Pine Mountain Ski Club
Iron Mountain, Michigan
News

2007/2008 Ski Club News

April 6th - Season Ends with Tons of Snow and Lots of Sun
Pine Mountain officially closed today - too bad since the entire hill is still fully covered in snow. Saturday was a great day and had a decent crowd for this time of year, but Sunday was a scene from the new movie that is out with Will Smith - I am Legend.... 3 lifts running was more than the number of skiers. The hill was still in great shape - it must be the first time in... forever... that Spruce lift was running into April. No bare spots except for around the big pines, but that is normal every year.

March 26th - Adult Race League Season Ends
What a fun evening for the final night. The weather was perfect for skiing and the snow remained firm and fast. After the skiing everyone headed to the Sitzmark for awards from the Sport Shop and apps that were set out for the racers and guests.

Nastar metals were handed out - I got a gold metal and quickly learned from Micheal Frankini that it is not REAL gold.... I tried to sell mine thinking it would be helpful funding our move to Appleton - but that Pine Mountain, stiffing us with fake gold metals. I did not even try to sell the silver metals.

March 22nd - Great Skiing
We still have the best conditions of the year, and it is the end of March. It is similar to typical skiing in February, but it is late March - go figure. Everywhere you look there is snow, snow and more snow. Wisconsin got hit with another foot yesterday.

Easter egg hunt was today - no idea how it went, although one poor family looked all over the hill for about 1 hour and never found an egg. It looked like most people had a good time overall - other than them.

The Adult Race League concludes this Wednesday. Pine Mountain Sport Shop will offer awards at the end of the race up in the Sitzmark. They donated a couple of Nastar Jackets and gift certificates for Scott goggles. Should be a fun night.

March 21st - Shoplifters caught at the Sport Shop
Thanks to help from some of the hill employees - 2 and potentially a 3rd kid has been detained by the police for stealing jackets and gloves from the shop. Apparently they thought the free skiing day at Pine Mountain included free clothing too ---- they will be officially arrested sometime next week. Sucks to be them, but it is fun to catch them in the act. We are using the phrase - "Throw the book at them"............. Names to be released upon a guilty conviction - can't wait for that.

March 20th - Record Snow Year
Can you believe the snow??? A somewhat slow and warm November and December ended up with a huge bang for January - now. Green Bay set a record dating back to the 1800's. They have in the 90 inch range. More predicted tomorrow. We have tons too - last year at this time we were just about out of snow and the golf courses were getting ready to open... Now we are thinking about skiing into May. Definately a fun spring, even though the weather is a bit cold to say it is a true sping.

March 10th - Big Air, Ski Team Race, Great Skiing
After a slight gap in the ski club's internet news, we have some updating. Forgive me, I have been busy with the Niagara Mill closure... looking for work and such - internew updating took a back seat until now. Now for the news...........

Starting with the big air contest held this past Saturday. Both Twin Tip skiers and Snowboarders participated this time - man those kids jump high... good thing their parents have good insurance - one bad move an they are maxing out Mom and Dad's insurance premiums. The stuff looks good for photos and I am sure the girls dig it too.

The Pine Mountain Ski Team held a team only race Saturday morning. After, the parents tested their skills in the same course. A few of the adults showed that even though they are over the hill, they can still carve out a few turns. I understand the local chiropractors were busy on Monday. The race times were not given out to protect the innocent ---- I hear a few of the 8 year old kids beat their parents.

The hill is in great shape - how could it not be with so much snow. The skiing should be perfect well into April. I think they intend to close after the first weekend in April.

February 13th - In Memory of AJ Kent
The ski club lost a great friend and person Monday night. Click here for information on AJ.

January 3rd - Iron Mountain Daily News
Click here to read the article in the paper about Glen Plake's visit to Pine Mountain...

PLEASE - NO RAIN... Rain Rain go away.
Weather Channel is predicting a potential rain on Sunday. They are never correct if they predict snow - so why can't they be wrong when it rains?????

December 30th - Wow - Great Crowds, Great Skiing and Glen Plake
It actually feels like Pine Mountain from the 1980's again - great fun crowds filled the lodge. The skiing and weather could not have been any better - a bit of snow each night compounded with warm weather (high 20's) and a bit of sunshine. I myself was even amazed at the entire atmosphere of the hill.

