Fortunately, the threat of rain kept the crowds at bay and the slopes were for the most part pretty empty.

Holiday season, no crowds

Conditions were definitely spring-like, which was not unexpected, since when I woke up in the morning it smelled like spring was in the air and summer right around the corner. Although Mt. Holly was about 80% open, there were brown spots and very thin cover on just about every trail.

The view from above, Mozart chair, Mt. Holly, MI

Precipitation stayed away until about noon, when it began to shrain; that really, really light rain, more like a mist than anything else, and mostly just a nuisance.

Brad and Leo getting shrained on

We rode the shrain for a bit and broke for lunch.

Lunch: Short's Brew Libertator IPA

The shrain subsided and we hit the slopes for a few more hours in the afternoon, the mid-day and early-afternoon crowds that usually show up on holidays/school breaks never materialized and we had the mountain pretty much to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. We packed it in about 4:30pm, and just as we were loading up the Jeep it started to downpour.

Dashcam view, driving home from Mt. Holly

So far this is going down as “the winter that wasn’t”, and although we’re desperately waiting for winter to finally arrive, I’ll take slush butters over icy, rutted out parks and frozen corduroy any day.

Fortunately, Mother Nature is only like 50% of a vacation’s success.  Although terrain was limited, the conditions were very good. Much props to Crystal’s snowmaking crew and their groomers for keeping the slopes in excellent shape.

We hooked up with Marhar Snowboards to do some demos and hook them up with some feedback on their 2013 line and that was really cool, not just for Leo & I but for everyone else to meet them face to face & get to ride some of their boards.

Mild temps and low winds made for almost spring riding conditions that firmed up after the sun went behind the clouds. The bluebird skies gave way to a few hours of snowfall on Saturday afternoon-evening. There was a lot of gaper dodging but overall the crowds were not too bad and there was not much of a lineup for the chairlifts.

One highlight was the guys at A. Papano’s Pizza (the best gas station pizza ever) who let us make mixies in their dining room, and even hooked us up with a free pie on our way back to the cabin. Other highlights included Sam’s first ever black diamond run, and A-train’s savage encounter with a snow fence as 5 ski patrollers watched him run in to it.

Add in some good beer, some shufflepuck, and a whole lot of horrible karaoke (video of which is being saved for ransom purposes later…), and well even though everyone would’ve preferred better (more) snow, I think it was a success and hopefully we can do it again when there’s more snow on the ground.

I’m not claiming to have “discovered” anything, but I did learn a few things.

The Greenbush Inn

Inspired by a post on the MILSAP facebook page, I turned to google and found this vintage postcard advertising the Greenbush Inn. The 1c postage on this is from the 1922-1925 series of stamps issued in the U.S., and its canceled so it would be fair to assume the Inn was operating about that time with their fancy “electrical lighting and steam heat”.

Greenbush Inn, Greenbush, MI via CardCow.com

This resort which appears to be on on the shores of Lake Huron in Greenbush, MI (an area renowned neither for record amounts of snowfall, nor for majestic mountain peaks) certainly made some rather grandiose claims advertising itself  as “a winter resort unexcelled by any resort in the United States, Canada, or Switzerland”. Ahhhh 1920s advertising!

But there it was. Who knows when it was built? How long it was around? What was it like to stay there? Or to ski on their tiny hill on flat wooden skis?

(Edit: Of course the MILSAP blog has more details on their Greenbush Inn article!)

Pure Dedication

What these folks at the various Lost Ski Area Projects are doing — preserving the memories of these long-forgotten hills — is pure awesome, the epitome of dedication to winter recreation. The people running these sites are probably old enough to have lived through the culling [2] in the 1970s and early 1980s,  so they may have actually skied at some of these places as children, and have a personal, nostalgic attachment to preserving their memories.

Past, Present & Future

There are few people, if any, old enough to have experienced the Greenbush Inn and much of its history is already lost to time, probably buried under cheap, musty-smelling seasonal cottages owned and poorly maintained by absentee landlords. But there are many other “lost” ski areas out there, some of which have not yet been swallowed whole by subdivisions of McMansions or bland, eyesore strip malls and chain restaurants, the side effects of urban sprawl.

I’m googling some of these spots nearby and if we ever get snow this winter, it would be really neat to hike & ride one of those forgotten pieces of our sport’s shared history with skiing. As small, and out-of-the way as some of these places are, I might even be the first snowboarder ever on one of these slopes!

My hat’s off to the people behind the Lost Ski Area Projects, for what it’s worth, there are a few of us out here that appreciate the thankless work they’re doing.

Notes

1. Years ago I first read about the New England Lost Ski Areas Project which attempts to preserve the history of many ski areas that have disappeared over time. It’s really cool for a trip down memory lane or a history lesson or both.

2. Many of the now defunct ski areas fell victim to a perfect storm of factors beyond their control: a crappy economy, several consecutive dry winters, and the landmark Sunday v. Stratton lawsuit.

Do you remember when you learned how to ski or snowboard? Hopefully you did not pull a stunt like this:

And this guy has a bit more experience under his belt, but still

And to be fair, snowboarders (or wannabe snowboarders) aren’t any less stupid than our two-planked counterparts. I am not sure which is worse in this video, the awful attempt to snowboard down an icy driveway in a bikini, or the shakiest handy-cam in the known universe. You might get motion sickness from watching this one.

I really have a hard time ragging on someone who’s got the stones to try, what is by my count about a 30-stair down-flat-down urban rail, but then again…

RailFail w/ O.G from Theo Muse on Vimeo.

Thanks to Angry Snowboarder for the link.

So until opening day, whenever that might be, just be glad you’re not this kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDj2se504aA

Do you remember your first time shredding the pow pow? Hopefully it was not like this.

Jack gets down with a proper boardslide to 270 out

There were two parallel setups using PowderPak run-ins: a flat bar and a box feature, both serviced by Banshee Bungees and powered mostly by old man strength.

I don’t know what the official count was but I think we probably saw about 15-20 riders cycle through, aged from middle-school to middle-aged. Most importantly, everyone who was there was absolutely stoked to be there. But the weather was nice too, everyone was cool, no bro-downs, no haters, no bad moods, just a bunch of people happy to be carpetboarding in October.

In case you missed it last week, PARX is going to be at the Alpine Valley ski & snowboard swap sale on Saturday starting at 9am and jamming all day long. Similar setup is likely, although there are rumors that they might break out some of AV’s park features.

Stay tuned, or follow PARX for more info – they are committed to doing more of these in the future!

Sorry kids, there’s no prizes awarded for second place, but here are the runners-up:

In the world of skiing fails, there’s probably nothing quite as good as the dreaded double-eject-to-faceplant. I think it is basically skiing’s version of the harsh zeach to scorp. Thanks to Andrew for finding this gem:

Tyler shared with us the worlds’ #1 skier dad. Watch for a lesson on how NOT to be a father.

And here’s the winner:

I think this kids ski just defied all laws of physics. And the shrieking kid in the background? Well that is just the icing on this failcake. Sabato, for the winning entry you’ll get a $25 gift card redeemable at Snowboards.net. Send an e-mail to david@agnarchy.com with contact information to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who submit videos. If you didn’t win, stay tuned for more fun contests and try again next time!

The rest of us, though, have to sit back and live vicariously through others’ facebook status updates. Or we could scour the internet for stupid people doing the ski & snowboard thing. Like these:

If it was possible to zeach a 180, this is what it would look like (I really hope my backside 180s don’t look that awful). As a sign of respect, the skier then runs him over.

And there isn’t anything quite like skiers blowing it on the lift or the tow rope. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!