By Brian E. Clark
Ski season is right around the corner. And 86-year-old Chuck Luedtke can’t wait to get out on the slopes at Wausau’s Granite Peak. That’s no typo. Luedtke, a Wausau native, is 86. He started skiing in the early 1930s, back before there was a Granite Peak or its predecessor, the Rib Mountain ski area.
“I just like being out on the snow,” he says. “Skiers are a nice bunch, too. I’ve always found it easy to make friends on the slopes. And it’s a great family sport that you can do for many, many years.”
A fixture in the Wausau ski scene for more than seven decades, Luedtke was about 6 when he and his buddies first began building small jumps on the banks of the Wisconsin River. “We didn’t do much turning then, we pretty much just let it fly and then side slid to a stop,” he says.
Luedtke was 11 when the first towrope went up on the north flanks of Rib Mountain State Park in 1937. He spent countless winter days on the slopes while growing up – and hopes to add another 25 days on the hill to his running total this year.
Drafted after high school, Luedtke’s skill on skis landed him in the Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division. He trained in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and fought in the winter campaign in northern Italy in 1945, which helped end World War II in Europe.
He’d only been overseas for a month when he was shot in the back and hand on Italy’s Mount Belvedere. “I was trying to reach a buddy who’d been hit when I took a blast in the back,” he says. His friend did not survive. Luedtke spent more than a year recovering in hospitals. To this day, he carries a German 30-caliber machine gun bullet in his back as a sometimes-painful reminder of his service. But the slug, which missed his spine by less than a quarter of an inch, didn’t keep him off the slopes when he returned to Wisconsin after recuperating from his injuries.
Outside of work (Luedtke was a sales- and deliveryman), he spent 45 years on the resort’s ski patrol. He also raced and taught his four children how to ski. A grandson, Matt Gerlach, became a state skiing champion, thanks in part to his grandfather’s coaching.
Down near Mount Horeb at Tyrol Basin Ski and Snowboard Area, general manager Don McKay, 63, isn’t as old as Luedtke. But he’s also been on skis most of his life and is gearing up for his 46th year in the snow-sports business. A New York native, he’s called Tyrol Basin home for more than 20 years.
Despite many changes over the years, Granite Peak and Tyrol were founded on the same principle: provide winter sports recreation to surrounding communities and boost the local economies. Weather permitting, they’ll be back at it again this year starting around Thanksgiving.
The Peak’s staying power
Granite Peak ski area
is located in Rib Mountain State Park, which got its start in 1924 with
the donation of a few acres of land from the Wausau Kiwanis Club. The
park has grown considerably since then and today covers roughly 1,200
acres, about 400 of which are used by Granite Peak for skiing and
snowboarding.
Formed more than one billion years ago from a mammoth chunk of quartzite called a monadnock (a Native American word meaning “isolated hill”), Rib Mountain is one of the highest points in Wisconsin at 1,924 feet above sea level. Granite Peak features a vertical descent of 700 feet and 74 runs. With a high-speed, six-person lift, extensive night skiing, five terrain parks and 65 acres of tree skiing, it’s one of the top ski and snowboard resorts in the Midwest.
When Wausau businessman Fred Pabst (of the brewing family) opened the Rib Mountain ski area in in 1937, it was one of only a handful that existed in North America. Vermont’s Stowe Mountain Resort opened in 1934, and Sun Valley in Idaho was the nation’s first ski area in the West in 1936.
Granite Peak opened in 1937 with a dozen runs and no chairlifts. There was, however, a 2,600-foot-long T-bar that was powered by a Ford V8 motor. The temporary 20-foot by 60-foot base lodge was built the same year. The historic stone 10th Mountain Chalet – which is named for and has an exhibit dedicated to the famed Army division – was added two years later with money raised by a civic organization.
Wausau had a population of 25,000 then and the ski hill was 4.5 miles from town. The runs were hand-built by teams of workers standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder as they cut trees, removed stumps and brush, and crushed boulders with sledgehammers. A road was built to the base of the ski area and a parking lot cleared for 300 cars. At the time, the new ski tow at Rib Mountain was the longest of its kind in the country.
“In the early days, it was kind of rough because there were still a lot of stumps and rocks to cover with snowfall,” Luedtke says. “Worse, we didn’t get much snow in 1937 and 1938. But by 1939, the snow came back and things got better.”
