Chestnut Mountain Resort

Chestnut Mountain is one of my favorite resorts in the Midwest.  The only other resort in the region that can compete IMO is Granite Peak, which is several hours North in Wausau, Wisconsin. One of the things that stands out about Chestnut is the variety and difficulty of terrain offered.  There are several good beginner runs, most notably 'Old Main' which is a nice easy cruiser run for beginners that runs down the north end of the resort.  Intermediate runs have a nice range of difficulty from Moser & Fox that run down to one of the quad lifts and Crazy Horse, which while rated as a blue, but could easily be rated a black diamond by most Midwest standards.  The crown jewel of Chestnut is an expert run called 'Warpath'.  Warpath rises 475 feet above the Mississippi river and provides an excellent view of the river in the distance from its precipice, there are no other runs in the Midwest that I have experienced that have the steepness, vertical and snow quality that can be found here.  The other two expert runs are Eagle, which is usually setup with seeded moguls and Mineshaft which is a quick steep run towards the Village quad lift. 

The lodge at Chestnut consists of a cafeteria, two bars and a restaurant.  The bar food & beer selection could be better but is not really out of step with other area resorts, the same can be said for the cafeteria food. 

The town of Galena, which is approximately 15 minutes away has a downtown straight out of the early 1900s. There are numerous shops, restaurants, wineries, etc that provide a nice alternative for a way to spend the day for any non-skiers in your group. 

A great early season deal at Chestnut is 'The Date is the Rate' where until the 20th of December the day of the month is the price of the lift ticket.  This is an excellent opportunity to get in several days of skiing for a very low price.  The only con of this deal is that being early season there is often times snowmaking in progress during the day.Overall, I would highly recommend Chestnut Mountain to any intermediate or expert skiers in the Midwest.