IPOS 2: Little Switzerland

Little Switz feels like a suburban neighborhood that just plopped a ski mountain in the middle. It was less urban than the Rock, but still very different from the mountains I'd grown up skiing in Colorado. Unlike anything I'd ever seen before, Little Switz has a lift that goes all the way up and over the backside so you can ride it either direction, two rope tows, a Nastar course that gets set up every Sunday, and a terrain park with two lanes of features so that the many kids lapping the rope tow could ride simultaneously.

What if your backyard was literally a ski hill? | Izzy Lidsky photo.

I spent the morning watching two kids set up the Nastar course and picking their brains about how the course worked. One of them was the pacesetter, or currently the fastest racer at the mountain. Despite the less than ideal snow, people were still ripping laps through the course all morning and riding the rope tow back up for more. The rain-hardened snow at the bottom soon became an icy slush pit, the more and more racers that came skidding into it. Even as the conditions deteriorated, the racers kept coming back for more. The pacesetter, a young local skier named Hunter, spun a few Nastar laps for us and it was easy to see he'd grown up racing on the very same hill. I was impressed by Hunter's nonchalance and speed - that is until Rick booted up and beat Hunter's time by so much that he gave up for the day.

Stylish spins in the park? No Big Deal. | Izzy Lidsky photos.

Once we'd gotten a healthy dose of Nastar, we decided to shift our focus to the other aspect of Midwest ski culture: more rope-tow park skiing. Little Switzerland's park had less gradient than the Rock's but was full of fun features. We found a group of five or six kids who were happy to lap each feature for us and huck some fun tricks. Although many of them had grown up racing, the easy lapability of a rope-tow park meant these kids were no strangers to a little tail rocker on their skis. Even in the poor conditions, they still had a blast going as big as they could for the camera.

Conditions be damned, the Midwest knows how to have fun on snow. | Izzy Lidsky photos.

With our plate full of skiing rain crust, we headed to the bar for a quick apres. The bar at Little Switz has these giant windows that overlook the whole mountain. From your stool alone you can see the Nastar course, the park, and all the runs in between. The way the windows are angled make you feel like you're in an aquarium and the skiers are the fish floating around in the glow of the night skiing lights. The community at Little Switz that I'd noticed early in the day was as strong at the bar as it was on the hill. Rick as well as the Wick family, who we'd skied with earlier, joined us for beer and we were welcomed as if we'd been skiing there our whole lives. What had started off as a bleak looking day due to the rain ended up a fun, slushy, high energy day that resulted in some great shots.