Boyne Mountain Resort

Boyne Mountain is the premiere destination ski resort in Michigan, if not the entire midwest.  They've got every amenity that you would expect in a destination resort to make your ski vacation getaway memorable:

• four-star slopeside accomodations
• fine dining
• nightlife / party scene
• indoor water park
• shopping
• valet parking
• dog sledding
• tubing
• year round rafting trips
• golf in the summer
• real estate sales
• even it's own airport with free 5-minute shuttle service.

With all this going on, it's no wonder that the management has no time to pay attention to the skiing.  The fact is that snow conditions and the overall ski experience is very low on the list of priorities, and it shows.

For example - the best terrain is an area called the Super Bowl - unfortunately, they don't tend to run the lifts mid-week, it's usually closed for a racing event on weekends, and the last time I went to Boyne Mountain they had actually closed it in order to have a snowmobile race.  The last six times I visited, the Super Bowl wasn't open, so I've just stopped going to the Mountain. 

Maybe management will get their priorities in line, maybe they won't, but my take is that they're just not interested in selling $50 lift tickets to day skiers - they cater to the guy who going to drop a K over the weekend, and maybe buy one of the half-mil slopeside condos. 

On the positive side, there's tons of beginner terrain on the north end of the ridge, some interesting if brief steeps under the HS six-pack.  They turned the best blue cruiser in the place into a terrain park a couple of years ago, so if that's your thing you might like it. And there's certainly plenty to do if you're not really interested in skiing.