My third day of ski-bum week was spent at Wild Mountain outside of Taylor’s Falls. I read on their web site you could get a free pass on your birthday and figured that was too good a deal to pass up. The weather wasn’t the greatest (misty fog that never burned off), but the temps were OK and the snow quality was good.

I figured my last visit to Wild was likely 20+ years ago and the ski area is basically the same – four chairlifts and a nice variety of runs, including Ego Alley, North and South Wild, Bear, Competition and the infamous Wall. The inside of the chalet was like a time warp back to high school ski trips, although now I can go in the Eagle’s Nest. They cooked me a mean French Dip sandwich with fries for lunch and had free wi-fi, which was very useful in an area of poor cell coverage.

There is now a tubing park just south of the main skiing area and they still have the alpine slide tracks. I think the water slides and small water park near the chalet are new since I was there last. I sort of forgot they are seven miles north of Taylor’s Falls along the river, so it takes about 90 minutes to get there from the south metro.

Day two of my mini ski bum week was spent last Sunday at Welch Village with three of the Miller clan. That was also the day of the big Vikings-Cowboys game, so it wasn’t as crowded as a normal holiday weekend.

Welch is still one of my local favorites – there are a number of relatively steep, medium-length runs (at least by Midwest standards) that are fun to ski over and over. Chicken, Bakkelyka, Dan’s Dive and Pete’s Pike are now joined by the new back bowl runs Carter’s Cliff, Lauren’s Ledge and several others. That new chair is really nice – too bad all the runs are so short (with a long traverse back).

We got in a lot of skiing before lunch, which consisted of the usual fried junk. Kowalski’s is selling advance lift ticket vouchers for $40, which I picked up before I left in the morning. Regular adult tickets are $47, but they can be turned in for a $10 gift card if you ski for less than four hours. Unfortunately, the Kowalski tickets don’t qualify, so I skied until 2:30 before heading home.

Last night I decided to spy on kid one’s first school ski trip of the year at Afton Alps. The weather has finally been decent and I was really glad to be out again doing something during the winter blahs.

The kid wasn’t too excited to see me, so I mainly skied by myself. Her school was based mainly in the Meadows area, so I hit the Highlands (Sally’s Valley and Heather’s Highlands) and the Alps (Barbi’s Challenge and Trudy’s Schuss). Those runs are all nice, but oh so short. I counted turns on one run and struggled to get in 15 before reaching the bottom.

Stopped in at all three chalets: looked for the kid in the Meadows chalet, ate a typical ski area dinner in the Alps chalet and sat by the fire with some hot chocolate in the Highlands chalet. Also got to watch part of the crappy Wild game before heading home around 9:15.

Night skiing starts at 4:30 and costs $27 for adults. Lifts close at 9:30 (Sunday-Thursday), but some of them shut down before that, so make sure you get where you need to be to avoid lots of skating.

It was too cold to golf, so I decided to take up Afton Alps on their $5 lift ticket offer today (bring three items for the food shelf and get a lift ticket for $5). Tomorrow is the last day of the offer (and of the season), so if you want one last bit of metro-area skiing, this is it.

They were running four lifts (#2 through #5) and had 12 runs open in the Alps area (although it looked like the Meadows and Highlands areas still had a fair amount of snow). I spent most of the time on chair three, alternating runs on Barbi’s Challenge and Trudy’s Schuss.

The snow was really nice – it got a little slushy at the end, but there were no bare spots and it was actually a little icy in the shade.

The Alps chalet has been upgraded since the last time I was here and it was nice to see reasonably priced ski area food. It’s still mostly greasy junk food, but at least it’s cheap.

7MM Afton Alps Photo Gallery

Last weekend I decided to return to Welch Village before all the snow was gone to use my gift card, visit with some friends and check out the new back bowl.

The weather was perfect for spring skiing, with plenty of sun and great temps. The snow got a little slushy at the end of the day, but runs like Chicken and Bakkelyka stayed nice all day, as they don’t get a lot of direct sun.

The back bowl was a bit of a disappointment. The new chair is a very nice quad, but the new runs are just too short. While the trail map lists nine open black diamond runs, there are really only four that come off of the new chair. When you get to the top, the three runs to your left, 4-Score, Lauren’s Ledge and Adam’s Abyss, all start with a flat traverse, a fairly steep, short section, then a flat traverse back to the chair. The one run to the right, Great Scott, is more of an open cruiser that funnels into a steep chute at the end that drops right to the chair.

Future plans call for two more runs, a second chair and a new chalet at the top of that chair. The back bowl is accessed from the triple chair located in front of the east chalet. The Allie’s Alley run gets you back to the east slopes from the top of the new quad.

Welch will be closing for the season tomorrow at 6PM.

We finally made it out for our first ski day of the year with a visit to Welch Village this morning. We started at 9AM with sunny skies and decent temps that kept rising all morning. Tickets were $45 for adults and $40 for kids, but you could get a $10 per ticket gift certificate if you turned in your tickets within four hours of purchase (which we did).

Crowds got bigger as the morning went on, but lines never got very long. We mostly skied on the east end of the area, hitting runs like Dan’s Dive, Dud’s Dream and Pete’s Pike. I also took one run on Chicken (for old time’s sake) and was surprised to find the steep, shaded run with very little ice.

We took a morning break at Madd Jaxx for hot chocolate and cheese curds before heading back to the west side and the main chalet around noon. It was more crowded on that side of the area, but still reasonable for this time of year.

The near-mythical “back bowl” was still not open, but I heard patrol talking about how there is a lot of snow back there and that the new chairlift is being stress-tested for a possible 12/31 opening (season-ticket holder access only for the first month).

Welch Village holds a lot of special memories for me from my high school racing days and is still my favorite near-metro area. Skiing in Minnesota will back later this season to report on the new runs and bring you more photos in our photo gallery.