26 replies to this topic

[Bill]

I just received my White Book from 1984 and in Michegan, Mt. Brighton Area had quite the night skiing schedule:

Weekdays Monday - Thursday 6PM - 10:30 PM
Weekends Friday 6PM - 11:00 PM
Saturday 9 PM - 5AM (Sunday)

Rates were:
Weekday Nights $11.50
Weekend Friday $13.50
Saturday Night $11.50 (and it mentions again 11pm to 5am)

Weird...

[vancouverguy]

Mt. Brighton? That place is a joke- it's built on a garbage dump (correct me if I'm wrong) and has 130 acres of skiable terrain, along with 230 ft. of vertical, served by 10 (mostly Hall) lifts that were relocated from other areas. In the summer, the place is a golf course.

[Bill]

At the time of this edition (1984) it had:

6 Chairs (4 Double, 2 Triple), 10 Rope Tows.
Vertical rise of 250 Ft (WooHoo). Doesn't mention skiable acres but it mustn't be that much.

[liftmech]

Snoqualmie and its neighbours used to have damn near everything open for night skiing, and I don't recall it being that expensive either. I think all they closed was Chair 2 at Alpental, Wild Side at Snoqualmie, and Silver Fir at Ski Acres. There may have been a few others, but I recall being able to ski almost all of the four mountains.
Crystal used to be open until 10 pm, but ever since I worked nights there it's been 8.
Stevens still goes to 10, and your day ticket works all night as well. Only Mill Valley, Double Diamond, and Seventh Heaven are closed.

[floridaskier]

16 lifts for a 250 fooot vertical on the side of a garbage dump...?

[hyak.net]

liftmech, on Jan 28 2004, 06:08 PM, said:

Snoqualmie and its neighbours used to have damn near everything open for night skiing, and I don't recall it being that expensive either. I think all they closed was Chair 2 at Alpental, Wild Side at Snoqualmie, and Silver Fir at Ski Acres. There may have been a few others, but I recall being able to ski almost all of the four mountains.
Crystal used to be open until 10 pm, but ever since I worked nights there it's been 8.
Stevens still goes to 10, and your day ticket works all night as well. Only Mill Valley, Double Diamond, and Seventh Heaven are closed.

Before the Booth Creek days it is true that Snoqualmie would have much more night areas open including Hyak with the $10 Hyak only ticket on Friday and Saturday nights. Those were the days (or should I say nights) when The Summit would actually brag about being the largest night skiing operation in the USA. These days its usually Central and sometimes Alpental that runs, and on weekends West (beginners haven). At least they did figure out that operating Central at nights was much more enjoyable for the skier then West during the week, but it took them about 4 years to come to that conclusion. Whenever they add the new lift to Hyak, the night lights are suppose to return and my guess is that some of the night skiing will migrate down that way because of the Nordic Center running Wed and Sat nights already.....just a guess anyway.

[edmontonguy]

For the 4 skihills in Edmonton and area all have night skiing until 9:00 or 9:30 on week nights and at very reasonable rates. though the terrain and vertical is nothing to shout about

[skiracing]

around salt lake only brighton and park city have night skiing (i think) and theyre only open until about 9 but run most days

[Kicking Horse]

Eudora, Keystone, Silver Creek / Solvista / Grandby Ranch All does or did night Skiing.

[Allan]

The Red chair used to be open from 8:30am to 10:00pm daily.

[ccslider]

NWS, on Jan 28 2004, 01:20 PM, said:

I just received my White Book from 1984 and in Michegan, Mt. Brighton Area had quite the night skiing schedule:

Saturday 9 PM - 5AM (Sunday)

I recall Song Mtn in upstate NY just south of Syracuse used to operate until the wee hours Fri or Sat nite. I think their "closing" time was 5am too but the bar closed at 2 am. This was back in the early 70s - don't know what they do or don't do now.

[campbmsu2]

vancouverguy, on Jan 28 2004, 02:05 PM, said:

Mt. Brighton? That place is a joke- it's built on a garbage dump (correct me if I'm wrong) and has 130 acres of skiable terrain, along with 230 ft. of vertical, served by 10 (mostly Hall) lifts that were relocated from other areas. In the summer, the place is a golf course.

that's not mt. brighton at all. contrary to the jokes, mt. brighton is not on a trash dump. near a rock quarry though.

mt brighton has only a few lifts, some are realtively new as well, but there's three center pole doubles (orange, blue and green), there's three triples (grey/silver, depending on your opinion, red and black). There's also four rope tows, one going up the backside of the mountain, a small, "rapid tow" for some unknown reason and one up the center of the mountain. there's also a beginner's rope tow.

now don't diss mt. brighton. it ain't no utah, but it's wear i learned to ski! in may (after the metro detroit area snow is long gone) a train carrying tankers filled with chlorine gas and stuff once derailed right next to the place. the cars were all over but none leaked. hallelujah, mt. brighton.

sometimes the radio stations will have ski and rock nights and there will be music blasting and stuff and like rednecks from south of detroit come up and ski and shoot squirrels and do redneck things on the hill.

www.mtbrighton.com

every site i go to says they have like 11 surface lifts but i only count four and they are the only four i ever remember there.

