IPOS 2: Caberfae Peaks

Located in the Manistee National Forest just outside Cadillac, Michigan, the ski hill was started with one rope tow by the Civil Conservation Corps in 1938. But the operation went bankrupt and was closed until it was purchased by the Meyer family in the early 1980’s. Today, Tim and Pete Meyer still manage and run the resort together.

Night skiing was just getting into full swing as we booted up at Caberfae. Parents helped their kids walk their skis up to the bottom lift, teenagers ran around in groups, friends cracked beers in the parking lot, and we learned how to apply wickets to our ski coats for the first time. Growing up in a world of scannable lift tickets and RFID passes, attaching a metal wicket with one of Caberfae’s colorful stickers to my jacket was a novelty experience. As I made my way to the top of South Peak, I was struck by how far you could see from the top of this little hill. The sun had mostly set on the miles of forest that surrounded Caberfae, but the lights from the hill still illuminated bits of the view. I’d been night skiing before, but something about doing it at Caberfae felt magical. Perhaps it was the way everything glowed blue or just the fact that I was able to stand on the highest point that I could see for miles as the sun set. Although I hadn’t known exactly what to expect in the Midwest, the scenic charm of Caberfae gave me a perfect first taste of its soul.

Tickets held on by metal wickets, night skiing, and delicious bloody marys are what riding Caberfae are all about. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

Once the hill closed down, we linked up with a couple of the snowcat groomers for a ride in their snowcats. I’d never been in one before and it felt like a combination of being in a helicopter and a tractor (polar opposites, I know). The driver told me that even on their little hill, grooming took from about 9pm to 7am the next morning. Luckily, he’d been doing it for 20 years and knew exactly what the hill needed just based on how the snow felt. I knew from the few runs I’d skied earlier that these groomers’ jobs were of the utmost importance at hills like Caberfae. We rode up the front side of the resort and over the backside before looping back around to where we’d started. I had this feeling that the snowcat would suddenly launch into high speed, but the perfectly groomed zen garden lines it created behind us told me otherwise. In conjunction with the soft blue tones and flowy terrain Caberfae had shown us, it was a perfect conclusion to our first day.

A peek behind the scenes - and a little bit of history. | Izzy Lidsky photos.

We returned to Caberfae early the next morning and were handed tickets by Pete Meyer himself. Even as a season pass holder at Caberfae, each day you’re issued a wicket with a sticky ticket to wrap around it. Every day of the season boasts its own design on the ticket so customers can’t board the lift without the proper artwork hanging from their jacket. If they run out of a design in a day, an announcement is made and a second ticket design is implemented. The tickets are all kept in a top secret room that we were lucky enough to visit later in the day. They never reuse a design in a season and the locals boast an impressive stack of colorful, patterned tickets from each day at Caberfae.

Before making our way onto the hill on our second day, we took a little trip down the road to the home of Waddy and Robin Pothoff. Waddy and Robin both grew up skiing in Michigan. Since retiring, Waddy has spent his winters in a little Swiss-chalet-style home just a five minute walk from Caberfae. They let us into the downstairs which acted as an impressive trophy room to all of their combined medals from many years of racing. Pairs of skis hung from the ceilings and the walls and trail maps and photos of the two of them lined the room. Just around the corner, a garage held a shiny Ducati motorcycle from Robin’s days racing on two wheels. Although Robin was headed back to Ann Arbor, where she lives half the time, she assured us that she still skis regularly and is in fact the fastest female Nastar racer over the age of 75. Although Waddy and Robin were our first taste of this, it quickly became evident how ingrained people became in the hills they grew up near in the Midwest.

It's not all about bloody marys and crockpots - carving turns is what we're really here for. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

Waddy booted up and walked us back over to the mountain where we met up with his friend Ryan, a tele-skier with a true love for skiing in the Midwest. We skied a few laps trying to keep up with Waddy and Ryan and savored the well-groomed trails before splitting off to go check out Caberfae’s infamous lodge culture.

If you said ‘crockpot culture’ in the West people would look at you like you were crazy. But at Caberfae, if you walk into the main lodge, don’t be surprised to see rows of crock pots lined up against the wall. There was chili, mac and cheese, combinations of the two, and toppings everywhere. Legend has it that the resort actually had to install a special circuit board to keep the breaker from shorting out when there were too many crock pots plugged in. Families were scattered around the lodge enjoying bowls of various foods. My childhood of french fries from the Winter Park cafeteria with my step-dad seemed suddenly corporate as I watched parents encouraging their kin to have one more bowl before heading back out.

There's plenty of opportunity to get stylish out there too. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

Our culinary endeavors didn’t end in the lodge. Once we’d finished shooting on the hill for the day, we were told we had to try one of Arlo’s famous Bloody Marys so we made our way to R Dub’s Pub to give them a taste. Pete Meyer had picked Arlo, for whom the drink is named, up while hitchhiking many years back and given him a place to stay. Arlo didn’t have much direction at that point so Pete convinced him to come bartend at Caberfae. It was there he concocted his famous and top-secret recipe and also found a family. Arlo died from cancer four years ago, but his legacy lives on at Caberfae. We indulged around a fire and were all wholly impressed by Arlo’s recipe. Decked out with a full pickle garnish, it was the snack I didn’t know I needed. Our time at Caberfae was short but sweet and we’d already been graciously welcomed to the Midwest by people like Tim, Pete, Ryan, and Waddy. 

Nothing like a round or three of bloodys from Arlo to cap off a great day on the hill. | Izzy Lidsky photo.