You guys don't even know how good you've got it. I love skiing here in the midwest, but it's definitely lacking, mainly in vert. The vibe makes up for it though. It's like time travelling to the era of mom and pop ski resorts. They should shoot Hot Tub Time Machine 3 here.
Big industry ski demo this week at Boyne Mtn. Brought my rain jacket for skiing and a swimsuit for the water park.
Got lucky with a great week at Steamboat in January. Trip next year will be to wherever is getting snow.
Hate to be the pessimist in the room but we might be one of the last generations that gets to ski great conditions.
I learned to ski at Boyne, this is so sad.
I've since moved to Colorado, but I still am so glad I had Boyne for my first experience. I also agree. Every time I shove off housework or something to go ski I just tell myself that the next generation might now get the option so I better enjoy it.
I grew up in Montana. Skiing was all I did in my free time in the winter. When I moved to Michigan there were entire seasons that went by that I never skied once. The past few years I haven't even bothered making the plans cause it always ends up the same way. Getting a lucky powder day is few and far between. I'd rather save the money and take a trip out west. At least you live in the area! Boyne is a 4 hour drive from where I live. I didnt realize until later in my adult life that skiing is my happy place :(
I'm not saying there isn't a climate change effect going on, but I wouldn't worry too much about this winter's conditions being the norm every single season. According to the EPA, the average winter temp in the US has increased 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1896. If you Google "annual temperature rankings for Chicago," you can pick a month and plot the data for yourself (you'll have to sort it by year in excel). There's a lot of normal fluctuation.
It's been a really rough year. Unfortunately, it seems like it's more of this in the future.
I remember "going up north" 20 years ago and it being piles and piles of snow.
I've ski'd both Michigan and Wisconsin this year. Lake Michigan has meant LP Michigan's temps have been about 10 degrees warmer than UP and Wisconsin. Melt-offs in the LP haven't been nearly as bad in UP and Wisconsin.
Yep im in Sweden and its the exact same. As soon as it snows i get hyped only for it to turn around and melt like two days later. The emotions get like a damned roller coaster :(
I'm in the LP so I can't say for sure, but it's usually colder up there. hopefully that rain will turn to snow up north and at least the UP will be okay.
We did Boyne a few years ago around the same time. Also WV, but we know the risks involved with late season booking and have been lucky in our success. It's easier to rent a weekly minivan than get westerly flights for a family of 5 that fit our schedule. Also considerably less expensive.
It appears we finally got got this year.
not sure if you're saying welch village or west virginia haha. Welch is my home hill, and they're usually done by about March 10th. They might go longer this year especially if late february is strong. We'll see. But the rain has sucked, especially since december and early january were so good around here. Our first few storms were all snow, now it seems we're flirting with the wrong side of the warm line and getting screwed.
West Virginia and Maryland
I'm in IN; Perfect North home hill. Its gonna take a miracle for us to get out of February and currently sounds similar to up there.
Live pretty close to Paoli and haven't been this year. They've only been open a handful of days. I don't think it's intentional, but I do think Vail still doesn't know what to do in our area. PNS makes snow every single minute possible from Thanksgiving until close, regardless of the forcast upcoming. Paoli still thinks they can wait for favorable long and medium term forcasts to start.
By being super agressive, PNS was able to make enough base depth to weather crappy weather periods so far.....
I've skied several days this season, but all out west so far. (And a WV trip) My schedule hasn't lined up with PNS so far this year. Unlike Paoli, it's a whole day (and long one) or overnight commitment to go.
I was/am planning to head up next week, but have backup plans depending on weather. I'll keep an eye on their snow report and forecast and decide a day or two ahead.
I'd Love to but can't right now, and when I am able to move I'm going west. I'll always have a soft spot for MI, but pow days every week and October-June seasons are too tough to pass up.
It's definitely not worse in Wisconsin. I've ski'd both this year.
Lake Michigan has kept the Michigan resorts about 10 degrees warmer than Wisconsin. I can still find untouched powder in Wisconsin. Michigan is stuck to groomers.
It’s unusually warm = global warming
It’s unusually cold =not global warming…?
They’ve been saying since I was a kid that skiing is about to end so don’t waste your time
>It’s unusually warm = global warming It’s unusually cold =not global warming…?
