Is it still skiing if we have to dig out the bottom of the hill to make it taller?

[Jilly]

Isn't Belleville near Blue Mountain? I haven't been, but I've heard it's a pretty decent hill, and it's 720ft vertical...

3 hours away. I go the extra 1 1/2hr for Tremblant. Double the height, less crowd, better roads.

 

[scott43]

3 hours away. I go the extra 1 1/2hr for Tremblant. Double the height, less crowd, better roads.

Only 3? I thought it would be further. I suppose you cut the corner and go through Orillia?

Mount St. Louis was originally about 350' vertical..they've been digging out the backside and topping the hill up for 20 years. I think they're up to, don't laugh, a respectable 500' of pretty consistent pitch.

He says he's going to keep digging as long as the MNR allows him to!

 

[Jilly]

Yup, 407!!

 

[scott43]

Isn't Belleville near Blue Mountain? I haven't been, but I've heard it's a pretty decent hill, and it's 720ft vertical...

Meh..decent is relative.. It's more like 600' feet..there's a bit of a top then a flat. Osler Bluffs is a nice hill but it's a private club. Honestly, it's hardly worth it with the crowds. If I can't go on a week day, I just don't go..

 

[Chris Walker]

Where I learned to ski we were jealous of people who had 300' of vertical. We only had 200' (and that was a stretch).

 

[Don in Morrison]

I'll bet there are park rats who would be tickled pink if the terrain park with the 300 foot vertical had its own lift so they didn't have to navigate all that smooth, open snow above and below the park.

 

[Jilly]

Meh..decent is relative.. It's more like 600' feet..there's a bit of a top then a flat. Osler Bluffs is a nice hill but it's a private club. Honestly, it's hardly worth it with the crowds. If I can't go on a week day, I just don't go..

Which is why I drive to Tremblant. But I learned on a 200' hill outside of Belleville. Now defunct like a lot of those places. Breeder - feeders we call them.

 

[Don in Morrison]

How many resorts have excavated their half-pipe into the mountain, to eliminate the cost of piling up enough snow to build one up?

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Nub's in MI did something like that and Boyne had one where they piled up the dirt for the walls and then covered them with snow.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Was Brighton a trash pile originally? I remember when they excavated for the new lodge (maybe in the late 1950s) and piled the dirt on top. The original Mt. Trashmore was in Riverview, near Detroit.

Schuss moved a bunch of dirt while creating a new golf course and put it at the top of their hill. I think they added something like fifty feet.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Among my earliest ski experiences was a gully at Traverse City Country Club in Michigan where a bunch of neighborhood kids would drag toboggans loaded with skis, sleds and what we called skibobs--a seat on top of a ski--to the gully and share all the equipment. We'd slide down one side and try to get as far up the other as possible and then hike to the top of the other to reverse paths.

 

[crgildart]

How many resorts have excavated their half-pipe into the mountain, to eliminate the cost of piling up enough snow to build one up?

Could probably cover it in plastic and ride it all year round...

 

[Don in Morrison]

Could probably cover it in plastic and ride it all year round...

Same for the jumps. They could use the dirt from the pipe trench to build up the kickers and cover them with plastic, too. Save a ton of snowmaking effort that could be used to open other runs by having a dirt foundation for the park features so less snow would be needed. At Copper a few years ago in early December they had 4 runs open and the snow guns were working overtime building piles for the terrain park. They blew enough snow on the park area to cover at least a couple of other runs

 

[cantunamunch]

Which is why I drive to Tremblant. But I learned on a 200' hill outside of Belleville. Now defunct like a lot of those places. Breeder - feeders we call them.

Batawa is still around, no?

 

[DanoT]

I've actually managed to avoid skiing Mount Trashmore (Mount Brighton's local name, given that it's literally a landfill that they put some fill dirt and ski lifts on), but I like the cut of your jib!

They did the same thing at Blackstrap Mountain in flat as piss on a plate Saskatchewan. I have never been there but have been told it is not a mountain but a large gully on the prairies and they turned the top into a landfill and just pilled things up. So when someone says that the skiing is garbage I guess they are quoting the truth.

 

[Jilly]

Batawa is still around, no?

Oh, yeah. Sonja took it back a few years ago. New management. Not sure who this year. Last good guy left for Hidden Valley at Huntsville. I did teach out there, but I've been too busy or injured the last few to go back. Rather ski the big hill anyways. Made many good friends there.

 

[Dave Petersen]

Was Brighton a trash pile originally? I remember when they excavated for the new lodge (maybe in the late 1950s) and piled the dirt on top. The original Mt. Trashmore was in Riverview, near Detroit.

Schuss moved a bunch of dirt while creating a new golf course and put it at the top of their hill. I think they added something like fifty feet.

I have one of the Mt. Trashmore chairs sitting in my garage (or at least I was told that's where it came from). It is a Borvig quad.

 

[skibob]

Greetings from Detroit!

And yes, we actually have a hill like that. Pine Knob has a valley dug at the bottom of it, to help it achieve it's *cough* breath taking 300 foot vertical!

I'm SkaBob over on Epicski, but seeing as there's a skibob on here, I didn't want to cause any hilarious name confusion.

This place seems a bit less willing to blow sunshine up the backside of every product, and I'm actually grateful for more solid reviews and information than every ski being the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread

Cheers!

I dunnno, we coulda had some fun messing with people. BTW, Bobs are taking over the world (and starting with Pugski). I also come from the flatlands just south of you . . . But I think we had a whopping 500' "mountain" in Indiana.

 

[skibob]

skibobs--a seat on top of a ski. .

That is where I got my screen name. Wondered if anybody else called them that.

 

[crgildart]

I've wondered what kind of toll erosion actually takes on a ski hill, especially where the hills are more dirt than granite or rocky. A lot of dirt washes down a 500 foot dirt hill over the course of 50 years. Might the bottom fill in enough lose a foot, not so much off the top but the mud that slides to the bottom would need to be bulldozed out every 20 years or so right??