Indianhead Mountain is located in the upper peninsula, by the town of Bessemer. It's near the Wisconsin border, and it gets a lot of lake effect snow from Lake Superior. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of snow for us. There were a couple of storms that dropped some much needed powder on the area before we arrived.

The main resort is located at the top of the mountain. Our group stayed in a couple of small housing units that were a short walk to the lifts. During the Y2K celebration activities, they had a really nice fireworks show.

I took this picture while going down Deer Track, one of the easier trails.



This is up by the main lodge at the top of the lifts. In the distance are a couple of the intermediate trails, including the Nastar course. The item in the center on top of the pole is a snow making gun.



There are also some condos that are located next to the trails.



This is the sign at the start of the Nastar course. When I skied by here earlier, the blackboard said "CHAMPAIN" instead of "CHAMPAIGN". I thought it was funny, but apparently someone figured out that it was a mistake...



This was a very nice day, and the skiing conditions were generally well. This is at the bottom of Elkhorn, a nice intermediate trail that's good for cruising.



This trail is Chippewa, which is a nice long intermediate run.



This is looking down at the bottom of Chippewa, where the base lodge is located.

Just for the Y2K festivities, the resort had an ice chapel built at the bottom of the Chippewa trail. It was used for some couples who were getting married or renewing their vows for the new millenium. The brides had to wear a vail, and all of the grooms were given top hats. A local news crew was at the site doing a story on it.

The couples had their celemony in front of the ice chapel.



This is another picture of the front. I was told that the doors actually opened, and there was a small room, complete with a wedding cake.



Here are two more couples:

If there's one thing I learned on this trip, is that T-Bar lifts really, really suck. I was taking one that would end at the top of the Hiawatha trail (a steep black diamond), where I was going to continue onward. Basically, a T-Bar lift is a rope that "pulls" you up the hill. You use a support (shaped like a T) that you ride on. Unfortunately, the rope that was connected wasn't a set distance, and would fluxuate with changes in the terrain. I took a bump, lost my balance, and fell down just before the steepest part of the hill. This was the first, and last, ride on a T-Bar lift.

This was the view looking down. I fell down at the base of the structure in the foreground. It was a very long trek back up which took 20 minutes.


During a short rest, I decided to take a picture of the area.