin, but with all the oxygen a flatlander could ask for;
no crowds at all, and no beginners to get in the way....anybody within
driving range really ought to check it out.

bw

[snip]

Great, great place to ski. Terrain that would fit right in at Crested
Butte or A-basin, but with all the oxygen a flatlander could ask for;
no crowds at all, and no beginners to get in the way....anybody within
driving range really ought to check it out.

I never would have thought to going to ski in the Midwest again, but
your description and Mt. Bohemia's description of its lodging (winter
camping - I thought I was the only person in the world who ever thought
of doing that!) have intrigued me. Sounds like a great destination for
a lunatic road trip.

Tell me the truth, how steep is the place? How exactly would the
terrain "fit right in" at A-basin?

On 2004-02-22, bdubya penned:
[snip]
I'm not sure about the spooooky names they chose for the runs here;
"Raging Goblin"? "Thirsty Vampire"? Eeeek. P and I agreed that it
would be better to name them after old Pixies tunes; seriously, would
you rather ski "Cursing Werewolf" and "The Bad Seed", or "Debaser" and
"Wave of Mutilation"?

Gotta agree with you here.

with terrific views of Bete Grise Bay (translatable as either "Gray
Beast Bay" or "Stupid Gray Bay", depending on your mood)

Hah! Okay, that made me laugh.

About that rampantly sexist pricing structu if it keeps the lifts
running, I'm all for it. Guys only pay $38, so if you're a guy and
you bring a woman, you can tell yourself it's only $19 each, which (if
you ignore the agonizing drive to get there) makes it a nice cheap
date. The "free tix for females" seems to be linked to a shift in
their overall marketing strategy; last time we were there, it was
about the serious terrain and the eco-friendly, low-impact character
of the hill. But this year, the marketing strategy has shifted to
"T&A, party, party and T&A". I hope that this pays off financially
and helps keep the hill open, but I'm a little concerned, because on a
holiday weekend they had maybe one chair in four occupied., which
leaves me wondering how they do for the rest of the season. There
were a lot of groups of girls (presumably coeds from NMU or MTU), all
looking like they were there for the terrain rather than for the
guys...

I'm curious about how this works. I assume that the "girls get in free"
thing works at clubs because they figure it will attract more guys than
would otherwise show up. But can this theory really work for the
slopes?

(Me, I'd rather not be viewed as bait.)


--
monique

On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 00:17:02 CST, Varanasi Benares
wrote:

[snip]

Great, great place to ski. Terrain that would fit right in at Crested
Butte or A-basin, but with all the oxygen a flatlander could ask for;
no crowds at all, and no beginners to get in the way....anybody within
driving range really ought to check it out.

I never would have thought to going to ski in the Midwest again, but
your description and Mt. Bohemia's description of its lodging (winter
camping - I thought I was the only person in the world who ever thought
of doing that!) have intrigued me. Sounds like a great destination for
a lunatic road trip.

Tell me the truth, how steep is the place? How exactly would the
terrain "fit right in" at A-basin?

I didn't bring an inclinometer, but the "triple black" runs I skiied
(like I said, I avoided the ones with cliffs) have a sustained pitch
that felt quite comparable to the Pali terrain, or the glades off the
high t-bar at CB; (also, being somewhere south of 900' tall, they
would literally "fit right in"). But there are no open alpine bowls
or faces if that's what you're asking. "Lunatic road trip" would be
about right, depending where you're coming from....

bw

"Monique Y. Herman" wrote:

On 2004-02-22, bdubya penned:
About that rampantly sexist pricing structu if it keeps the lifts
running, I'm all for it. Guys only pay $38, so if you're a guy and
you bring a woman, you can tell yourself it's only $19 each, which (if
you ignore the agonizing drive to get there) makes it a nice cheap
date. The "free tix for females" seems to be linked to a shift in
their overall marketing strategy; last time we were there, it was
about the serious terrain and the eco-friendly, low-impact character
of the hill. But this year, the marketing strategy has shifted to
"T&A, party, party and T&A". I hope that this pays off financially
and helps keep the hill open, but I'm a little concerned, because on a
holiday weekend they had maybe one chair in four occupied., which
leaves me wondering how they do for the rest of the season. There
were a lot of groups of girls (presumably coeds from NMU or MTU), all
looking like they were there for the terrain rather than for the
guys...

