John Degelau sends one out to the woodchucks in this 2018/’19 video of ski stunts.
Jack Schmid, Peter Lochner, Gordon Buffington, Kendozer, Ben Thelen, Garret Schwindt, Mitchell Kasper, and Dylan O’Connor are credited for shooting the clips.
As we near the start of the 2018/19 ski season, here are some clips of Thunder Bay’s Paul Bystrican in action last year. Several shots are from Spirit Mountain in Duluth.
(Photo courtesy of Spirit Mountain)
Eric Chandler reports on his Shmotown blog that Duluth’s first cross-country trail system with snowmaking capability is expected to open in December.
YouTube star Seth Alvo of Seth’s Bike Hacks was recently in Duluth in search of good mountain biking. He was not disappointed.
It’s a little out of season, but it just hit Vimeo last night. Minneapolis-based director Brendan Lauer put together this video featuring fat-tire cyclists Alex Rohde, Andy Kienitz and Evan Simula, with narrator Hansi Johnson.
A profile on Roger McGuinn in No Depression, a quarterly roots music journal, opens with an interesting Duluth-related tidbit.
McGuinn says he and Dylan went skiing in Minnesota — near Duluth or Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing — during a Christmas break in Dylan’s historic 1975-76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
“He’s fast,” McGuinn recalls. “I was a beginning skier on the intermediate slope going down cautiously. I look to my right, and Bob goes vroom right past me.”
So, was it Spirit Mountain? Chester Bowl? Mont du Lac? Giants Ridge? Lutsen Mountains? Let the speculation begin.
Riders: Eddie Fauth, Dylan Tillemans, Wyatt Hotchkin and Scooter Stanko.
The Duluth Hard Enduro is coming up on Oct. 28. It is a big-mountain style all-day epic enduro race across the city of Duluth hitting all of the raddest trails from fast and flowing to rocky techy gnar!
At some point in the early 1980s, Spirit Mountain did away with its swimming pool. It was probably a maintenance nightmare, and the notion of a pool on a hill overlooking the tributary to the world’s largest freshwater “pool” might be considered a little absurd in retrospect.
Trust me, though. It was fun while it lasted.
The city of Duluth is accepting public comments until July 13 on an environmental assessment worksheet that was prepared for proposed projects at Spirit Mountain Recreation Area in 2016-2017. The plans include Nordic cross-country ski trails, mountain bike trails, Superior Hiking Trail extensions, rail-to-trail conversion, and an 18-hole disc golf course.
The proposed projects would initiate when all permits and approvals are received. They are part of the St. Louis River Corridor Initiative aimed at revitalizing and enhancing recreational opportunities and appropriate development in the western corridor of Duluth.
Last weekend Spirit Mountain became (as far as we know) the first ski resort in North America to offer lift access fat-tire biking. Break out the fatbikes this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and come ride with us!
Video by Max Fierek.
Video by Max Fierek.
More videos and images below and in the Google gallery linked here.
Spirit Mountain’s piping project will draw water from the St. Louis River and pipe it to the lower chalet area where another pumping station will send it into the snow gun system. There are two pumping stations: one at the lower chalet area, the other right next to Tallas Island Bay on the Western Waterfront Trail in the Riverside neighborhood. That is the area these photos were taken.
Duluth’s Spirit Mountain is one of three locations in the running for the $100,000 prize offered by Bell Helmets to fund a trail-building project. Voting in the nationwide contest is being conducted on bellhelmets.com and will continue through June 4.
Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores is the nonprofit organization leading Duluth’s effort. Spirit Mountain is competing for the 2015 Bell Built grand prize against projects in La Grange, Calif. and Knoxville, Tenn.
Jeff Wolf’s view of last weekend’s Spirit Mountain Bike Enduro Race. Music by Red Hot Rebellion.
