In 1958, Sports Illustrated had Thunder with 4 miles of trails, a 2400′ poma lift with a 510′ rise and 4 rope tows. The previous year it had been open 100 days and served 7000 skiers. New for 1958 were a 2100′ rope tow, a new run, lodge improvements, ski patrol room, and ski school dorm.
On Feb. 3, 1966, The Cass City Chronicle printed the AAA guide to Winter Sports Fun in Michigan. It listed Thunder as having 12 runs from 1600 to 3000′ long, beginners area, T-Bar, Poma, and 2 rope tows.
One of the comments below claims Thunder was opened by the parents of Cary Adgate, former US Olympic Ski Team member and Pro racer who was inducted into the US Ski Hall of Fame in 2008. If Thunder was opened in 1958, Adgate would have been 5 years old, and probably learned to ski there.
Later, Thunder Mountain was purchased by Ev Kircher as one of the parts of the Boyne Country Development.
Now abandoned, with the lifts long stripped, it is the site of sledding runs and poached ski runs. For a hilarious commentary and some fabulous pictures from an ascent in 2009, see http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/179708-TR-Thunder-Mountain-MI
If you have any information about skiing at Thunder Mountain, please post it or send it to us via the directions on the About MILSAP page.
We skied Thunder back in the early 70s a couple of times when it was a weekend Boyne overflow operation, though even then it was pretty rudimentary. I recall that they had at least one double chairlift and an advertized vertical of 475 ft, which seemed pretty big when compared with the little ski hills around Detroit that I was used to then, like Alpine Valley, Mt. Holly, or Pine Knob. At that point in my life I skied Mt Holly every week in junior high school ski club.
I remember going up the chair at Thunder and skiing some intermediate trail to the left of the chair looking uphill. The last time that we skied there they had just had a big dump and they had little grooming back then, which would have been great at anytime since 1982 when I moved to Colorado, but at the age of 13 in 1970 with those Cubco bindings it just wasn’t as cool as it could have been. I remember hitting a jump at Thunder and losing both skis which released upwards out of the front bindings and then taking a big tumble!!!
Given the size of the mountain it is hard to believe that Thunder didn’t make it, though the weekend-only marketing and under-development by Boyne may have done both Thunder and Walloon in, as my guess is that many of the customers accustomed to Boyne’s high standards may have been disappointed. I know that Walloon had its fans but without chairlifts its days were obviously numbered too. The 1960s and 1970s were a different era though, back when people would take big chances with investments like minor ski hills, and Thunder was one such result. If Thunder had been aggressively marketed and properly funded, it would probably still be around.
this was one of my favorite areas up north, funky with good vertical and steep slopes. taught my girlfriend (now wife) in the 1970′s because boyne mt was too crowded.beginner run named aspen alley circled around the back of the hill. area was known to have one of the steepest top to bottom runs named whiteface (the other was awful / awful at sugarloaf mt in traverse city.) hated to see it close a few years after boyne bought it, but I did ski it in 1988 long after it had closed, walking up and skiing down whiteface with one foot of powder!!! interesting note is this area was originally started and run by the parents of carey adgate
Skied Thunder from about 1960-8. Dee Adgate was the owner, Cary was his son. The origin lift was the poma and a few rope tows. Going across there was Whiteface (at a supposed 35 degree slope, the steepest in lower MI), then Thunderbowl (a later addition), Timberline, Sun Valley, Stowe and on the back side, Pico and Aspen. There were newer slopes to the right served by a t-bar. Eventually a new area was opened on the back of this part.
Thunder was the quintessential family area. My father, Pete Robinson, was on the ski patrol, and was the leader in 1967. Bob Duker was one the hotshot instructors, and his wife (Bobbie) was the hot woman that we adolescent males fantasized about. Cary was the best racer or skier of any of us. Al Anstead was the head of the ski school, I remember one season he broke his leg and still skied Whiteface (on one ski).
The local race circuit included Walloon Hills, Boyne, Nubs Knob (iciest area ever) and Thunder in CUSSA or later USSA central division.
As I’m writing this, I’m in a condo at the base of Pico, in Vermont, where we were hoping for great spring skiing, but it’s closed for the season, and Killington has only one lift and 2 open slopes. But it’s still skiing.
I skied Thunder for CUSSA races in 1963 and 64, I think. I have a couple old photos I will have to dig out. Cary Adgate indeed was a great racer. He was a couple years younger than me, and I might have beat him once or twice before he got really good. Saw him at a few races when I was in college in Colorado, but by then he was mostly racing in Europe. I too thought that Thunder had some of the greatest terrain of anywhere in the lower peninsula. Whiteface indeed had a fearsome pitch. After the 55 degree stuff here at Mt. Rose and around Tahoe, it might not look quite so imposing, but still, for Michigan it was very impressive.
Jay Peak is open, 4 lifts and 18 trails, 15-35 in base, loose granular. Sugarloaf, Maine is open too, with a 20-inch base, 4 lifts and 21 trails in operation. Better yet, drive on over to Manchester, NH and fly Southwest nonstop to DIA, where most all of our local areas are still open. My home hill Eldora, west of Boulder, is still about half open with base-to-summit black diamond terrain skiing available on the Corona quad and a 45-inch base. Copper Mountain is running 17 lifts and has 99 trails open, on a 43-inch base, Loveland has 8 lifts and over 1000 acres still open with a 50-inch base, and they should be open through May 5th, Winter Park is operating 15 lifts on a 42-inch base through April 22nd, and Wolf Creek is closing Sunday and they have a 76-inch base. If you have a little extra dough might I recommend Timberline Lodge in Oregon, which has had a foot of new snow on a 262-inch base, and is 100% open!!! http://www.timberlinelodge.com/conditions/