I'm curious about how this works. I assume that the "girls get in free"
thing works at clubs because they figure it will attract more guys than
would otherwise show up. But can this theory really work for the
slopes?

(Me, I'd rather not be viewed as bait.)

Hmph. I'll bring my own hook if it means I can ski free!

--
Cheers,
Bev
=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=/=\=
"Sure, everyone's in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when
you put it into the body of a great white shark, suddenly
you're a madman." --Futurama

On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 02:40:09 CST, "Monique Y. Herman"
wrote:

On 2004-02-22, bdubya penned:
[snip]
I'm not sure about the spooooky names they chose for the runs here;
"Raging Goblin"? "Thirsty Vampire"? Eeeek. P and I agreed that it
would be better to name them after old Pixies tunes; seriously, would
you rather ski "Cursing Werewolf" and "The Bad Seed", or "Debaser" and
"Wave of Mutilation"?

Gotta agree with you here.

with terrific views of Bete Grise Bay (translatable as either "Gray
Beast Bay" or "Stupid Gray Bay", depending on your mood)

Hah! Okay, that made me laugh.

About that rampantly sexist pricing structu if it keeps the lifts
running, I'm all for it. Guys only pay $38, so if you're a guy and
you bring a woman, you can tell yourself it's only $19 each, which (if
you ignore the agonizing drive to get there) makes it a nice cheap
date. The "free tix for females" seems to be linked to a shift in
their overall marketing strategy; last time we were there, it was
about the serious terrain and the eco-friendly, low-impact character
of the hill. But this year, the marketing strategy has shifted to
"T&A, party, party and T&A". I hope that this pays off financially
and helps keep the hill open, but I'm a little concerned, because on a
holiday weekend they had maybe one chair in four occupied., which
leaves me wondering how they do for the rest of the season. There
were a lot of groups of girls (presumably coeds from NMU or MTU), all
looking like they were there for the terrain rather than for the
guys...

I'm curious about how this works. I assume that the "girls get in free"
thing works at clubs because they figure it will attract more guys than
would otherwise show up. But can this theory really work for the
slopes?

If their lifts are still running in a couple of years, then yes.
Otherwise, tragedy. And it seems less likely to work at a "no
beginners" hill that has cozy base lodge or fireplace for hangin' and
scopin' and all that. "Hey, babe, lemme buy you a self-serve hot
chocolate and we'll sit around the space heater in the yurt."


(Me, I'd rather not be viewed as bait.)

And I'd rather not be viewed as fish, although I might feel
differently if I weren't spoken for. But do note that all the grrrlz
being treated as bait are presumably being assessed and scoped and
judged based on their ability, rather than on their looks.

bw

bdubya wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/2k8hd

Any place with purple chair towers is OK by me...


AKA
http://tinyurl.com/29fbn

lal_truckee wrote in message ...

Any place with purple chair towers is OK by me...


You'd love my former place of employment then (except for the
shortness of slopes): Chair colors are pink, blue, yellow, purple and
red.

On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 11:10:17 CST, lal_truckee
wrote:

bdubya wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/2k8hd

Any place with purple chair towers is OK by me...


AKA
http://tinyurl.com/29fbn

That's the back chair with the purple towers and green chairs. The
front chair is reversed; green towers, purple chairs. They call it
the "Mountain Dew" chair. I don't know what they call the back one;
the "Screaming Purple Jesus" chair, maybe?

bw

bdubya wrote:
We (we being girlfriend P. and myself) took advantage of the 3-day
Presidents' weekend to run up to the uncut diamond of midwestern
skiing, Mount Bohemia. I've put a few visual aids up at
http://tinyurl.com/2k8hd .

snip

Nice. Thanks. I think I'd go there if I was ever stuck in the midwest again.
Looks pretty fun (and typically grey like I remember Mi).

Matt