Awhile ago my husband and I were trying to plan a weekend away. We literally only had Saturday-Sunday but wanted to do something outside of the norm of going out to dinner and out for drinks after. He had recently gone snowboarding with his brother and thought it would be fun for us to try to together. We decided to drive to Granite Peak at Rib Mountain State Park, and stay overnight in Wausau, WI. About four hours away from Chicago it was the perfect combination of being away, but not too far.
Since we planned to snowboard we purchased our lift tickets and rental gear in advance along with a snowboarding lesson. In addition to snowboarding they also have skiing and I had never been on either and highly recommend taking a lesson even if you have. When we pulled up to the mountain it literally felt like we were states away not just hours. Granite Peak has 68 runs, a 700 ft mountain and is simply gorgeous. I have to say I was a little intimidated! We picked up our gear and lift pass and went straight to our hour long lesson.
Literally the second I tried to stand up I knew how difficult this was going to be. I had honestly thought if my husband could do it I wouldn’t have any problems. 🙂 It was a small group of us in the lesson, maybe 5-6 and after taking the “magic carpet” basically an escalator without stairs, we arrived at the top of a (small) hill. First things first was learning how to get up, which took a lot of practice. By the end of the lesson I was able to stand and go down the hill without falling until midpoint and then basically rolled the rest of the way. The instructor was awesome though and very patient and from where I started at the beginning of the lesson to the end there was improvement!
After the lesson and a few “runs” on our own we went to the lodge for a beer. The lodges have music playing and a very fun vibe. Honestly I could have stayed there the rest of the day. 🙂 Instead we went back out for several hours and never went on an actual lift or real “trail” just kept practicing on the hill we started on.
There are cabins at Granite Peak but we decided to check out the town of Wausau, WI located about 15 minutes away. We stayed at the Jefferson Street Inn, in the cute downtown area that had a number of restaurants and bars. Our favorite place of the night was Red Eye Brewery, check it out if you are in the area!
We were so tired from the driving and the day of snowboarding (and falling!) that we were in bed pretty early. While snowboarding was not necessarily my favorite – all that falling – it was a nice change of pace to get out and do an activity with my husband. It’s really a great weekend getaway with a partner, friend or even the entire family!
PS make sure you have the proper gear when snowboarding, my northface coat was perfect and these snow pants worked out great!