Pabst continued to operate the ski area until 1947, when the state and a local civic group took over. In 1964, local businessman Carmie Oliva was recruited to run the ski area. Oliva’s tenure coincided with years of major growth in the ski industry and business really picked up. (Today, Oliva and his family operate the popular Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant, located at the base of the ski area.) Despite the growth, the resort’s buildings were deteriorating and only 14 runs were in operation by 1984. The ski area suffered further decline until the state stepped in again in 1998 and began looking for a new operator.
Two years later, Charles Skinner, co-owner of Lutsen Mountains Resort in northern Minnesota, arrived. Since then, Skinner has rehabbed the resort, spending a whopping $17 million to add 58 new runs (for a total of 74), install seven new lifts (including a high-speed six-person chairlift), restore the mountain chalet to its original condition, build the Sundance Chalet and Grill and add 500 new snow guns to provide better ground cover.
Luedtke appreciates Skinner’s changes. “He brought the skiing back strong here in Wausau and made it better,” he says. “Things had kind of faded. Now we compete with resorts in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.”
Skinner, who raced on the University of Oregon ski team, continues to invest in Granite Peak. “I’ve enjoyed restoring the resort back to what the community envisioned,” says Skinner, who modeled improvements after high-quality ski and snowboard areas he’d skied in the West. “This was one of the first resorts in the country, but it had languished,” he says. “I saw this as an opportunity to fulfill its promise.”
Last summer, crews cut a new glade-skiing run through the trees and
added 1,000 new rental skis. In addition, Skinner installed an
800-foot-long conveyer belt to transport novices up the hill to a
dedicated beginner area. He plans to add two more high-speed, six-person
lifts and a $250,000 grooming machine to keep the runs in top shape.
His work has not gone unnoticed. The Granite Peak terrain parks were
named the best in the Midwest by TransWorld Snowboard magazine last
year.
Tyrol’s terrain
Like Granite Peak,
Tyrol Basin has undergone a name change – or two. The resort was started
in 1958 by Sandy Stevenson, a Chicago-area golf resort developer.
Stevenson thought the bowl-shaped valley would be a great place to ski
and named the resort Sutter’s Ridge after the dairy it replaced. He
turned the big 1920s-era barn into the chalet that is still in use
today. A smaller horse barn served as a rental shop. A chairlift was
installed there in 1961, the same year southeastern Wisconsin’s Wilmot
Mountain got one; the two resorts both claim the state’s first
chairlift. The resort, which has a 300-foot vertical descent and now
covers 80 acres, started with a couple of T-bars. But current manager
Don McKay says it was Stevenson’s purchase of snow-making equipment that
made Tyrol a popular destination during Wisconsin’s unpredictable
winters.
Like Granite Peak, Tyrol enjoyed a good run and then suffered a downturn, closing for several years in the 1980s. In 1988, a group of investors from Madison, Mount Horeb and New Glarus bought the resort and brought in McKay as a consultant. McKay initially recommended against sinking any money into Tyrol and reopening it, but the investors prevailed because they wanted a place for their kids, friends and locals to ski. “They said it wasn’t really about making a profit,” says McKay, who now owns 5 percent of the resort, what he calls his “sweat equity.”
In 1989, a new chair and snowmaking system went in. “Other improvements were made, and we got the place cleaned up and reopened with existing trails,” McKay says. Two years later, a second three-person chairlift was installed to replace a T-bar. A beginners slope, Gentle Ben, was regraded. Two more trails were also added that year.
Early on, McKay decided to allow snowboarders at Tyrol, a fairly radical move 20-plus years ago. “They came to me that first season and asked me to build them a half-pipe,” he says. “I asked them, ‘What the heck is a half-pipe?’ Ultimately, I ended up getting a hold of the World Snowboarding Federation in Europe and they faxed me some plans.”
Tyrol’s modest half-pipe won the affection of regional snowboarders – and caught the attention of ski areas across the country. Vail Ski Resort in Colorado asked for McKay’s advice when it built its first half-pipe, and today, only a few resorts around the country ban snowboarders.
Over the years, Tyrol added numerous terrain features (jumps, rails and boxes) and now one-third of the resort’s 80 acres are terrain parks for adventurous snowboarders and skiers, most of which now ride on versatile twin-tip skis. In 2000, the resort cleared four more trails and added another chair lift and lighting to serve them.
