Others Speak on NASJA Convention at Lutsen
Being a Midwesterner, I’ve wondered how my fellow journalists would respond to their trip to Lutsen Mountain. Here are excerpts of what I found so far:
Lutsen Mountains … a Midwest gem
Dan Cassidy
Maine Today
One thing you won’t get at Lutsen is altitude sickness. No, that won’t happen here. However, you’ll ski more relaxed. The lifts are a little on the slow side. They’re the older two seats with a pole in the middle that travels a little slower than the more modern quads. It gives you time to relax, enjoy the scenery and get to know your neighbor.
From Moose Mountain Summit Chalet, you can enjoy a wonderful meal, sit outside on the wrap around deck and enjoy the vistas of Lake Superior. On a recent evening while attending our North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA) reception and banquet, I took a walk outside just to watch the sunset and look over the Lake in the distance, and noticed five white tail deer walking across the trails below. Deer sighting are common all over the resort.
Indeed. One of my fellow convention-goers told me of spotting a dead deer in the woods.
Cassidy has several other blog entries on his trip, including one on a 150-mile snowmobile journey to the Canadian border and back, which occurred before the convention.
He also wrote of a trip to the nearby town of Grand Marais, writing
“Having just spent a week snowmobiling, skiing and touring along the western shore of Minnesota’s Lake Superior, I had the feeling of a touch of home. The shoreline and forests from Lutsen to Grand Marais resembled the coast and woods of Maine’s villages and towns.”
Minnesota’s Lake Superior? As a native Michigander, I’d have to take issue with that. More of the lake is in Michigan’s jurisdiction than that of the other units of government that border the lake, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario. But I would agree that the North Shore of Minnesota and the Maine coast have a similar feel.
You’re Going Where…On Purpose?!
Neal Estano
Albany Times-Union
Duluth is a small city of about 85,000 hardy residence. Sitting on the western tip of Lake Superior it gets some of the harshest weather in the lower 48. Duluth’s nickname is “The Air-Conditioned City” because of cooling effect of Lake Superior who’s water temperature struggles to reach the 50 degree mark.
Duluth is about a 90-minute drive from Lutsen, and the nearest “big” city.
Estano also wrote “A Pleasant Surprise in the North Country” on March 24. He said, in part,
With just under 1000 vertical feet Lutsen is not a big mountain but they do a lot with what they have. As my fellow NASJA member and friend Phil Johnson of Clifton Park said: “There’s not a lot of vertical…but there a heck of a lot of horizontal”.
Estano also has some photos of convention-goers climbing up a frozen waterfall.
Weekly Skiing Column
Bob Cox
Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze
Lutsen Mountain, Minn., is not one of the major stops or even one of the best-known ski areas in America. Yet that’s where [World Cup champion Lindsey] Vonn started her career, following in the footsteps of another great Minnesota racer, Cindy Nelson.
The resort was founded by Nelson’s family, and is hard by the shores of Lake Superior. It is located about 100 miles north of Duluth, which puts it close to the Canadian border.
To get a perspective on racers coming from Lutsen, consider that the mountain has a vertical drop of only 975 feet. To create an FIS-approved race course, the mountain had to build a start platform 25 feet above the peak, to achieve a vertical drop of 1,000 feet.
We started our NASTAR race about 50 feet below the bottom of the platform.
Oh deer. A nature and snowmobile lesson in Lutsen
Martin Griff
The Times of Trenton
Griff has several articles about two different trips he made to Lutsen. The link above takes you to a short article about a snowmobile trip (not the 150-mile trek that Cassidy wrote about), and a good photo of death, animal-style, on the trail.