•
Take It
To The Limit
From Michigan's extreme drops to Colorado's cabinkeepers,
these hot ski offerings promise cool times.
WRITTEN BY RON GARBINSKI
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o beginners allowed. That's how the fastest-grow-
ing ski and snowboarding mountain in the Midwest
distinguishes itself from the competition.
Mount Bohemia, a 6-year-old ski mountain in
the far reaches of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, lays
claim to only black-diamond runs off a monstrous 900-foot-steep
vertical drop framed by Lake Superior and Lac La Bell's downhill
scenery.
"It's very exciting ... unbelievable," says Julie Sprenger, a frequent
visitor to the massive Keweenaw Peninsula slope 40 miles north
of Houghton/Hancock in the tiny town of Lac La Bell. Sprenger
and her husband, Dave, owners of the Laurium Manor Inn in
nearby Laurium, spent years skiing
California and Nevada resorts while
living on the left coast.
"This is like western skiing in
the Midwest. There are long runs
and always-great powder," she says.
"Beginners are not happy there. You
need to be a solid intermediate to
advanced to enjoy this extreme ski-
ing."
Lonie Glieberman, president of
Mount Bohemia and a new owner
of the Ottawa pro football team in
Canada, says there was "a demand
for adventure skiing, enjoying pow-
der and the backcountry up here."
So it was an easy decision to create
Michigan's most difficult ski/snowboard hill.
With more than 270 inches of fluffy, Lake Superior—belt snow
covering the 1,100-acre mountain site every winter, a depth com-
parable to Aspen, Colo., Glieberman says his 40-plus-run complex
has "the most backcountry terrain, the best sustained vertical and
the best natural snow east of the Rockies."
"That's not bragging," confirms Sprenger. "It's not a resort
and they don't pamper you. They just want you to enjoy the rush"
— including acres of tree-lined wilderness glade runs, awesome 35-
foot cliff drop-offs and torturous backcountry downhills that have
earned the designation "the Jackson Hole of the Midwest" from
Skiing Magazine.
The mountain offers "some rustic
cabins built a couple of years ago,"
says Glieberman. But he hopes to
soon start offering something more
luxurious — about 100 two-bed-
room, log-cabin condos with price
tags in the high $100,000s. The
eight ski-in, ski-out cabins include
four bunk beds and access to a pri-
vate clubhouse with fireplace and
other amenities.
"After skiing, visitors can come
back to Calumet and Laurium to
discover that we have a lot to offer
with the on-going restoration of
downtown and lots of new restau-
rants," says Sprenger. "We have a lit-
plat:MAIM • FEBRUARY 2007 •
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