[Snoqualmie guy]

Booth Creek has not got the whole Snoqualmie thing down yet but is slowly getting there. They don't get why Hyak is losing money. Half the people who ski like new lifts, but all they have is Riblet doubles! I don't mind them, its great because it keeps the crowds down.

[SkiBachelor]

The reason is probably because Booth Creek hasn't received a return on investment since it purchased Snoqualmie. I'm guessing its been kind of a money pit for them after the ski area experienced those two really bad seasons back to back and is still trying to make up for the loss. Booth Creek no longer owns Snoqualmie and only leases it from CNL, so the decision to install a HSQ is probably up to CNL. Booth Creek is currently focused on expanding its gem resort, Northstar-at-Tahoe so any plans at Hyak or Snoqualmie for that matter are probably on the back burner. I think we will see Booth Creek investing more in snow making equipment before we see any new lifts at Snoqualmie because of its low elevation.

[dh_lift_op]

campbmsu2, on Apr 27 2004, 01:24 PM, said:

that's not mt. brighton at all. contrary to the jokes, mt. brighton is not on a trash dump. near a rock quarry though.

Are you sure about that? I know most Detroit area ones are. I know Alpine Valley is and isn't Brighton like across the street?

[afski722]

Contrary to popular belief, the four functioning ski areas around Metro Detroit are not build on garbage dumps. Yes, they are all enhanced hills, primarily the result of quarrying operations. Riverview Highlands, which closed in the mid/late '90's down in Riverview south of Detroit WAS built on top of a landfill. That place has since closed and been turned into a large sledding hill. They used to have a few chairlifts but they have been removed, and their vertical was only about 150 ft. In my opinion, Mt. Brighton is the worst of the 4 Detroit area ski areas, and it has blah terrain, poorly maintained, run on a shoestring budget, and generally overrun by out of control, wanna-be-gangsta snowboarders.

Mt. Brighton is located in Brighton at US-23 & I-96 which is about 20-30 minutes south/southwest of Alpine Valley which is on M-59 in White Lake. The hills are a result of a gravel quarry, and the fact they dug out a lake and piled the sediment up to create a hill. Yes, you gotta love the railroad that runs adjacent to the property. Constantly having freight trains rumble past, blowing their horns. I used to ski out there back in high school as we trained out a few nights during the week. I wouldn't exactly say they have any "new" lifts, most are late 60's/early 70's Hall's & SLI's. They do have 1 "new" Von Roll from the mid-80's, whoo! I'm going to get out there sometime soon and snap some pictures for the website. I may have to pay to play the Par 3 they built on the hill, ha! Anyone see the movie Aspen Extreme, the opening scene was indeed shot at Mt. Brighton.

That said, I'm pretty sure that they still do those "Midnight Ski Nights" but I think now they only go until 2am.

I know Hidden Valley, MO offers skiing until 3am on Saturday nights. When I was down there visiting some buddies, I wanted to do it, but they told me that its not a good idea, and almost downright dangerous due to the mix of really bad skiers + night skiing + booze. I believe Chestnut Valley does it too. There are quite a few Midwestern ski areas that offer late-night skiing on the weekends.

[DetroitSkier]

Well put on Mt. Brighton, afski722. Some of those old Halls were definitely in rough shape. I remember waiting with my wife (then girlfriend) about 5 or 6 years ago to board one of the doubles, and the lift operator said "Whooooa...wait for the next one!". After being startled, we saw the chair go by with a massive hole in the seat!

It's definitely in 4th place in the greater Detroit area. I'd put Mt. Holly clearly 1st, Pine Knob 2nd, and Alpine Valley 3rd. All have extensive night operations as well. I like the atmosphere at Alpine, but Pine Knob as a couple of newer chairs that outclass the old centerpoles at Alpine. There's a few too many glove-burning ropes at Alpine for my tastes, too.

To give the non-Midwesterners an idea of what the clientele is at these places, let's just say back in the middle school ski club days, we used to count the number of alcohol-related bottles and cans on the way up the chairs. I think my record was 40 (and those lifts are short by Western and Eastern standards!).

[afski722]

I was actually out by Mt. Brighton today, and because of this thread I actually decided to swing by take a look, and grab a few pics. Well you weren't kidding, they literally did build a golf course on the darn thing. I remember when it was built and seeing it in the winter when there wasn't snow on the ground, but I've never seen it when its open, ha! The begineer rope tow area is the driving range! I like how they took the chairs off the rope on two of the lifts that run adjacent to one of the holes. It looks like they've put a lot more money into their golf operation than they've ever invested in the skiing. Note the one picture shows the railroad that runs next to the area. I really wish a train had come by at the time.

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[Peter]

Do the thumbnails appear black and white to anyone else?

This post has been edited by Skier: 29 April 2007 - 10:00 PM

[SkiBachelor]

Yea, they're showing up on my screen that way too.

What type of camera did you use afski722?