The Wisconsin Skier

Devil’s Head Review

Devil’s Head — The Riding

Very quickly, it was good.

The Snow

While snow quality depends heavily upon the weather there are things the resort can do to help out. There were a lot of people present and despite that the snow was in good shape, I did find some ice in what I would characterize in the usual places (center and at the top of the run) and I found ice only on one run. In any event my skiing that day was on and when I hit those patches I was moving out and laying my edges into the snow and did not much notice the ice. I want to stress again, skiing across isolated patches of ice is not a big deal as long as you are on edge. Strive to get ski on your edges and skid only when called for.

The snow across the runs was consistent and uniform and when I started skiing the hotter runs I found the snow a bit more fluffencruddy but that adds to the fun, right?

The Terrain

God organized the resort’s terrain very well almost by design or so it seems. Looking up the hill the easier terrain is to the left and the more advanced terrain is to the right. The black runs to the center and left are not (in my opinion) are not black runs but intermediate blues.

Once you start skiing to the middle and to the right of the resort the blacks become more true to their rating and I took one run that I thought about holding back on, only thought I did not. I did not get on the sole double-black but that is a long straight shot and gets its rating from its grade and its length, I did not ski on that.

One thing to note, they built a lot of rollers so if you want air that is easily available and if you do not you need to watch for that. I would traverse once or twice to bleed speed and then stand erect while cresting these rollers. The rollers go away and I would resume my normal attacking style. In addition, they do have jumps and launch points built on the sides of nearly every run, these are obvious and easy to avoid or hit depending on your whim.

The Lights

At Devil’s Head they offer a true eight-hour pass. You buy your pass at 11:00 am they let you ski until 7:00 pm. I found the lighting a bit spotty at first. On one run the top was lit, the bottom was lit and the middle was not until sometime later. I knew the run by this time so I knew of the rollers and their location. Once the lights were on, all was good! The runs at the far left of the resort are not lit so they close those runs at 4:00 pm, so if you arrive late you had better get over there quick.

The Lifts

Good, they have some quads, a triple seater, and some double chairs. None are of the high-speed variety but the large number of four seaters means they are able to move a lot of people up the hill. While there was a crowd on hand we never had any serious liftline waits. That was good. They do have some older two seaters on the resort and all in good operating condition.

The Staff?

I did not see too many ski patrollers present. I did see some but not as many as I would expect. However, I did see some in action doing the thing they do. The lift attendants did their job but were mostly incommunicative. In fact I had little interaction with staff while skiing.

Devil’s Head — The Facilities

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