December 28th, 2003

Michigan's Backyard Behemoth
Mt. Bohemia in U.P. offers the Midwest's best terrain for experts only
by John D. Stoll
Special to 21st Century Newspapers

Come late October, scores of auto enthusiasts flood Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to witness a weekend worth of off-road rally racing. The car race challenges drivers to push cars to the utmost limit, exceeding speeds of 100 mph while dodging trees, ditches, wildlife and death itself pursuing the best time through 15 stages of competition.

Crazy, you say?

No less crazy than what starts happening a little more than a month later in the steep timber-rich slopes of Mount Bohemia, Michigan’s newest and most-rugged ski and snowboarding resort.

Bohemia opened its doors in December 2000 as a snugly tucked destination within the mining lands of the uppermost tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Located in Lac La Bell, a small town 40 miles north of Houghton County Memorial Airport near Hancock and approximately 575 miles north of Oakland County, a jaunt to Bohemia consumes the better part of a day. Nevertheless, a drive through the majesty and serenity of Michigan’s copper country is worth its weight in gold and, with a 900-foot vertical descent – a whopping dive by Michigan standards and the largest in the Midwest – a trip to Bohemia is equally rewarding.

Before grabbing the kids and packing up helmets, ski poles and the like, heed the cockeyed quirk about said remote destination: Bohemia prides itself on the wealth or “WARNING: No beginners allowed” signs littering the mountain, and most of the ski able terrain is rated for experts only. To prove the point, ski enthusiast magazines, such as Skiing, have lauded the resort as “The Jackson Hole of the Midwest” which is the equivalent of calling Michigan’s wine country the Southern France of the Rust Belt.

Although there are 43 trails in Bohemia’s offering, the longest of which stretches nearly two miles, the resort carries only three blue-rated runs for moderately skilled skiers and not one beginner green. Snowplowing skiers and weak-kneed boarders looking for flat, predictable terrain will find Bohemia is off limits and that the state-run slopes of the Porcupine Mountains in Ontonagon to the west may be a better fit. The Upper Peninsula, in fact, serves host to a wealth of less-aggressive hills that offer ample après ski activities and gloriously rustic lodging.

As for Bohemia, it’s a dream world for hard-core ski bums looking for Rocky Mountain-like challenges and a pull-no-punches classroom for novices on a budget looking to improve exponentially. Women ski free, and the rental shack exclusively lends high-performance skis and snowboards for $35 per day.

The Ghost and Prospect trails cutting through the outermost edges of the west face of the boundary stretch with thousands of feet of challenging, but manageable, terrain that can be skied for hours at a time while working up the muster to cross over to the acres black-, double-black- or triple-black-diamond rated runs, with monikers such as “Hungry Vulture,” Tommyknocker’s Plunge” and “Flying Squirrel,” that populate Mt. Bohemia.

Bohemia is portioned off into five sections, accessible vial two chairlifts meeting at the peak. Bohemia’s designers hollowed out the heart of the hill in order to create a 14-run wilderness park, dubbed “Extreme Back Country,” accessible only via the black-diamond run “Miner’s Hallow” or through a small tree gate accessible from a path cur for one of the chairlifts. Extreme Back Country is what makes Bohemia the cream of Midwest adventure skiing and competes with much of what can be found in the western United States and Canada. In addition, two new heavily tree-lined glade runs have been cut for 2004, and the variety of sections offer a substantial diet of glade and exposed rock terrain, as well as steep long-distance and race hill runs.

Bohemia’s architects hadn’t the amount of real estate afforded to Western resorts and had to be efficient when designing a resort to compete with more spacious resorts. Bohemia completely departs from the traditional Michigan run layout, in which wide, sweeping ski areas interconnect like six-lane highways with minimal interruptions between them (such as can be seen at local hills like Pine Knob in Clarkston). At Bohemia, runs weave narrowly through natural wilderness, mogul-studded patchwork and steep pitches. Cliff drop-offs are as monstrous as 35 feet, and the hill’s overall character is reminiscent of an intricate network of mountain-bound train tracks.

Equally alluring is the fact that Bohemia touts a virtual snow guarantee. Situated in the Lake Superior Snow Belt, the Keweenaw region gains about 275 inches of snow per year, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. You’ll be hard pressed to visit Lac La Bell on any morning during ski season when fresh snow hasn’t fallen, and sometimes you’ll find the powdery condition extending into April.

Tom complement the handful of off-resort lodging options, the resort has added a collection of trailside cabins for 2004, costing $125 per night. The cabins accommodate four in bunk beds, feature fireplaces and small kitchenettes, and include four pair of snowshoes, provided for necessity’s sake more than nostalgia. Bohemia also encourages winter camping by offering a designated area on site with fire pits and a spacious, well-maintained activity center with showers for $20 per night.

Either option reflects the adventure one is promised to find on the slope of Michigan’s most intense downhill experience. Just be sure to check, no double-check, your skills before you go.