Do you remember the days of the Liberty/Whitetail rivalry -; back when they were two different companies competing for the DC area ski dollar? Well that rivalry is gone but it is good to see the same type of rival exists elsewhere in the country.

What do you do when you have lots of snow but not much in the way of hills? Make do with what you can find! Lake Michigan is a snow making machine. Lake effect snows are generated almost daily during the winter months. Unfortunately most of this snow falls on the flat lands of Northern Indiana and Western Michigan. Luckily just north of Kalamazoo Michigan there is a valley that is framed by a small ridge that runs 40 miles north to Grand Rapid, Michigan. This ridge is home to a couple of competing ski areas only 13 miles apart: Timber Ridge (think - Ski Liberty) and Bitter Sweet (think - Whitetail).

Timber Ridge near Kalamazoo is the smaller of the two resorts. The slopes cling to one side of the ridge facing a wide flat valley. Farmland surrounds the slopes. The lodge area is small and 1970’s styled. The rental shop, ticket booth and main lodge are all 3 separate buildings. Given the amount of wooden walkways combined with chain link fences gives the base area a kind of working farm feel. But it works in an odd way.

Hemlock looming above the base area. Photo provided by Timber Ridge.

The slopes leap up behind the lodge area. The drop is only 250 feet thus the slopes are single pitched for the most part. There are some longer greens that snake off the back side and around to the main area. But the real runs are the short drops back to the base area. There is one steep slope “Hemlock” that looms (all of 250 feet of “looming”) above the base area. The slope is for real and drops off in almost cliff-like fashion. The night I skied here the conditions were excellent and this run provided most of the fun. All the slopes drop to a wide long flat run out area. Thus it is possible to curve back and forth across this area getting a longer run and changing lift lines with ease.

These slopes are served by what has to be the fastest pair of double chairlifts I have found. These two chairlifts race up the hill like dueling roller coasters -; easy to do when the hill is only 5 lift towers tall. The quick ride up makes the trip down only slightly shorter than the ride up. The flatter area off to one side is served by a venerable old triple. The night I visited the flatter area had a few hits added to make it interesting.

Looking down on the dueling doubles. Photo provided by Timber Ridge.

Lifts aside, the area also served by no less than 6 rope tows. So how do you make a 15 minute run on a 250-foot hill? You go around and around on the rope tow! The “walnut” trail has been transformed into a terrain park. The park had some hits and a resident group of snowboarders sitting in the middle of the slope. As a terrain park it was really under played on the edges. Most boarders and free skiers just concentrated on the hits and features. Thus the snow hidden on the edge of the run was the best I found on the hill that night. So by constantly skiing down the edges of the trail and riding up the tow I was able to string together 10 plus runs in a row. By the end my legs were burning as much as on Snowshoe’s Cupp Run! I developed a new respect for rope tows.

The Timber Ridge trail map. Photo provided by Timber Ridge.

As shown in the photo the area gets lots of snow. I was dodging snowmobiles on the drive in. In this area winter sports are a big deal. Michigan has over 25 ski areas, but most are smaller affairs. It is the little areas like Timber Ridge that keep downhill skiing and snowboarding in the winter sports mix.

This snow doesn’t stop here. Right up the road is Bittersweet ski resort. Home to the only high-speed quad south of Boyne, Michigan in this state. Bittersweet is the Whitetail to Timber Ridge’s Ski Liberty. Like Liberty and Whitetail back in the day, they compete with each other head to head for much of the same market. You will find a billboard for Bittersweet on the interstate exit to Timber Ridge and vice versa.

Bittersweet coaxes another 150 feet of drop out of the same ridge just 13 miles up the road from Timber Ridge. The resort covers 100 skiable acres. The centerpiece for the resort is clearly the high-speed quad. The trail map is built round this center piece. It should be noted this is a six lift tower high speed quad. So even though you go fast up the hill, the ride is not very long.

Trail map provided by Bittersweet.

Bitter cold had made the snow tight on my visit. And after my adventures on the Timber Ridge’s rope tow, my quads were shot. I took it easy. The trails seem a bit less challenging than down the road. Even though Bittersweet has an additional 150 feet of drop to its down-the-road rival, it skis flatter. Crowds were light but it was a cold night.

January 7, 2008 webcam shot from Bittersweet, when the temperature rose to 56 degrees. It was 20 degrees the night Robbie skied.

The Whitetail vs. Liberty analogy is apt. Bittersweet, like Whitetail, is about cruisers, while Timber Ridge, like Liberty, is about short, challenging pitches. Bittersweet is a bit slicker like Whitetail. Timber Ridge is a bit more home spun like the Liberty of old. Both different, both good in their own ways. In this flat part of the country it is nice to have options especially options that are just 14 miles apart!