Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has a ski resort so extreme it refuses to let beginners on the mountain

It’s expert-only, and that’s the whole point

At the tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where Lake Superior wraps around a finger of land so remote it barely shows up on most mental maps, there’s a ski resort that turns away beginners by design.

Mount Bohemia doesn’t groom its trails, doesn’t make snow, and doesn’t apologize for either.

What it does have is the highest vertical drop in the Midwest, more than 270 inches of dry lake-effect powder every winter, and a reputation that got loud enough to beat Banff for the top spot in North America.

The developer who scrapped the luxury blueprint

The land under Mount Bohemia almost became something completely different.

In the late 1980s, a large development company drew up plans for a full luxury mega-resort on this site, complete with condos and a convention center. The funding never came through, and the project died.

Then Lonie Glieberman, a Detroit businessman, bought the property in the late 1990s and went the opposite direction. No frills.

No hand-holding. A ski hill built for the skiers who’d been ignored by every other resort in the region.

Mount Bohemia opened in 2000.

900 feet straight down, no grooming machines in sight

The vertical drop here is 900 feet, the highest of any ski resort in the Midwest. The mountain tops out at 1,465 feet, the fifth highest point on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Across 585 skiable acres, you’ll find more than 100 runs, and every single one carries a black diamond rating. Single, double, or triple.

A handful of blue intermediate runs exist, but there are no greens, no snowmaking guns, and no grooming equipment on the property. The resort’s motto says it plainly: no beginners allowed.

273 inches of powder and Lake Superior does all the work

The Keweenaw Peninsula pulls in more snowfall than any other ski area in the Midwest, averaging 273 inches a year.

Lake Superior nearly wraps around the peninsula, and when cold air moves across that open water, the moisture drops as snow.

The lake-effect snow here is dry and light, closer in texture to what you’d find in Utah or Colorado than anything else in the region.

Because nothing ever gets groomed, that powder sits where it falls, across every run, every glade, every chute, all season long. The window typically runs from December through mid-April.

Four terrain zones, each with its own personality

The mountain breaks into distinct sections. Bohemia Mining Company covers the front side with open runs and glades.

Bear Den on the eastern side draws skiers who want the most popular non-gladed lines.

The Extreme Backcountry opens up a half-mile-wide forest full of chutes and cliff drops, and it holds the mountain’s most sought-after glades.

Haunted Valley on the north side saves its best snow for spring, and the lower section called the Graveyard has a way of stashing untracked powder days after everyone thinks it’s gone.

Middle Earth is two miles out and worth every step

Middle Earth sits on the far eastern edge of the property, about two miles from the base area, with the longest runs on the mountain and snow coverage that tends to outlast every other zone.

Outer Limits pushes even further into remote backcountry, where rolling terrain catches some of the deepest snowfall on the peninsula.

Then there’s Little Boho, a separate smaller hill you reach by hiking from the back of the parking lot. It’s steep, it stays untracked between storms, and most people walk right past it.

Two chairlifts and four shuttle buses keep you moving, with buses picking up skiers at the bottom of backcountry runs every few minutes.

USA Today readers ranked it No. 1 in all of North America

In December 2023, USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards put Mount Bohemia at the top of the list for ski resorts in North America.

It beat Banff Sunshine Village in Alberta and Winter Park Resort in Colorado, both resorts with far bigger budgets and far more name recognition.

Mount Bohemia had already appeared in the top rankings for several years running, but the No. 1 finish put a small Michigan resort with no snowmaking and no beginner trails on the radar of skiers across the country who’d never heard of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Ride a heated snowcat to the top of Voodoo Mountain

A few miles north of Mount Bohemia, near the village of Copper Harbor, sits Voodoo Mountain. Mount Bohemia operates it as the first commercial snowcat skiing operation east of the Rockies.

You load into a heated 18-person cab, ride to the top, ski down about 700 vertical feet of mostly north-facing terrain overlooking Lake Superior, and do it again.

The runs are less severe than what you’d find at the main mountain, making Voodoo accessible to solid intermediate skiers.

It averages more than 300 inches of snow a year, and its north-facing aspect holds that snow deep into spring.

Steam, saunas, cold pools and the U.P.’s biggest hot tub

When the legs give out, the Nordic Spa is waiting. It runs on the Scandinavian model: move between heat and cold with rest in between.

You’ve got a eucalyptus steam cabin, Finnish saunas, cold pools, and a Nordic waterfall. The outdoor hot tub is the largest in the Upper Peninsula.

Recent additions include a Himalayan salt sauna, a panoramic Finnish sauna with a view of the ski slopes, and a cold rain mist room modeled after Iceland’s Sky Lagoon. Lodge guests and season pass holders get in free.

A $99 season pass that makes skiers do a double-take

Mount Bohemia runs one of the lowest season pass prices in the country. Sunday through Thursday access starts at $99.

Seven-day access runs $112. Both carry processing and usage fees, but the numbers still make most other resorts look expensive.

If you plan to ski here for decades, a lifetime pass goes for $1,449, which covers 75 seasons.

The resort has also put together a reciprocal pass program that gets you complimentary lift tickets at 34 partner mountains across the U.S. and Canada.

Yurts, cabins, bunk beds and wood-fired pizza

The lodging matches the resort’s philosophy. You can stay in a trailside cabin, a slopeside yurt that sleeps up to 13, a hostel with bunk beds, or an Aqua Log Cabin on the shores of Lac La Belle.

The Big Yurt at the base is where people gather, eat, and warm up.

A pizza cabana serves wood-fired pizza, a log cabin bar handles the après-ski, and a newer espresso bar takes care of the mornings. There are no chain hotels or fast-food restaurants anywhere close to this place.

That’s the point.

Getting there is the first test of your commitment

Mount Bohemia sits about 39 miles north of Houghton and Hancock, the nearest towns of any real size. From Detroit, the drive runs about 10 hours.

From Milwaukee or Minneapolis, plan on seven. The route takes you through dense forests and small towns left over from the copper mining era before Lake Superior finally comes into view.

A four-wheel-drive vehicle is a good idea in winter, not a suggestion.

The Keweenaw Peninsula is one of the most isolated places in the eastern United States, and the drive there starts making that clear long before you arrive.

Explore the tip of the Keweenaw in Copper Harbor

About 15 minutes from the resort, Copper Harbor sits at the very end of U.S. Route 41, where the road runs out of peninsula.

Brockway Mountain Drive climbs 8.8 miles to 1,300 feet with open views of Lake Superior in multiple directions. Fort Wilkins Historic State Park preserves a restored 1844 Army outpost from Michigan’s copper mining era.

The Estivant Pines Nature Sanctuary protects old-growth white pines more than 300 years old.

You can also board the Isle Royale Queen IV ferry to Isle Royale National Park, or wait until dark at the Keweenaw Dark Sky Park for Northern Lights that rival anywhere in the Lower 48.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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