I hear ya. Going to Breckenridge/Keystone the past few years has really spoiled me. But skiing is the only thing I like about winter, so I got to get my fix.

 

Let me know in advance if you head to Granite Peaks. I will drag along the boards my cabin is about an hour West of there. I am willing to give the MidWest another shot.

As far as other winter activities you still have snowshoeing, ice fishing, cross country sking and tubing to keep you entertained.

http://www.perkinstownsnowshoerace.com/

http://www.medfordwis.com/perkinstow...ports_area.htm

 

i've found cascade and devil's head are very similar, and since i started taking my boys skiing we've gone to cascade due to their very liberal lift ticket policy (buy an adult ticket and get multiple free child lift tickets).

this results, however, in HUGE lift wait times, tons of chilluns on the hills, and clueless drunk parents in the lodge.

last year we went to wilmot almost exclusively due to gas costs and proximity (45 minutes from my house).

can't say i'm a fan of alpine valley, but i only went there once on a sub-zero day in 1988 because i'd just bought skiis and couldn't resist trying them out. upon leaving i vowed never to go back.

chestnut near galena is ok, but is priced similar to mid-WI resorts and thus kinda feels like a rip off to me.

i could see going further north into WI or making the MI trip if the places there have any sort of discount similar to cascade. wherever i go, it costs me 3x as much since i'm hauling the kids along.

 

closest thing to going out west is going to be Upper Peninsula Michigan mountains
Cascade Devils Head and Granite peak would be next
chestnut isnt too bad i suppose

places with good terrain parks would be Tyrol for sure as well as chestnut has a backside with a decent park. last i remember alpine was decent but crowded, and of course cascade and devils head both have them too

mind you these are the only places ive gone to in the MW.. none are worth comparing to anything in the rockies
thers my .02

 

I'm starting to think I won't really find what I'm looking for. The best thing about the rockies aside from their excellent runs is that there are so many trails and they are really long. So you might get a crowded lift on a Saturday, but once you get up to the blue square or black diamond area, there aren't a lot of people. And the trails are wide enough that even when it's crowded, you still have lots of space.

I'll still give them a try. Maybe I'll take a day off of work once a blizzard hits and head up to Alpine, Devil's Head, or Cascade - just to get my fix. If any of you are going, let me know.

 

Take the Amtrak from Naperville departs everyday at 2:35P, get off at Winter Park in Colorado the next day at 10:07 am ski a couple of days and get back on at 4:55P gets back to Chitown at 3:50P the next day.

http://www.skiwinterpark.com/index.htm

 

Alpine only has one positive... its close, devils head and cascade are like 3 times the size but a little further. just giving you the heads up so you dont expect a mountain out of a hill

 

I remember devil's head was good 10 years ago but I cant speak for it now.

Hey does anyone need a set of AP1 OEM wheels for snow wheels? Let me know.

 

my brother planing a trip to chestnut on dec 7.
$7 lift tickets that day.