TR: Mt Lemmon, Arizona

I skied at Mt Lemmon Ski Valley this past Sunday. Here's the deal:

Mt Lemmon Ski Valley is the southernmost resort in the US. At
approximately 32.5 degrees North, it's at about the same latitude as
Tijuana Mexico, Shreveport Louisiana, and Savannah Georgia. Plus it's
in the Sonoran Desert (or borders on it if you want to be persnickety).
So, warm tempatures, hot sun, and dry conditions. Sounds perfect for
a ski resort, no?

Well, the most impressive thing about Mt Lemmon is the fact that it's
there at all. Yet, there it is. Like the plants in the desert below who
cling to life in a hostile environment, Mt Lemmon has adapted to survive
in a place where no ski hill should be.

One adaptation is that the trails are narrow. I mean really narrow. As
in 10 feet wide narrow. If it had wide open slopes like many western
resorts the Sonoran sun would melt the snow too fast, so the trails are
narrow affairs shaded by the pines. Yeah, there are a couple of 100'
wide trails and an open area for the runout at the base, but for the
most part think gladed runs and summer hiking trails that they let you ski.

There's not much in the way of crowds, so the resort has just one old
fixed grip double. At that, three out of four chairs went up empty on a
weekend day - definitely no waiting. (Actually, there was a little bit
of a crowd outside the fence watching - it seems that skiing is somewhat
of a curiosity in the desert southwest, so people stop by to watch, and
take pictures and videos of the skiers. At one point there were more
people watching than skiing.)

Water is at a premium, so no indoor plumbing. There's four porta-johns
in the parking lot. Bottled water available at the snack-bar.

Grooming? Well, I saw a couple of groomers parked alongside the hill,
but no evidence of any usage within recent memory. I figure that with
the thin coverage (~ 10" by my estimate) all a groomer would do is mix
up a lot of dirt into what little snow they have. So, maybe they groom
sometimes, but don't count on it.

Rocks, sticks, pinecones, logs, grass, etc. etc. etc. on the slopes?
You betcha - bring your rock skis, or rent a pair of their beaters like
I did.

Snowmaking? Don't think so. I didn't see any snowguns. Anyway, where
would they get the water?

The skiing is pleasant enough, once you get off the nasty catwalk that
feeds the drop-ins. My preference is for wide open groomers where I can
make carved turns at speed, but there's nothing like that at Mt. Lemmon.
Ungroomed, with too many blind corners and too many hazards to let the
skis run. And there were few places where the trails were actually wide
enough to make a full carved turn. But while not to my tastes, it's
still fun - more "real" skiing or "skiing like it used to be" than the
artificial stuff I'm used to.

There's nothing particularly steep, but it's steep enough for some
grins. Beginners should stay away (or just ski the runout at the
bottom) but anyone with basic intermediate chops should be able to
handle most everything there. In some ways, the black runs were easier
to ski than the green catwalk.

Interesting observation: all the ski patrollers (I saw about a dozen
that day) were skiing on ten-to-fifteen year old "straight" skis. I'm
not sure if this is because of the rocks, or because you can't really
make carved turns there (making shaped skis have less utility), or just
because everything else about the place is old school.

Bottom line: It's not worth travelling to just for the skiing, but if
you live in Tuscon or are visiting the area for some other reason, it's
worth a trip up to Mt Lemmon for a day. Adjust your expectations
accordingly and you'll have fun. Beginners will have tough going, and
experts will be bored, but an open-minded intermediate can have fun.
Bring your rock skis. One thing that's not on the website: they're
closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

//Walt

P.S. I couldn't find a trailmap on line (yeah, the place is that
marginal) but here's a link to Google's Satelite view:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/327bl7

Walt wrote:

Interesting observation: all the ski patrollers (I saw about a dozen
that day) were skiing on ten-to-fifteen year old "straight" skis. I'm
not sure if this is because of the rocks, or because you can't really
make carved turns there (making shaped skis have less utility), or just
because everything else about the place is old school.

Maybe they're just extremely intelligent and talented skiers?

lal_truckee wrote:
Walt wrote:

Interesting observation: all the ski patrollers (I saw about a dozen
that day) were skiing on ten-to-fifteen year old "straight" skis. I'm
not sure if this is because of the rocks, or because you can't really
make carved turns there (making shaped skis have less utility), or
just because everything else about the place is old school.

Maybe they're just extremely intelligent and talented skiers?

That could be. But I think I'm going with "cheap". Why wreck the bases
of $900 skis when there's an unlimited supply of $50 beaters?

//Walt

Bob Lee wrote:
Walt wrote:

I skied at Mt Lemmon Ski Valley this past Sunday. Here's the deal:
snip

That was a *great* TR.

Oh, I bet you say that to all the boys.

Incidentally, Mt. Lemmon doesn't exactly open every year.

I'm not surprised.

I wasn't aware that it opened this year -

Well, it's not like you can just go to their website for a snow report -
they don't really have one. And it's certainly not listed at sites like
www.onthesnow.com.

The best way to find out whether they're open is to call their snow
report hotline. Or it would be if it actually worked, but since it's
broken that won't do you much good. There's another phone number for
the resort which is somewhat harder to find, but they don't answer that
most of the time either. I probably called 30 times before getting
through, and when I did the girl on the phone (she sounded like she was
about 12) didn't know anything about the snow conditions. Eventually I
dragged a description out of her, which was at least honest ("I think
it's ice with a little bit of loose snow on top, but I'm not really sure")


I haven't been up
there since it almost burned up a couple of times. People put a lot of
effort into keeping it from burning up a couple of years running. How
does it look now?

There was a big fire a couple of years ago (2003?) that burned the
nearby town of Summerhaven almost completely. Mt Lemmon Ski Valley
seems to have survived the fire just fine, but it was apparent that the
fire came all the way up the south side of the mountain - all the trees
on the south side of the ridge were burnt; the fire was probably within
a dozen yards of the lift unloading area, but it didn't work it's way
down the north side where the ski runs are. A close one for sure - I'm
sure your eyes would have read more from the remains than my untrained ones.

The town of Mt Lemmon, which is 5 or 10 miles away was not so lucky.
See http://www.climbaz.com/features/mtle...emmonfire.html for pix.

So you've actually skied there? I thought I might be the first RSA bear
to do so. Anyway, one interesting observation is that it was the first
ski day this year where I didn't see any telemarkers. Maybe that's due
to the abundance of equally good free hike-to terrain in the vicinity?


//Walt

Bob Lee wrote:
Walt wrote:

Anyway, one interesting observation is that it was the first
ski day this year where I didn't see any telemarkers. Maybe that's due
to the abundance of equally good free hike-to terrain in the vicinity?

Heh. No, that's not the reason.

Ok. So what is the reason? You guys outa duct tape or something?

//Walt

Bob Lee wrote:
Walt wrote:

It's along the lines of that if someone takes the trouble to learn to
telemark, they're going to go somewhere that it snows more than twice a
decade.

Huh. I just figured that if people are willing to telemark at Mt
Trashmore* they'd be willing to telemark just about anywhere.


//Walt

*If they have the BALLS, of course. Some don't, yannow.