(O.K., I understand that by all rights, this probably belongs in the “Midwest” section and I’ll try not to carp if it gets moved there. I’m putting it here in “General” for two reasons: (1) MI’s Keweenaw Peninsula is a Universe away from the environments commonly associated with flyover land (the farm belt, the rust belt, and the prairies), and (2) let’s be honest, few people would read this TR if placed in the “Midwest” section. Bohemia gets an average of over 270 inches a year of mostly dry, light, powder on some decidedly advanced terrain. IMHO, it deserves this small nod of respect.)
Just say “yah” to da U.P., eh? Where the forests are endless… where Superior is oceanic… where the snow is deep… where seemingly all the men have mustaches… where the place-names are either in Finnish or the nomenclature of copper or iron mining… where many young people still speak with Scandinavian inflection… where “pasties” have nothing to do with adhesive nipple coverage… where even the lowliest motels advertise (and usually have, a blistering-hot) sauna… and where it is evidently necessary to post signs that say things like “no snowmobiling in the cemetery,” or “no hockey sticks allowed inside the hotel.”
The Minneapolis forecast was for -15 to -20 F, making it the perfect weekend to head North (and East) up to the Keweenaw for a little skiing at Mt. Bohemia. The hill had picked up about 24 inches over the previous week, and with a lake-effect cycle in full effect they were expecting constant gentle snow amounting to an additional 5-7 inches per day for several days, and temps in the (positive) single digits.
On the 8-hour drive out, we entered the lake-effect in Ironwood, MI, requiring us to drive about 150 miles of two-lane roads on solid snowpack through alternating bands of mild-to-heavy lake effect. Every oncoming truck produced a white-knuckle whiteout that required driving by feel for the next quarter mile. As we neared Houghton (the gateway to the Keweenaw), the plow wash and snow drifts in the isolated and depressed-looking (former) mining villages we passed through stacked up to well over 7 feet in many places.
As we passed through downtown Houghton, there was still no pavement to be spotted on the city’s ancient streets and the cars shared the snowpack with a handful of snowmobiles. Once we were out on the Keweenaw, the last 8 miles along the shore of Superior from Eagle River to Eagle Harbor took us about 30 minutes to drive as the wind and snow was howling in off the lake and reducing visibility on the deer-infested, curvy shoreline road to just a few feet.
Morning brought quieter winds, 2 degrees F, and intermittent, gentle, snow-globe lake-effect snow. The hill had about 6 inches of new snow, over well-preserved chopped powder, over packed powder. The following day was 8-10 degrees warmer with another 5-6 inches of fresh and fluffy snow. In two days of skiing almost exclusively in the trees, we found our share of shallow freshies, lots and lots of soft snow, almost no ice or hard-pack, an assortment of lurking rocky-spots (not enough to spoil to fun) and at least one nasty, submerged and cemented-into-the-snow tree branch (more on that some other time). The snow was a little slow and squeaky on Friday with the colder temps. Saturday’s snow was delightful and mild face shots were possible in the some of the deeper collections of fresh snow.
For the skier who can be satisfied with 900-foot verts, Bohemia offers some truly fine tree skiing. The vast majority of Bohemia’s terrain is in the trees. For good tree skiing, points of comparison for me include MRG/Sugarbush, MaryJane, Steamboat, Powder Mountain/Snowbasin, and years of skinning around the backcountry of MI’s Porcupine “Mountains.” Natural tree spacing in the old-growth hardwood and hemlock forests of the U.P. is generally wider than what can be found in the Northern Greens, but more constricted than western aspen groves. Spacing in the secondary growth areas is generally a little tighter, but Bohemia has aggressively brushed-out of some of these parts of their forest to the point that some might worry about long-term sustainability.
Bohemia’s two, slow, ancient fixed-gripped chairs (a triple and a double) are arranged in an A-frame layout and terminate on the same summit. The “Haunted Valley” and “Pirates’ Cove” areas are essentially the backside, and skiers return to the base of the triple by either a gravity traverse, or a short hike back up to that gravity traverse.
