shredding gnar snowboarding blog

It’s March 8, and it’s been near 50 degrees in Michigan the last few days, and the forecast for the next week is more of the same, plus rain midweek.  That spells the end of the snowboarding/skiing season, at least for us in the Detroit area.

In Michigan, the end of the season always sneaks up on us. It’s winter one week, and it’s not winter any more the following week.  The season is almost always too soon, because we never get any advance warning.

All in all, it’s been a short season; things didn’t really get under way until Christmas, so we got only about two and a half months of winter.  Last winter, the slopes around here opened in mid-November, and although the season also ended mid-March, that added a very enjoyable month to the season.

I’m jealous of anyone who lives (particularly out West) near a real mountain.  Real mountains have fairly reliable seasons, typically from the end of November through the first or second week in April.  They might open a little earlier or a little later, but with 300, 400 or 500 inches of snow in a season, remaining open until mid-April usually isn’t a problem. Sure, sometimes they might get hit with rain or warm temps, but typically they know they’ll be open for a good 4+ months every winter, and the season end date is well-known in advance.

The resorts a few hours north of here have a slightly longer season, weather permitting of course, but I probably won’t make it back there this season. We just went up there this past weekend, this week it’s supposed to rain, and the following weekend I have an outbound flight to London leaving on Saturday.  If the resorts are open the weekend of March 26-28, I will try and get one more day on the slopes, I’ve got my fingers crossed, but remain realistically pessimistic about the probability.

Looks like tomorrow evening will be the end of my season, temps in the 50′s we’re going to try and hit Pine Knob for one last session.

Related posts:

1. Is the Snowboarding Season Over?
2. It’s Almost May, Who’s Still Shredding?
3. Last video clip of the 2010 shred season

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