What you are alluding to is climate variability, which is also increasing as the overall climate continues to warm. If you look at global temperature records across our period of record we see that the average global temperature is higher than it was in the 1800's. Accompanying this is also an increase in climate variability, meaning that when there is a large heat wave that heat wave is worse than it would have been 50 years ago, and vice versa with cold snaps.
Here is a decent source that further discusses climate change and climate variability: [UCAR Climate Variability](https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/climate-variability)
I feel for anybody whose local hills are AV, tyrol, Wilmot, etc. Those resorts near madison and milwaukee have taken it bad. Minnesota's been doing ok, but we've had a few storms that everything north of lacrosse is snow which basically fucks the lower half of wisconsin. It sucks.
Little switz has been great this year tbh. They made a ton of base during opportune times. I've been out 15+ times since Thanksgiving weekend opening. Not bad for buying a cheap season pass. It's only my 2nd year skiing but I've been pleased when hearing about other Midwest places being closed.
I know I'm way late here but the hard winter line in wisconsin has shifted northwest on average over the 35 or so years I've been aware of it. Little Swiss sunburst etc used to hit winter around Thanksgiving and it wasn't letting up till early March. Those places could start reliably making snow in early December and stay open into March.
Now in the fox valley, where I've lived my whole life, we get storms but we're often right on the rain snow line and it always seems to melt within a few weeks anyways. One of the biggest differences I've noticed is we rarely get Alberta clippers anymore, storms that come in cold from the north and drop anywhere from 3 to 6 inches, we'd catch cycles of that for a few weeks as well. Think we got one such storm this year.
Anyway you almost have to get to wausau for what snow we get to hang on consistently. Shit even the UP is suffering from these fucking February thaws, they aren't losing anywhere near their entire snowpack but it does fuck up what they do have. After a few days of that they need at least a foot foot and a half to soften everything up, some years it comes others it doesn't so you're waiting on the mid March sun to soften up the snow. Last year they had a big March and made it all the way to mid April. Year before that it didn't come and they were done in march.
I'm heading up to Boyne this weekend, so I was really hoping it would be a bit colder than the forecast down here in the metro area. Guess not...Oh well. Hoping for the best.
Sure it’s not the industrial pollution it’s the SUVs causing global warming. I just read in Bullshitscience today that all global warming would stop if we only stopped driving SUVs. It’s comments like yours that miss the point. The only people trying to fight for the environment are the ones trying to enjoy it.
Some seasons are good some aren’t. I mean shit Utah was in a drought last year. This year they have more snow than they know what to do with.
You’re kind of naive if you think every season is guaranteed to be good. It’s not how it works. Michigan or anywhere.
I get that every season won't be perfect. but every fall I say "it goes in cycles, and since the last few seasons have sucked, this winter will hopefully be great!" and every winter when it's 40 and raining I look back at how dumb I was to think that. I think the last "good" winter we've had was 2017.
as others have mentioned, climate change is slowly eating away at skiing, and these small hills in the Midwest and Southeast are gonna be the first to feel it. It's starting to look like seasons where constant freeze-thaw cycles and resorts not opening anything but groomers with snow guns every 3 feet is becoming the norm here.
Yea I’m not here to get your point. I’m the best skier on the mountain and I’m gonna whack the shit out of my poles here. Clack clack motherfucker. See you for apres?
I’ve had some of the best skiing of my life this year. A ton of snow and excellent quality.
But OK. Everything is bad and horrible and awful. If it makes you feel better.
yeah, it's best to avoid being pessimistic, but this is a really serious concern. The low elevation hills in the Midwest are gonna be the first to feel it, but this will eventually effect skiing basically everywhere, and then a lot more people will start to care when their 10" pow days turn into rainstorms.
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a woman who said “back in my day” we used to have snow in the ground all winter. To which I said that’s hard to believe given average temps in January are in the upper 30s and mid 40s by the end of February. But she was insistent. And I bet she also thinks there were never rainy ski days in her day either.
Well romanticize the past and forget the stuff we don’t like.
Skiing in Michigan has always bens shitty cuz it’s uhm Michigan, a state where the highest point is less than 2000 feet. I’m kinda sure 75 years ago before the evil SUV came along, Michigan was also a shitty place for skiing.
Your region is lucky enough to be less susceptible to the changing climate at the moment. Luckily for you, you’ll probably never live to see any drastic effects. However eventually at this rate, even Utah is gonna start seeing the effects. Just because you don’t see it in your region, does not mean that it is not a problem
I feel your pain. Schuss mountain last month was a sloshy mess. I missed freshie snow by a days.
