Yooper Ski Trip 2010

Al and I took a trip up to the U.P. and it was great.

We hit Granite Peak (Rib Mountain in Wausau) on the way up. It was a great way to break up the trip and we got there right at 10am. There was fresh snow waiting for us and not many other skiers. We ended up liking what was on the right side which included some nice tree runs. I have done some tree skiing before but saw this as a small challenge, so I embraced it and we hung out there a long time. It wasn’t too steep and was a nice re-introduction. And, thankfully, I didn’t hit any trees!

That night, we arrived up at Al’s uncle’s cabin in Mercer, WI (you can see some pictures from last year’s MI ski trip). We got settled in and I think I fell asleep during a bad movie we were watching.

The next morning we got up and headed over to Big Powderhorn. Somehow we left Mercer, passed into Michigan and then ended up un Ski Heaven! It apparently snowed like 13" a few nights ago and the kind snowmaking team at Big Powderhorn found it in their hearts to leave some runs with powder. Thanks, guys! We spent time there and then also found some even better tree runs way over on the right side. We skied every minute we could there. To top that night off, we hit a great pizza place in town. The best pizza. Ever. (Ok, maybe that’s because I was really hungry)

Then on Saturday morning we headed over to Indianhead Mountain. It was cooler and there were more people but it was fine. We found a tree run but it was either not as good or we were too tired from skiing trees the previous two days. We also found a double black way on the left side which I had never skied before. Maybe it was closed before. There was a t-bar lift there but also very steep. We only did a few runs there. We found a supper club called the "Ding-a-Ling" and had some steak that night. Mine was Ok and Al’s seemed to be better since he inhaled it.

Back on Friday, when we were at Big Powderhorn, I saw a PSIA instructor that I knew (Sheri McCabe) and she invited me to a clinic on Sunday morning. I decided to take advantage of it and join the Big Powderhorn Ski School staff for 2+ hours on a cool Sunday morning for a clinic by Sheri and Roger. It was good and I’m glad I went.

So it was a lot of trees, some powder, good pizza and a lot of laughs. Someone hit the replay button, please – let’s do that again!

-Tony

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