Today, Tyrol, like Granite Peak, is known for its top-notch ski school. (Full disclosure, my kids, now 9 and 11, have had fun and learned a lot in classes at both resorts.) With Swiss-style buildings set in a picturesque valley, Tyrol is also a popular place in the summer for weddings and special events.
“This has been a great place to work,” says McKay, who has labored at resorts in New England, California and other states. “And people seem to love skiing and snowboarding here, so that makes it worth all the effort.”
Head for the Hills!
It’s not the Rockies, but
downhill skiers and snowboarders can still find plenty of hill thrills
in Wisconsin at more than 30 locations. When temperatures fall
consistently below freezing by late November, most hills bring out their
snow makers for the beginning of another downhill season. Hit the
slopes at these 10 alpine destinations this winter.
Alpine Valley Resort, Elkhorn
800.227.9395, alpinevalleyresort.com
Weekend lift tickets: Kids and adults $42; beginners $38
Vertical drop: 388
Trails: 20
Why
it’s worth the trip: Alpine Valley features three kid-friendly areas
complete with magic carpet lifts, making it a great place for beginners.
Cascade Mountain, Portage
800.992.2754, cascademountain.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $45, kids 12 and under free with an adult
Vertical drop: 460
Trails: 36
Why
it’s worth the trip: Cascade offers one of the best deals in the state:
Free skiing for kids 12 and under with the purchase of an adult ticket.
Devil’s Head Resort, Baraboo
800.472.6670, devilsheadresort.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $49, kids (6-12) and seniors (60-65) $42, kids 5 and under and seniors 66 and older free
Vertical drop: 500 feet
Trails: 30
Why it’s worth the trip: Devil’s Head features more than 300 acres of skiable terrain, the largest in the Midwest.
Granite Peak, Wausau
715.845.2846, skigranitepeak.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $66, kids (6-12) and seniors (65+) $52, kids 5 and under free
Vertical drop: 700 feet
Trails: 74
Why
it’s worth the trip: Granite Peak is as close to the Rockies as you can
get in Wisconsin, with a 700-foot vertical drop and new amenities
rivaling western resorts.
Mt. La Crosse, La Crosse
800.426.3665, mtlacrosse.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $46, kids (6-17) $43, kids 5 and under free
Vertical drop: 516
Trails: 18
Why it’s worth the trip: Mt. La Crosse’s “Damnation” run boasts the Midwest’s steepest vertical drop at 516 feet.
Mount Ashwabay, Bayfield
715.779.3227, mtashwabay.org
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $24; kids (6-17), seniors (65+) and college students $18; kids 5 and under free
Vertical drop: 317
Trails: 11
Why
it’s worth the trip: As one of the smallest hills in the state, Mount
Ashwabay provides a less-crowded place for beginners or youngsters to
learn how to ski or board.
Sunburst Ski Area, Kewaskum
262.626.8404, skisunburst.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $40, seniors (65+) $25, kids (7-12) $24, kids (5-6) $15, kids 4 and under free
Vertical drop: 214
Trails: 13
Why
it’s worth the trip: Get in some tube time on 20 dedicated snow tube
lanes, complete with a conveyor belt to take you and your tube back up
for another run.
Trollhaugen, Dresser
800.826.7166, trollhaugen.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $41, kids (6-12) $31, seniors (62+) $34, kids 5 and under free
Vertical drop: 280
Trails: 22
Why it’s worth the trip: Night owls will love Trollhaugen’s late hours; the hill is open on Fridays until 3 a.m.
Tyrol Basin, Mount Horeb
608.437.4135, tyrolbasin.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $42, kids (6-12) and seniors (60+) $37, kids 5 and under free
Vertical drop: 300 feet
Whitecap Mountain, Upson
800.933.7669, skiwhitecap.com
Weekend lift tickets: Adults $45, kids (12-17), seniors (65+) $34, kids (7-11) $22, kids 6 and under free
Vertical drop: 400
Trails: 43 runs on 3 different mountains
Why
it’s worth the trip: Located just west of Hurley, Whitecap’s prime spot
in the Lake Superior Snow Belt guarantees fresh powder all season long.
Madison writer Brian Clark learned to ski while at college in Colorado and has hit the slopes in South America, Europe and New Zealand.