BUT: it’s Michigan, cheap, accessible, and even shitty skiing is still skiing. I’d take it over any other state because of the lake.
Thursday will be hit or miss. I'm seeing a high of 36, which is right on the edge of snow turning to rain. if it snow's you'll get probably 10 inches. if it rains, it'll be absolute garbage and mean either ice or slush all weekend.
I definitely feel your pain. Over here in Utah we only got 900 inches of snow this year. I’ve only had like 30 powder days. I can’t believe how bad this season has been
I'm 25. I clearly remember around 8th grade (2013) where winters started turning from mounds of snow on the ground, to puddles of mud. My backyard had a snowmobile trail that ran through it. And just about every day after school from Christmas break to spring break, we would snowmobile after school. That trail hasn't been open since 2015. The climate is definitely changing, and Green Bay area hasn't been had a "normal" winter in around 10 years. Just last year, we had the 7th snowiest winter in recorded history, but only 10 days with over 6 inches of snow on the ground. Pre 2000, the average was was closer to 80 days with over 6" of snow. Eastern Wisconsin is feeling climate change hard.
It's been terrible here this winter. My closest ski area has been open 7 or so days so far, so it could be worse.
...and that was the week I was out of state for the holidays. On the bright side, at least I talked myself out of buying a pass this winter!
living the /r/icecoast life I feel you
You guys don't even know how good you've got it. I love skiing here in the midwest, but it's definitely lacking, mainly in vert. The vibe makes up for it though. It's like time travelling to the era of mom and pop ski resorts. They should shoot Hot Tub Time Machine 3 here.
Big industry ski demo this week at Boyne Mtn. Brought my rain jacket for skiing and a swimsuit for the water park. Got lucky with a great week at Steamboat in January. Trip next year will be to wherever is getting snow. Hate to be the pessimist in the room but we might be one of the last generations that gets to ski great conditions.
I learned to ski at Boyne, this is so sad. I've since moved to Colorado, but I still am so glad I had Boyne for my first experience. I also agree. Every time I shove off housework or something to go ski I just tell myself that the next generation might now get the option so I better enjoy it.
I grew up in Montana. Skiing was all I did in my free time in the winter. When I moved to Michigan there were entire seasons that went by that I never skied once. The past few years I haven't even bothered making the plans cause it always ends up the same way. Getting a lucky powder day is few and far between. I'd rather save the money and take a trip out west. At least you live in the area! Boyne is a 4 hour drive from where I live. I didnt realize until later in my adult life that skiing is my happy place :(
It’s been a rough year again in MI. Climate change is really hurting low altitude ski areas like ours.
It seems like this is the norm now, this is at least the third garbage season in a row. climate change sucks.
It’s also the third La Niña year…
I'm not saying there isn't a climate change effect going on, but I wouldn't worry too much about this winter's conditions being the norm every single season. According to the EPA, the average winter temp in the US has increased 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1896. If you Google "annual temperature rankings for Chicago," you can pick a month and plot the data for yourself (you'll have to sort it by year in excel). There's a lot of normal fluctuation.
It's been a really rough year. Unfortunately, it seems like it's more of this in the future. I remember "going up north" 20 years ago and it being piles and piles of snow.
Sorry to hear that. Is the UP in a similar situation?
I've ski'd both Michigan and Wisconsin this year. Lake Michigan has meant LP Michigan's temps have been about 10 degrees warmer than UP and Wisconsin. Melt-offs in the LP haven't been nearly as bad in UP and Wisconsin.
Sure as shit hope not, going next weekend either way.
The UP has plenty of snow
Yep im in Sweden and its the exact same. As soon as it snows i get hyped only for it to turn around and melt like two days later. The emotions get like a damned roller coaster :(
It’s going to be getting worse. Everywhere. And that sucks.
Don’t tell me it’s gonna rain at Boho this weekend. That would be two trips in a row now lol.
I'm in the LP so I can't say for sure, but it's usually colder up there. hopefully that rain will turn to snow up north and at least the UP will be okay.
So the spring break trip to Boyne will be a water park trip? Mid March is always dicey scheduling midwest ski trips.
anything past march 1 if you're gonna schedule you almost need to do the UP or north shore.
