Mt Brighton Ski Area

Reviews 3

MA

Marcus Barrett

If you are deciding between the options in the Metro Detroit Area, make the choice and drive the extra miles to Mt. Holly or Pine Knob, these two options are better for EVERYTHING. Terrain park is good but not as good as Pine Knob. The park crew does a good job at keeping the rails and jumps in safe conditions at Brighton. There is a small park/big park, but it is always over crowded during and is unsafe for children. The terrain park area is small. There are virtually no trees on the hill so it is very windy and cold. Lounge and restroom areas are usually clean. Ore Creek has some good food and service is OK with fair prices for the setting. There is a sitting area where you can bring your own food. The facilities are the only thing that are better then other places, other then that dont believe the hype get out and go ski at Mt Holly/Pine Knob you will be happy you did. The rail jams that Mt Brighton are not ran well and feature the park crew picking there local favorites and friends. The announcer Chris Vest is not organized is rude, bullish, arrogant and mean to children. Chris Vest has blatantly mocked snowboarders and made fun of them over the microphone thinking he is cool and funny I assume. Chris challenged me to a fight in the parking lot, while Tiffany Stewart a manager did nothing to stop it. The rail jams are free but not worth the trouble if you want to get in on a fair challenge or something ran well or organized. Most of the best skiers/snowboarders do not compete as they are rigged. If Cody Lindig or Chris Vest is a part my children have decided they will not be participating. This place is poorly ran and unorganized. Hiring the people that have no sense of managing people. A lot of hype but they dont live up as there is a lack of organization and true professionalism. William Bill Snyder works and acts like he owns the place, yet he doesnt resolve issues. Ski school looks like it is always filled up on the weekends, but we have never used it. I do see large groups 10-20 kids with only 1 instructor. This could be fun or bad for a kid learning. I suppose you would know if you were signing up for a group ratio or if it were a private/personal lesson. Ski patrol, is not even close to being great from what I have seen in all of my times there. Too many specific things done wrong and not timely to mention. They do have some employees that are great, just seeing kids pulled up and out the wrong way too many times. Snowboarders tend to love to get this footage on film often. They do have a tough hill in the back (very short compared to others in the area) and it is too hard to get to if the rope is not operating in the back, which it rarely is as lift operators say they dont have enough help. Plenty of magic carpets running on the weekends but during the weekdays they are not always open and are crowded. The biggest issue, is the kids run the place on the hill and in almost all of the departments dont show care or make it there own. There are some major issues around this place (maintenance guys Neil, Alex, Chris yelling at skiers snowboarders overusing authority, marijuana use by guests and theft). Tony from maintenance yelling at kids and interacting the wrong way. Lift operators putting stakes/javelins/poles with sharp ends in the ground to impale the riders that do not exit the tow rope timely. This is one of the biggest safety issues that Mt Brighton allows to keep happening. A lot of management that had started at Mt Brighton 15 years ago and doesnt know anything about managing people. The epic pass is the only reason why people would consider going to Mt Brighton, not for the actual hill or terrain park as the other ski areas are easily better in every way. Save your family some headaches and go elsewhere, my Mom and Dad took me to Mt Holly and Pine Knob as a kid and I will do the same and I live close to Mt Brighton.

MA

Mark Nawrocki

Since Vail bought and upgraded Mt. Brighton, it is nothing like it was before. The snow is phenomenal. I cant recall skiing in powder at Mt Brighton before last year. albeit we had help from mother nature. The snow was in great condition throughout and the new quad chairlift and magic carpets allows you to enjoy it more. When other local ski areas were closed due to the weather and snow melt, Mt. Brighton was open. I heard they can get close to fully open within 2 days depending on the weather with the new snow making. It looks like a blizzard when they turn all the guns on at the beginning of the season. The terrain park is second to none in Michigan and designed by the same company does the X-Games. The ski school expanded its services and its childrens program is fantastic. The childrens program has their own office and area only for the children. In fact my daughter will be in it this upcoming season. I hope she can hit the slopes with us by the end of the season, being she will be 3 years old. They added a bar and revised the restaurant and "cafeteria". The food in the cafeteria is not your typical "cafeteria" quality as they had fresh brisket, pizza, and grilled food. If the last time you were there was before the 2013-14 season, it is completely different. Even the staff seems friendlier and in uniform so they are easy to spot. Ive been skiing at Mt Brighton since the 80s and it has never been this good. No need for me to head up north for skiing, with my pass, I can ski for free out west at other Vail resorts. I can either drive north for 4 hours and enjoy a few hundred vertical feet, or hop on a plane and be in Colorado, Tahoe, California within 4 hours and 1/2 way to the resort. To me, its a no brainer. My hats off to VAIL!

A

A Private User

Beware of over-rated snow conditions, poor customer service, and high prices for the value! Today, the published conditions were stated as "80% open, and groomed snow." In reality, there was dirt all over the place and only about 40% of the hill was accessible (the back chairlift to access the other 40% was shut down). Just after discovering this, I asked for a refund (just 15 minutes after purchasing the tickets). The manager refused to give a refund - even as I mentioned that their published conditions are not true! They simply said that I should have checked the conditions - I said that I did; I checked the website. They said that I should have walked around the hill to check myself. This is corruption at its finest. I will not return again! (By the way, it is standard at just about any other ski resort to give a refund if the conditions are not satisfactory for you - this was actually the first time in my long ski history that I asked for a refund - it was that bad!)

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