All-In!
When the kids started school in August 2020, we quickly made getting out of the house on weekends a family priority. With H and Z attending Covid-school from our living room, me working from our bedroom full time, and Lea spending a significant portion of her days teaching high school classes from our home office, we knew that our family couldn’t spend Saturdays and Sundays in the same space, too!
We Spent 2020-21 Perfecting Our Ski Tailgate Game
Season Planning
Planning for the ski season wasn’t easy. The mountains were forced to deal with constantly shifting local and state restrictions and fluctuating infection rates, so information (especially related to ski lesson costs and details) was vague and late coming. We had to accept early on that of our plans could be interrupted by Covid at any time.
We knew that lessons at our local mountains—even in normal years—were significantly less expensive than those offered at ski resorts out west. Covid made this even more true as most resorts temporarily eliminated their group lesson offerings, forcing skiers into private lessons. We didn’t want to pay more than necessary for true beginner lessons, so our path quickly became clear: we would use a local mountain to get both kids comfortable on skis then take a trip out west to test their new skills and explore the bigger mountains.
Ultimately, to escape our home on weekends and prepare for a planned Vail trip in January (for which we purchased 3-day Epic passes), we decided to buy season passes at Cascade Mountain (WI). Cascade offers some clear advantages for our family over other local(ish) options.
The 2 hr 30 min drive time to Cascade from our Chicago-area home makes single-day trips long but do-able.
Their reasonably priced private lessons accommodated up to 5 participants. This was perfect for our kids and the pair of neighborhood school friends who often join us skiing. Hot tip: when you have multiple skiers of similar ability, private lessons can sometimes make good economic sense.
Cascade is 30 min from Madison, making full weekend trips with overnight stays easy and fun. We spent H’s birthday weekend in Madison, skiing both days at Cascade (photos below from our birthday outing to The Tipsy Cow).
When fully open, the mountain offers enough terrain to keep the adults entertained, and all of it is skiable by a confident kid.
We hoped to enjoy several ski days before our mid-January trip to the Rockies, and Cascade was committed to snow-making and opening early.
Other Options
We seriously considered purchasing full Epic Passes for the family and making Wilmot (a Vail Resorts/Epic Pass property) our local mountain for the winter but ultimately decided against it. Although Wilmot is about an hour closer to home, it’s significantly smaller with less interesting terrain. Also, because they’re further south than Cascade, Wilmot isn’t open reliably early in the season. Additionally, in looking over their pricing, we weren’t sure that lessons there would get our kids comfortable on skis affordably. We also worried that Wilmot’s ability to operate reliably through Covid might be governed more by Vail Resorts’ headquarters in Colorado than by conditions (and sensibilities) on the ground in Wisconsin, and that seemed to make passes at independently owned Cascade a better bet in Covid times.
Also included in our local pass conversation were Devil’s Head (WI), Chestnut Mountain (IL), Granite Peak (WI), and Alpine Valley (WI). While all had pros and cons regarding location, terrain, lessons, and cost, Cascade won out in the end.
We quickly discovered that quality turns aren’t hard to come by here in the Midwest.
The Season Begins
Our ski season began on December 5th: Cascade’s opening day. We didn’t plan any lessons, so we did our best to perfect the kids’ snowplows on the beginner hill. Only a few runs were open, but we were determined to get our season underway as soon as possible. We made several other day trips throughout December and early January, booking lessons for the kids, exploring the expanding trails, and perfecting our parking lot tailgate setup.
The plan was working! Little by little, the kids improved and gained confidence, and we were all looking forward to our family ski trip to Vail.