Today, Glen Plake's group arrived at the hill somewhat unexpectedly. Although the Sport Shop arranged the visit, he was not really expected to show up due to their extremely busy schedule. The visit could not have been any better - Glen skied most of the day with all the local kids and signed posters for over 1 hours after. Everyone that met him and his wife commented that they are the nicest 2 people you would want to talk to. Glen even commented that throughout his years he runs into certain hills that make a mark in his memory and today at Pine was one of those. He was truely happy about how everyone treated him and his group and how nice eveyone was he met. He made that comment a few times when he was in the Sport Shop. The only bad part was that their camera broke and we could not get a high quality camera from anywhere in the area - we even tried the tv stations to see if they could help out. He was hoping to film his day to put in a movie or on his television show. Maybe next time.

Merry Christmas!!!
TIme for eveyone to use those great Christmas gifts on the hill. Those of you that did not get lucky and get ski equipment - I know where you can get some good stuff.

I recently heard that Dave Weber is in (or was in) the hospital recently. Lets all hope everything is OK and that he will be back skiing soon. If he still is in there a pop in or call might be appropriate, although I am not sure on that.

I skied today and found the conditions quite good - with an exception for a few bare spots on the Nastar run area - keep your eyes open there - I hope the hill plans to put a snowgun or 2 or 3 there after the x-mas rush or the race league will be a bit crappy. I am not one to ski over dirt and we cannot expect natural snow to help. 3 inches of snow cover also make it hard to drill in the gates .

December 22nd, 2007 - Web Page Updating Again
I am back updating the webpage again - a few weeks of a very sick family and we are back on our feet again. We got to know all the nurses at the local Hospital and we are on a first name basis with our doctor...

Although we have not been skiing at the hill yet, I can see that the entire hill (except Dipsy Doodle) is open - that would mean even Spruce is open starting today. That is pretty good, normally Spruce does not open until January. Lots of good snowmaking.

Brent (Hill Groomer) commented that this is the best snow they have made in a long time - it is light and easy to push with the cats - not much water.

Check out the FREE race clinic's that Bud DeLano is putting on and the fisrt official Ski Club Party is Friday, January 11th.

December 8th, 2007 - Hill Is Open!!!
They waited an extra week to open this year, but it is finally here - opening day. The weather has been as good as it ever has for making snow - currently it is 5 below zero out - the snowmakers are putting out the snow.

If the hill has time they will be opening 1/2 the hill today and I would expect almost the entire thing next week. They had plenty of snow to open last weekend but did not for some reason. Hopefully the groomers are working as well as they did last year.

Having the 8" to 10" of snow on the ground right now also really helped the snowmaking - it makes for better snow conditions when fresh snow is groomed in with man-made snow.

November 30th - Fire! Fire! Fire!
Whew, that was a close one - a slight electrical short in the hotel produced quite a bit of smoke in the attic. Fire trucks from all over came to the hill - I was amazed at how many firemen and trucks we actually own here in the UP. No flames popped up or any water damage - so after a few hours everyone was let back into the resort. That could have been a bad one if the flames flared up.

After the fire was out, Pine had a "fire" sale on all the food that was left out on the tables in Famers.... This happened during the dinner rush of course.

November 19th, 2007 - Cold nights, warm days
A bit of rain last night - would have made for some good fresh snow had the temps been under 32 degrees - but 40 degrees does not make good snow. They are making snow during the nights, so we will see how it goes. Hopefully better than last season.

November 5th, 2007 - Ski Club Ski Swap a Huge Success - Again
Sales keep increasing year after year. Each year we sell more at the swap we give more to the local ski teams. How great is that?

Everyone that helped with the successful ski swap we thank you. Everyone knows it takes a chunk out of a fall Saturday, but in the end it is worth it - especially when we can help support the local ski teams with needed things like timing gear and gates. The beer in Famers tasted pretty good too after the hard days work.

Mike Fiera actually parted ways with his Volkl P50's. He will be race league ready this season with the new AllStars he ran down and bought with his new found money.... We have not broke the news to him that the AllStars cost more than what he sold the P50's for....... Any suggestions on how to tell him?

November 3rd, 2007 - Ski Hill Grass Cutting Under Way
Ski hill grass cutting has commenced - and since Eric Trepp is the only person crazy enough to drive that rickety old cutting tractor down the expert hills they will be cutting the steeps using weed wackers....... eash. Selling skis on a Saturday does not look so bad after all now does it???

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*****News Archive******

Click here for the 2006/2007 season Ski Club News

Click Here for the 2005/2006 season Ski Club News
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