NY Times Reviews Lutsen

The New York Times ran a review of Lutsen Mountains, where I spent a few days last week.

It overstates the amount of vertical by about 100 feet, but offers the interesting fact that the gondola ride is a mile long. (Given the previous misstatement, I wonder if that’s correct). The gondola is a nifty novelty for the Midwest, but it’s fairly slow; don’t plan on using it to make laps.

“Runs at the Minnesota resort wind through the woods for almost two miles — intermediate avenues that roll and drop, then roll on some more.”

That’s true for some of the runs, though certainly not all. During my trip, I could tell that I haven’t been working out at the gym very much. My legs actually got a bit tired at the end of the first day there.

The article says that Lutsen get 100,000 skier visits a year. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, 4.5 hours to the south, is home to five small ski areas (Afton Alps, Buck Hill, Hyland Hills, Welch Village, Wild Mountain), each of which has about 300 feet of vertical. Together, they take in (my guess based on some conversations I’ve had) 600,000 visits a year. The fact that they get so many more visits with much less extensive and impressive terrain only serves to show that even in the ski business, location, location, location are three important words.

Location, in fact, is the most serious problem that Lutsen faces: “Lutsen is remote. For skiers from Milwaukee or Chicago, boarding a plane to ski Crested Butte in Colorado or Jackson Hole in Wyoming can be almost as quick as driving to the North Shore in Minnesota.” On the other hand, getting to those places requires a substantial outlay for airfare, which could be a problem for families.

One writer mentioned in the article compares the drive along Lake Superior to parts of Maine. In parts, yes. Just be sure to take the scene route, else you miss the most interesting parts of the drive. Watch for the deer, though!