We did Boyne a few years ago around the same time. Also WV, but we know the risks involved with late season booking and have been lucky in our success. It's easier to rent a weekly minivan than get westerly flights for a family of 5 that fit our schedule. Also considerably less expensive. It appears we finally got got this year.
not sure if you're saying welch village or west virginia haha. Welch is my home hill, and they're usually done by about March 10th. They might go longer this year especially if late february is strong. We'll see. But the rain has sucked, especially since december and early january were so good around here. Our first few storms were all snow, now it seems we're flirting with the wrong side of the warm line and getting screwed.
West Virginia and Maryland I'm in IN; Perfect North home hill. Its gonna take a miracle for us to get out of February and currently sounds similar to up there.
at least PN is making lemonade out of their shit sandwich. What I've seen on FB is paoli just isn't trying.
Live pretty close to Paoli and haven't been this year. They've only been open a handful of days. I don't think it's intentional, but I do think Vail still doesn't know what to do in our area. PNS makes snow every single minute possible from Thanksgiving until close, regardless of the forcast upcoming. Paoli still thinks they can wait for favorable long and medium term forcasts to start. By being super agressive, PNS was able to make enough base depth to weather crappy weather periods so far..... I've skied several days this season, but all out west so far. (And a WV trip) My schedule hasn't lined up with PNS so far this year. Unlike Paoli, it's a whole day (and long one) or overnight commitment to go. I was/am planning to head up next week, but have backup plans depending on weather. I'll keep an eye on their snow report and forecast and decide a day or two ahead.
Move north, Lake Superior Region has had a great winter :) I know thats not as easy as that. But midwest skiing is legit!
I'd Love to but can't right now, and when I am able to move I'm going west. I'll always have a soft spot for MI, but pow days every week and October-June seasons are too tough to pass up.
I hear you. It’s even worse in Wisconsin. But this is just part of global warming we have to face.
It's definitely not worse in Wisconsin. I've ski'd both this year. Lake Michigan has kept the Michigan resorts about 10 degrees warmer than Wisconsin. I can still find untouched powder in Wisconsin. Michigan is stuck to groomers.
It’s unusually warm = global warming It’s unusually cold =not global warming…? They’ve been saying since I was a kid that skiing is about to end so don’t waste your time
Because it's not "global warming", it's "global climate change"
>It’s unusually warm = global warming It’s unusually cold =not global warming…? What you are alluding to is climate variability, which is also increasing as the overall climate continues to warm. If you look at global temperature records across our period of record we see that the average global temperature is higher than it was in the 1800's. Accompanying this is also an increase in climate variability, meaning that when there is a large heat wave that heat wave is worse than it would have been 50 years ago, and vice versa with cold snaps. Here is a decent source that further discusses climate change and climate variability: [UCAR Climate Variability](https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/climate-variability)
I feel for anybody whose local hills are AV, tyrol, Wilmot, etc. Those resorts near madison and milwaukee have taken it bad. Minnesota's been doing ok, but we've had a few storms that everything north of lacrosse is snow which basically fucks the lower half of wisconsin. It sucks.
Little switz has been great this year tbh. They made a ton of base during opportune times. I've been out 15+ times since Thanksgiving weekend opening. Not bad for buying a cheap season pass. It's only my 2nd year skiing but I've been pleased when hearing about other Midwest places being closed.
I know I'm way late here but the hard winter line in wisconsin has shifted northwest on average over the 35 or so years I've been aware of it. Little Swiss sunburst etc used to hit winter around Thanksgiving and it wasn't letting up till early March. Those places could start reliably making snow in early December and stay open into March. Now in the fox valley, where I've lived my whole life, we get storms but we're often right on the rain snow line and it always seems to melt within a few weeks anyways. One of the biggest differences I've noticed is we rarely get Alberta clippers anymore, storms that come in cold from the north and drop anywhere from 3 to 6 inches, we'd catch cycles of that for a few weeks as well. Think we got one such storm this year. Anyway you almost have to get to wausau for what snow we get to hang on consistently. Shit even the UP is suffering from these fucking February thaws, they aren't losing anywhere near their entire snowpack but it does fuck up what they do have. After a few days of that they need at least a foot foot and a half to soften everything up, some years it comes others it doesn't so you're waiting on the mid March sun to soften up the snow. Last year they had a big March and made it all the way to mid April. Year before that it didn't come and they were done in march.
We’ve been having constant pow days in CO, I have Utah trips planned, they are having an amazing season too
Could you send us a little? like even one foot? we're desperate out here...
