Midwest resorts lying about vert

[The AD]

Another thread about ski areas in the midwest inspired me to take a look at a few of these places on Google maps. We already know the cited vertical on most of these hills is pretty puny, but are many of them even lying about those numbers? It seems to me they are. For example, Mt. Bohemia claims a 900 foot vertical on their website. It you look at the terrain on Google the top seems to be around 1250 and the bottom is at maybe 620 feet. That's 630 vertical feet. Lake Superior is at close to 600 feet, so for Bohemia's vertical claim to be accurate, the top of the mountain would have to be at least 1,500 feet, and it's nowhere near that.

Similarly, Marquette Mtn claims 600 feet. The base is at around 800 and the top 1250. That's 450 feet. I checked a few others. In fact, the only place I found that looked accurate was Boyne Highlands. They claim 552 feet and that looks very close based on the topo.

[uglymoney]

Yes. Midwest vert is generally one big lie. One ski area fudges a little and then the rest do the same. I've always wanted to take a survey rod/level with me when I go to get accurate vert.

Remember when A- Highlands had 3800 lift served? When the corp bought eliminating the need to compete it dropped down to 3600 lift served (which was the total back then).

[PowTron]

They add up multiple faces across the resort....for example, Bohemia adds both sides of the "mountain" (front and back) for their Grand Total.

Vail even does that shit. The only place I have ever been that is spot on is Whistler/Blackcomb. Those mountains are LONG

[The AD]

They add up multiple faces across the resort....for example, Bohemia adds both sides of the "mountain" (front and back) for their Grand Total.

Vail even does that shit. The only place I have ever been that is spot on is Whistler/Blackcomb. Those mountains are LONG

I know lots of places do that. They report the difference between the absolute highest point and the absolute lowest point even if you can't ski it continuously. I can accept that. It's disingenuous, but at least has some basis in fact. That's NOT what Bohemia is doing. As I said, Lake Superior it at 600 feet. The highest point on the mountain is around 1250. So unless you can somehow ski down to a point 250 feet below the surface of Lake Superior that 900 foot number is completely bogus.

[pbourdon]

Thanks for reminding me that the areas around here are to quote Homer Simpson, "....the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked."

I can't dispute your claim or attempt to back up theirs, but what I can tell you is that I've ridden Boyne Mountain, Marquette Mountain, and Bohemia. Marquette offers more vert than Boyne, but only if your taking runs from the top of the Rocket chair. How much more vert? I dunno, probably not much at all. And I know that Bohemia is significantly taller than Marquette Mountain....300 vertical feet? I dunno about that, but I would guess Bohemia is pushing 700 vertical feet at the absolute most. Regardless, none of it really changes the fact that the riding here sucks, except for Bohemia (and that's only on a good day) which is by no means as "extreme" as Lonnie wants people to believe it is. But it is without question the best thing going in the midwest on a pow day...too bad its in Bum Fucking Nowhere though, but then again, maybe that's a good thing.

[mtnjam]

Mount LaCrosse used to advertise Damnation as the steepest run east of the Mississippi. I think they had ~ 600ft vert

[emtnate]

Several of the ski areas in Michigan also do some excavating to build up the top of the hill. Depending on what survey data Google uses, it might not reflect the man made changes.

[pbourdon]

(cough) Caberfae (cough)

[pappag]

The link below seems failry accurate and gives vertical rise of chairlifts, but only for Colorado:

http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/ch.../locations.htm

[pbourdon]

Besides, and this doesn't really work for the midwest any way (cause everything sucks), but it's not how much vert you have, but what you have in your vert. Now granted, I'd rather ride 3500+ vertical feet of really good steep terrain, but then again places like Baker, Sugar Bowl, and others that don't pack a huge vertical punch sure make up for it in what they offer terrain wise. I mean look at CO, yeah sure you've got close to 3000 feet of vert, but most of the summit county resorts are pretty flat and boring in my opinion...at least compared to the Cascades, and Tahoe (excluding Flatstar and Heavenly and some others).

[justcuz]

But it is without question the best thing going in the midwest on a pow day...too bad its in Bum Fucking Nowhere though, but then again, maybe that's a good thing.

Some of us might agree that it being in "bum fuck nowhere" is a great thing. 110" in December to ourselves.....never a bad thing.

[RootSkier]

This is where I dickwave about Snowbowl...2600 vert, all good except the last 200 feet. So 2400 LEGIT vert per run, no traversing, no flats, etc. Killa.

[pbourdon]

Some of us might agree that it being in "bum fuck nowhere" is a great thing. 110" in December to ourselves.....never a bad thing.

Yeah, I know all about that. I went to Tech for a year before that hill opened. We hiked a bunch..it was fun. Then I went to NMU and hit it a lot before it started getting "popular" (read:more than 15-20 people there on any given pow day). I'm just bitching 'cause now I'm all of 9 hours if not 10 from there and its the best thing going other than me heading west, which I don't have the funds nor the time to do right now....FUCK!

[pbourdon]

Snowbowl is in Missoula isn't it? Never rode there, we did Bridger, then clipped tix at Big Sky for a few runs and then hit up Targhee several years back. I had a friend that lived in Bozeman speak highly of Snowbowl as well. Any rocks to go with that vert?

[pbourdon]

^^^ I had heard that as well. I also heard he's run into some snares along the way trying to make it happen, but as far as I know the sale is complete...there's a thread on here about the whole thing.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...hemia+mountain

[The AD]

That other thread has a topo map of Bohemia showing an elevation of 1,455 feet, so I stand corrected. Looks like the Google map is way off.

[nogophers]

While we're on the lying kick, should we bring up midwest snow condition reports? How you can be dodging grass and rocks on a north-facing slope while the official (man-made) snow report shows a "24 to 36 inch base" is beyond me. This is why us flatlanders hop on planes or get in our cars and head out west. For the lucky few, we just move.

[pbourdon]

^^^ I've never had that problem here (in Michigan)...and believe me, as soon as I wrap up this teacher's certification thing, I'll be on my way back out west. Although, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss the summers on Lake Michigan...

[flatNshallow]

I understand your confusion, perhaps this will help: In the Midwest we use Imperial Feet.

[PBR]

While we're on the lying kick, should we bring up midwest snow condition reports? How you can be dodging grass and rocks on a north-facing slope while the official (man-made) snow report shows a "24 to 36 inch base" is beyond me. This is why us flatlanders hop on planes or get in our cars and head out west. For the lucky few, we just move.

Every ski area bullshits their base depth. New snow depth too. Plus when they get the idiots blogging about their snow that really annoys me. Dax Schieffer of Big Sky is the biggest fucking lier I've ever read.