MARQUETTE MADNESS: Charging in the Midwest

If you’re a skier in the Midwest and looking for a sweet terrain park and a variety of runs and lines check out Marquette Mountain in Marquette, Michigan. Rising above Lake Superior in Upper Peninsula Michigan, Marquette Mountain dishes out some of the best park skiing and tree skiing west of the Rocky Mountains.

Greg Tuffelmire, a Michigan native and Midwest legend, returned to his home state to do some shreddin’ with POWDER and a few others throughout the Midwest. Little did Tuff and I realize the posse of skiers we would encounter at Marquette. After teaming up with Marquette’s terrain park manager/designer, Steve Shelby, and Marquette’s Mountain Shop manager, Brandon Croney, we also met up with about 10 other local rippers to officially form a massive crew. These kids quickly displayed their impressive talents in Marquette’s sweet park, and they also proved that their skills go beyond the park.

One of the many highlights of our day, however, was skiing through the terrain park with the Marquette locals. Stocked with a bunch of rails—mainly, flat-to-downs welded by Shelby himself—and full of big ass step-downs, Marquette’s park rivals many parks found out West. The park has a giant block of snow to gap to step-down, 80 foot step-down, and few more step-downs measuring around 50-60 feet. As much as Tuff and I were impressed with all of the features, the talent was equally awesome. Front flips, stylie mute 5s, and smooth greasing of rails were thrown down all over from this Midwest crew.

In addition to the park, we boosted off cliffs amongst shrubbery and several branches and toured around the rest of the scenic hill. At the end of the sunny day, Marquette and their accompanying posse proved to be full of good times and big, albeit creative, airs.

Also, check out midwestskier.com for conditions and updated news.