The “Bohemia Mining Co.” area is essentially the triple chairlift’s front side and offers good, moderately steep and very well-spaced tree skiing in a mature hardwood forest. Take your first laps here on a powder day as it’s the best place on the hill to wrack-up some quick verts. The “Mining Co.,” “Bohemia Bluffs” and “Bear Den” areas are arranged around the triple and double chairs respectively as are the hill’s handful of cut trails. The cut trails under the double have a steep, narrow and rolling feel reminiscent of classic New England trails. Trails under the triple are cut wider. Bohemia does absolutely no grooming, and must bump up pretty nicely with the spring thaw. The near-constant snowfall over the 4, late-January days I have now skied at Bohemia, has kept the moguls from really developing.
The “Extreme Backcountry” (a misnomer for sure) is located between the two lifts. It is here (and in the inner reaches of the “Bohemia Bluffs.” and “Bear Den” areas) that Bohemia offers its most satisfying sustained-pitch skiing. Shorter runs in the “Backcountry” allow gravity traverse back to either lift. Longer runs require kicking back to the double or waiting for shuttle service (think Powder Mountain’s “Powder Country” with much more frequent service) back to the triple. The center-piece of the “Backcountry” area is a series of bluffs, threaded with short, narrow chutes. This small area provides Bohemia with a few descents that are moderately steep by even western standards and fairly technical by Northern-Greens standards (ala MRG or Castlerock), but only for about 5 or 6 linked turns. In other words, IMHO, although Bohemia has some very satisfying sustained-pitch skiing, Bohemia’s steepness is greatly exaggerated by Bohemia itself and the ski press that has written about the area.
Bohemia’s “Outer Limits” area offers skiing much more reminiscent of the U.P.’s backcountry. The tree spacing and brush are thicker, the steeper pitches are interrupted by flatter sections, and relatively long stretches of freshies can last for days for those with the nose to find them. Shorter runs out here allow skiers to gravity traverse back to the double. Longer runs end at the road, again serviced by shuttle.
A word about the lake-effect. When it is cold, the snow is usually light, dry, comparable to good powder in the inter-mountain West, and a lot of fun to ski. Lack of heavier, wetter snow can make Bohemia’s woods a little risky to ski as some of the more prominent rocks and roots can go well into the winter without getting cemented completely under. The lake-effect can be highly localized to the point that it is not likely to turn up on the Marquette, MI weather radar, simply because all of the action is happening too low to the water/ground. The tip of the Keweenaw is, essentially, in the middle of Superior, and it has not been an uncommon experience over my two trips to Bohemia to be skiing in heavy snow with a small patch of filtered blue sky and sunshine directly overhead for much of the day. Big dumps at Bohemia certainly happen, but seem to be somewhat rare. Mid-winter lake-effect cycles, during which it may snow 5 inches or more, 5 or 6 days a week, for weeks on end, seem to occur with much greater frequency.
Bohemia’s infrastructure in certainly minimal (the two lifts described above, a handful of lukewarm yurts, no lodge, no restaurant, no bar, no grooming, a ski patrol that, for all appearances, must be all-volunteer) and there are aspects of Bohemia’s management that can seem amateurish (charmingly and annoyingly so, in equal measure). For example, the two, very young, snowboard-riding patrollers seen from the lift helmet-camming each other in a seemingly-endless cycle of huck and crash were certainly amusing. The well-below-industry-standard weekday operating hours of 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., being cut fifteen minutes short by lifties that evidently operate on bar time, was not so amusing. Neither are the long lines for tickets faced every single day BY SEASON PASS HOLDERS. One does get the sense that if the management spent just a couple of days learning how things are done at any major North-American resort, they might learn a few tricks to make the Bohemia experience a little more convenient without any dramatic increase in operating costs.
Finally, while I wouldn’t recommend skiers from other parts of the country put in the time and effort it takes to get out onto the Keweenaw just for the skiing, the surrounding environment is enchanting and full of recreational opportunities: endless forests, steep rolling hills with lots of rocky bluffs, deep snow, small, (former) mining and fishing villages that are now mostly deserted in the wintertime months, the omnipresence of the big lake and the unique climate it creates. Friday night, after a long, hot sauna, a big meal and a couple of the local craft brews, we walked through the deserted, snowy streets of the village of Eagle Harbor down to the waterfront and the harbor entrance. It was zero with a light breeze and light snow. We walked up to the 140-year-old, red brick lighthouse and watched the alternating white and red beam swoop across the harbor and out over the breaking surf rolling in off of the lake. The rocky shoreline and the hardwoods and tall pines behind it were are encased in a season’s-worth of rime ice. Very cool.
