Spring skiing means fun in the sun at area resorts

BESSEMER - Big Powderhorn Mountain's annual Hawaiian weekend attracts skiers from far and wide for its festive costumes, scavenger hunt and ornately carved snow bar. But in many respects, the crowds keep coming back in search of an atmosphere something like the one made famous by the television show "Cheers."

"It's great when you come back year after year and everyone knows your name," said Bill Marklein of Carney, who attended Saturday's Hawaiian events with friends Kurt Dubord, Logan Poupore and Trevor Poupore.

The group, hailing from Escanaba and Carney, have returned to Bessemer on the same weekend for each of the past nine years to ski and relax. Though not necessarily in line with the Hawaiian theme nor the warming but still below-freezing temperatures, this year the group was the life of the party donning colorful professional wrestler garb.

"We just wanted to wear masks," Trevor Poupore said with a laugh. "We want to see people laughing and having fun."

"We're all pretty respectable citizens 364 days out of the year, we're firefighters and engineers and this our time to cut loose," added Logan Poupore.

Big Powderhorn manager Bruce Noren said the weekend's events provided fun for all ages of skiers, local and regional.

"It's really geared toward families," he said. "Today, we had a lot of races for kids, and adults, too, but we had the penguin race where the kids put on garbage bags and slide down the hill on their bellies. We also had a swimsuit race, and of course music all day.

"Spring skiing is a really special time to ski. I think even though locals who maybe haven't skied all winter, they come out and it's like a different sport. But still on the weekends most of our folks come from central Wisconsin and Minnesota. And also it seems like it follows the snowline as it starts to melt."

Though Saturday's event was unique, many who partook said they come to the region's ski resorts because of outdoor and family activities across the board.

Friends Sharon Sweeney, of Hayward, Wis., and Judy Berg, of Appleton, Wis., have been coming to the area with their family for 40 years collectively. They said the local prices of admission and the size of the hills are great for their young children just learning to ski.

"We've been skiing Brule and Indianhead and Powderhorn for the last 25 years," Berg said. "We've always just loved the area."

Some of the region's most skilled skiers and snowboarders share that sentiment.

Chad Hoag is a snowboard instructor at the Trollhaugen Resort in Northwestern Wisconsin near Dresser, and visited Big Powderhorn Saturday with six of his fellow instructors. Each year the group plans a snow sport getaway at a different hill around the Midwest.

"We haven't done a big trip out West yet, but the last four or five years we've come to the Upper Michigan area and just fell in love with the place," Hoag said. "In the U.P., you've got four different mountains here within a half hour or hour of each other, and I love the variety of the terrain up here. It's got quite a bit more vertical than our home resort does and it's just beautiful."