Minnesota was abnormally warm for the week before I arrived. Flying into Minneapolis the small lakes are mostly frozen but there is minimal snow on the ground. Snow cover along the Lake Superior shoreline was patchy.
For our ski day Thursday temps dropped back to 20 degrees but there were spotless blue skies and no wind, thus views across the lake to the Apostle Islands. Conditions were better than expected, mainly because of excellent grooming. I'm aware of the 'powdermaker" groomer attachments, but this was the first time I've observed immediate effect. A couple of runs I saw the grooming machine go up the hill and immediately skied down its just created corduroy track, which was indeed soft. Also the main mountain Moose faces southeast and thus softened some in the March sun despite cool temps.
There is a short steep pitch on the north side of Moose called Plunge which was bulletproof and fortunately nobody lost balance as you would take a fast slide into the woods. There were a few bump runs which also remained hard. I tested a couple of short sections there. Trees between the runs are potentially skiable, but not often since Lutsen is on the windward side of Lake Superior and thus averages 105 inches vs. the 250 at Bohemia with maximum lake effect. FYI admin's friends Scott and Susan Staples drove from Vermont and hit Bohemia Tuesday in ideal warm spring conditions, probably similar to my day at MRG in 2003.
The reality of Midwest skiing: Lutsen has 1,000 vertical but it's not continuous. Moose is a consistent fall line of 780 vertical by my watch at what I'd guess is a 5-1 length to vert chair ratio, with 2 fixed doubles. The Bridges chair is similar vertical, steeper the top half and runouts below. Ullr is a typical beginner lift. Mystery is very long and flat, but has a mid-station where people can get off to hit a decent sized terrain park. The vertical is longer than typical Midwest because the Poplar River cuts a canyon through the middle of Lutsen.
Lutsen is quite remote, 4.5 hours from its one big population base of the Twin Cities. They do 90-100K skier visits per season. Last 2 days have been new activities for me, cross-country, snowmobiling and snowshoeing. Unusual settings, I'll get pics up from those next week.
For our ski day Thursday temps dropped back to 20 degrees but there were spotless blue skies and no wind, thus views across the lake to the Apostle Islands. Conditions were better than expected, mainly because of excellent grooming. I'm aware of the 'powdermaker" groomer attachments, but this was the first time I've observed immediate effect. A couple of runs I saw the grooming machine go up the hill and immediately skied down its just created corduroy track, which was indeed soft. Also the main mountain Moose faces southeast and thus softened some in the March sun despite cool temps.
There is a short steep pitch on the north side of Moose called Plunge which was bulletproof and fortunately nobody lost balance as you would take a fast slide into the woods. There were a few bump runs which also remained hard. I tested a couple of short sections there. Trees between the runs are potentially skiable, but not often since Lutsen is on the windward side of Lake Superior and thus averages 105 inches vs. the 250 at Bohemia with maximum lake effect. FYI admin's friends Scott and Susan Staples drove from Vermont and hit Bohemia Tuesday in ideal warm spring conditions, probably similar to my day at MRG in 2003.
The reality of Midwest skiing: Lutsen has 1,000 vertical but it's not continuous. Moose is a consistent fall line of 780 vertical by my watch at what I'd guess is a 5-1 length to vert chair ratio, with 2 fixed doubles. The Bridges chair is similar vertical, steeper the top half and runouts below. Ullr is a typical beginner lift. Mystery is very long and flat, but has a mid-station where people can get off to hit a decent sized terrain park. The vertical is longer than typical Midwest because the Poplar River cuts a canyon through the middle of Lutsen.
Lutsen is quite remote, 4.5 hours from its one big population base of the Twin Cities. They do 90-100K skier visits per season. Last 2 days have been new activities for me, cross-country, snowmobiling and snowshoeing. Unusual settings, I'll get pics up from those next week.