I’m not very good with the camera. Nonetheless, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. None are of yours-truly as I neglected make the time to hand the camera over to one of my compatriots.
Just say “yah” to da U.P., eh? Where the forests are endless… where Superior is oceanic… where the snow is deep… where seemingly all the men have mustaches… where the place-names are either in Finnish or the nomenclature of copper or iron mining… where many young people still speak with Scandinavian inflection… where “pasties” have nothing to do with adhesive nipple coverage… where even the lowliest motels advertise (and usually have, a blistering-hot) sauna… and where it is evidently necessary to post signs that say things like “no snowmobiling in the cemetery,” or “no hockey sticks allowed inside the hotel.”
The Minneapolis forecast was for -15 to -20 F, making it the perfect weekend to head North (and East) up to the Keweenaw for a little skiing at Mt. Bohemia. The hill had picked up about 24 inches over the previous week, and with a lake-effect cycle in full effect they were expecting constant gentle snow amounting to an additional 5-7 inches per day for several days, and temps in the (positive) single digits.
On the 8-hour drive out, we entered the lake-effect in Ironwood, MI, requiring us to drive about 150 miles of two-lane roads on solid snowpack through alternating bands of mild-to-heavy lake effect. Every oncoming truck produced a white-knuckle whiteout that required driving by feel for the next quarter mile. As we neared Houghton (the gateway to the Keweenaw), the plow wash and snow drifts in the isolated and depressed-looking (former) mining villages we passed through stacked up to well over 7 feet in many places.
As we passed through downtown Houghton, there was still no pavement to be spotted on the city’s ancient streets and the cars shared the snowpack with a handful of snowmobiles. Once we were out on the Keweenaw, the last 8 miles along the shore of Superior from Eagle River to Eagle Harbor took us about 30 minutes to drive as the wind and snow was howling in off the lake and reducing visibility on the deer-infested, curvy shoreline road to just a few feet.
Morning brought quieter winds, 2 degrees F, and intermittent, gentle, snow-globe lake-effect snow. The hill had about 6 inches of new snow, over well-preserved chopped powder, over packed powder. The following day was 8-10 degrees warmer with another 5-6 inches of fresh and fluffy snow. In two days of skiing almost exclusively in the trees, we found our share of shallow freshies, lots and lots of soft snow, almost no ice or hard-pack, an assortment of lurking rocky-spots (not enough to spoil to fun) and at least one nasty, submerged and cemented-into-the-snow tree branch (more on that some other time). The snow was a little slow and squeaky on Friday with the colder temps. Saturday’s snow was delightful and mild face shots were possible in the some of the deeper collections of fresh snow.
For the skier who can be satisfied with 900-foot verts, Bohemia offers some truly fine tree skiing. The vast majority of Bohemia’s terrain is in the trees. For good tree skiing, points of comparison for me include MRG/Sugarbush, MaryJane, Steamboat, Powder Mountain/Snowbasin, and years of skinning around the backcountry of MI’s Porcupine “Mountains.” Natural tree spacing in the old-growth hardwood and hemlock forests of the U.P. is generally wider than what can be found in the Northern Greens, but more constricted than western aspen groves. Spacing in the secondary growth areas is generally a little tighter, but Bohemia has aggressively brushed-out of some of these parts of their forest to the point that some might worry about long-term sustainability.
Bohemia’s two, slow, ancient fixed-gripped chairs (a triple and a double) are arranged in an A-frame layout and terminate on the same summit. The “Haunted Valley” and “Pirates’ Cove” areas are essentially the backside, and skiers return to the base of the triple by either a gravity traverse, or a short hike back up to that gravity traverse.
The “Bohemia Mining Co.” area is essentially the triple chairlift’s front side and offers good, moderately steep and very well-spaced tree skiing in a mature hardwood forest. Take your first laps here on a powder day as it’s the best place on the hill to wrack-up some quick verts. The “Mining Co.,” “Bohemia Bluffs” and “Bear Den” areas are arranged around the triple and double chairs respectively as are the hill’s handful of cut trails. The cut trails under the double have a steep, narrow and rolling feel reminiscent of classic New England trails. Trails under the triple are cut wider. Bohemia does absolutely no grooming, and must bump up pretty nicely with the spring thaw. The near-constant snowfall over the 4, late-January days I have now skied at Bohemia, has kept the moguls from really developing.
