Granite Peak/Nine Mile Forest Trip

Upon our arrival on a sunny cold Thursday morning, we were fortunate to have local skiers tell us that Tuesday and Thursday are two-for-one days.  This information wasn’t published on the ski area website where we had purchased discounted online tickets.  We were allowed to turn in our discount vouchers and purchase the two-for-one downhill tickets at a cost of $21 each.

We dressed appropriately for the cold weather and enjoyed skiing the well-groomed trails with a 38"-68” base.  When we stopped for lunch, the cashier stated that on a weekend all the seats in the large new chalet would be filled, and the old chalet would also be open to handle the overflow.  Five lifts serve the top of the mountain, and one of them is a high-speed 6-passenger chair.  There were no lift lines and very few other skiers, until after 3 in the afternoon when the school kids arrived. We didn’t ride the additional three lifts serving the mid and lower slow skiing areas. 

Kathy Weise, a former Ullr member who now lives in Wausau, joined us in skiing on Thursday afternoon.  Kathy told us that some of the outer runs don’t have snowmaking capability, and rely on natural snowfall.  Since this was a great year for snowfall in the Wausau area, all the runs were open.  Although several of the 74 runs are short spurs off of other runs, there was a lot of terrain to ski. 

Our snowshoers’ enjoyed the trails on the backside of Granite Peak on Thursday, and on Friday we all went to Nine Mile Forest for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on another bright sunny, and warmer day.  The trails there were well marked, and the cross-country tracks were in excellent shape.  Nine Mile Forest has 18.3 miles of cross-country trails, and 3.7 miles of groomed snowshoe trails. 

The Courtyard Marriott was a great place to stay, only 2 ½ miles from the downhill ski area.  The buffet breakfast included in the price of the room had a very large selection of food, and all agreed it was one of the best we have ever had.  The Hereford and Hops Restaurant located next door to our lodging, was our choice for dinner on Thursday evening.  We had fun cooking our own steaks on a large open grill, and tasted their handcrafter brews.  Two days of mid-week skiing with good company and no crowds was very enjoyable, and we all want to do it again.