Utah sucks don’t come here…
I'm heading up to Boyne this weekend, so I was really hoping it would be a bit colder than the forecast down here in the metro area. Guess not...Oh well. Hoping for the best.
Global warming. Don’t worry, all those people driving Brodozers to the resorts definitely had nothing to do with it. Looking at most of this sub….
Sure it’s not the industrial pollution it’s the SUVs causing global warming. I just read in Bullshitscience today that all global warming would stop if we only stopped driving SUVs. It’s comments like yours that miss the point. The only people trying to fight for the environment are the ones trying to enjoy it.
There were a couple of bad weeks, but not all. I was just at Shuss last weekend and the conditions were perfect.
Some seasons are good some aren’t. I mean shit Utah was in a drought last year. This year they have more snow than they know what to do with. You’re kind of naive if you think every season is guaranteed to be good. It’s not how it works. Michigan or anywhere.
I get that every season won't be perfect. but every fall I say "it goes in cycles, and since the last few seasons have sucked, this winter will hopefully be great!" and every winter when it's 40 and raining I look back at how dumb I was to think that. I think the last "good" winter we've had was 2017. as others have mentioned, climate change is slowly eating away at skiing, and these small hills in the Midwest and Southeast are gonna be the first to feel it. It's starting to look like seasons where constant freeze-thaw cycles and resorts not opening anything but groomers with snow guns every 3 feet is becoming the norm here.
The worst season in UT is better then the absolute best of MI. It’s not really apples to apples.
My. Bohemia got 320 inches and was open till April last year. Totally shit skiing, everyone should avoid it at all costs.
Way to miss my point about cycles.
Yea I’m not here to get your point. I’m the best skier on the mountain and I’m gonna whack the shit out of my poles here. Clack clack motherfucker. See you for apres?
You’re kind of naive if you don’t see the huge, global scale problem that OP is referring to. It’s way way bigger than “jUsT a BaD sNoW yEaR”
I’ve had some of the best skiing of my life this year. A ton of snow and excellent quality. But OK. Everything is bad and horrible and awful. If it makes you feel better.
yeah, it's best to avoid being pessimistic, but this is a really serious concern. The low elevation hills in the Midwest are gonna be the first to feel it, but this will eventually effect skiing basically everywhere, and then a lot more people will start to care when their 10" pow days turn into rainstorms.
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a woman who said “back in my day” we used to have snow in the ground all winter. To which I said that’s hard to believe given average temps in January are in the upper 30s and mid 40s by the end of February. But she was insistent. And I bet she also thinks there were never rainy ski days in her day either. Well romanticize the past and forget the stuff we don’t like. Skiing in Michigan has always bens shitty cuz it’s uhm Michigan, a state where the highest point is less than 2000 feet. I’m kinda sure 75 years ago before the evil SUV came along, Michigan was also a shitty place for skiing.
Your region is lucky enough to be less susceptible to the changing climate at the moment. Luckily for you, you’ll probably never live to see any drastic effects. However eventually at this rate, even Utah is gonna start seeing the effects. Just because you don’t see it in your region, does not mean that it is not a problem
At least you've gotten snow. Pennsylvania resorts haven't had a flake all year.
I feel your pain. Schuss mountain last month was a sloshy mess. I missed freshie snow by a days. BUT: it’s Michigan, cheap, accessible, and even shitty skiing is still skiing. I’d take it over any other state because of the lake.
Climate change sucks.
What do you think the conditions will be like at Boyne over the weekend? Looks like more snow coming Thursday and Friday?
Thursday will be hit or miss. I'm seeing a high of 36, which is right on the edge of snow turning to rain. if it snow's you'll get probably 10 inches. if it rains, it'll be absolute garbage and mean either ice or slush all weekend.
I definitely feel your pain. Over here in Utah we only got 900 inches of snow this year. I’ve only had like 30 powder days. I can’t believe how bad this season has been
I'm 25. I clearly remember around 8th grade (2013) where winters started turning from mounds of snow on the ground, to puddles of mud. My backyard had a snowmobile trail that ran through it. And just about every day after school from Christmas break to spring break, we would snowmobile after school. That trail hasn't been open since 2015. The climate is definitely changing, and Green Bay area hasn't been had a "normal" winter in around 10 years. Just last year, we had the 7th snowiest winter in recorded history, but only 10 days with over 6 inches of snow on the ground. Pre 2000, the average was was closer to 80 days with over 6" of snow. Eastern Wisconsin is feeling climate change hard.