The “Extreme Backcountry” (a misnomer for sure) is located between the two lifts. It is here (and in the inner reaches of the “Bohemia Bluffs.” and “Bear Den” areas) that Bohemia offers its most satisfying sustained-pitch skiing. Shorter runs in the “Backcountry” allow gravity traverse back to either lift. Longer runs require kicking back to the double or waiting for shuttle service (think Powder Mountain’s “Powder Country” with much more frequent service) back to the triple. The center-piece of the “Backcountry” area is a series of bluffs, threaded with short, narrow chutes. This small area provides Bohemia with a few descents that are moderately steep by even western standards and fairly technical by Northern-Greens standards (ala MRG or Castlerock), but only for about 5 or 6 linked turns. In other words, IMHO, although Bohemia has some very satisfying sustained-pitch skiing, Bohemia’s steepness is greatly exaggerated by Bohemia itself and the ski press that has written about the area.
Bohemia’s “Outer Limits” area offers skiing much more reminiscent of the U.P.’s backcountry. The tree spacing and brush are thicker, the steeper pitches are interrupted by flatter sections, and relatively long stretches of freshies can last for days for those with the nose to find them. Shorter runs out here allow skiers to gravity traverse back to the double. Longer runs end at the road, again serviced by shuttle.
A word about the lake-effect. When it is cold, the snow is usually light, dry, comparable to good powder in the inter-mountain West, and a lot of fun to ski. Lack of heavier, wetter snow can make Bohemia’s woods a little risky to ski as some of the more prominent rocks and roots can go well into the winter without getting cemented completely under. The lake-effect can be highly localized to the point that it is not likely to turn up on the Marquette, MI weather radar, simply because all of the action is happening too low to the water/ground. The tip of the Keweenaw is, essentially, in the middle of Superior, and it has not been an uncommon experience over my two trips to Bohemia to be skiing in heavy snow with a small patch of filtered blue sky and sunshine directly overhead for much of the day. Big dumps at Bohemia certainly happen, but seem to be somewhat rare. Mid-winter lake-effect cycles, during which it may snow 5 inches or more, 5 or 6 days a week, for weeks on end, seem to occur with much greater frequency.
Bohemia’s infrastructure in certainly minimal (the two lifts described above, a handful of lukewarm yurts, no lodge, no restaurant, no bar, no grooming, a ski patrol that, for all appearances, must be all-volunteer) and there are aspects of Bohemia’s management that can seem amateurish (charmingly and annoyingly so, in equal measure). For example, the two, very young, snowboard-riding patrollers seen from the lift helmet-camming each other in a seemingly-endless cycle of huck and crash were certainly amusing. The well-below-industry-standard weekday operating hours of 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., being cut fifteen minutes short by lifties that evidently operate on bar time, was not so amusing. Neither are the long lines for tickets faced every single day BY SEASON PASS HOLDERS. One does get the sense that if the management spent just a couple of days learning how things are done at any major North-American resort, they might learn a few tricks to make the Bohemia experience a little more convenient without any dramatic increase in operating costs.
Finally, while I wouldn’t recommend skiers from other parts of the country put in the time and effort it takes to get out onto the Keweenaw just for the skiing, the surrounding environment is enchanting and full of recreational opportunities: endless forests, steep rolling hills with lots of rocky bluffs, deep snow, small, (former) mining and fishing villages that are now mostly deserted in the wintertime months, the omnipresence of the big lake and the unique climate it creates. Friday night, after a long, hot sauna, a big meal and a couple of the local craft brews, we walked through the deserted, snowy streets of the village of Eagle Harbor down to the waterfront and the harbor entrance. It was zero with a light breeze and light snow. We walked up to the 140-year-old, red brick lighthouse and watched the alternating white and red beam swoop across the harbor and out over the breaking surf rolling in off of the lake. The rocky shoreline and the hardwoods and tall pines behind it were are encased in a season’s-worth of rime ice. Very cool.
I’m not very good with the camera. Nonetheless, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. None are of yours-truly as I neglected make the time to hand the camera over to one of my compatriots.
