Wausau, Jan 27: Granite is a ski resort, which spreads across 265 skiable acres, offers the biggest vertical drop in the region (700 feet). Experts stick to the frontside, where the mostly black-diamond pitches up top funnel into relaxing runouts at the bottom. Families eat up the grab bag of 30 trails unveiled in 2002 -- a mix of steeps and narrow, curvy cruisers -- all of which slither through towering Sugar Maples and Red Oaks down to the section`s Cupid double chair.
Intermediates looking for cruisers beeline for the 20 brand-new runs on the western flank of the mountain. The resort hopes to someday link two of the trails there -- Western Frontier and Silver Birch -- with ski-in/ski-out lodging. Another reason, perhaps, to keep an eye trained on Granite.
Slopeside condos are still a ways off, so most visitors bed down in Wausau, the country`s top producer of Colby cheese, the world`s No. 2 supplier of ginseng and home of an insurance company everyone pronounces "War-sawr."
The downtown, set around a natural ice-skating pond, boasts a lively arts scene. On the pedestrian mall, a clutch of cafes, shops and inns complete the mix. Some ski areas have spent decades trying to create a village, and there`s still a sense of artificiality.
Bureau Report
