Start with a crisp, clear, calm, and cold northern Michigan morning. Add a manmade snowstorm from dozens of snowmaking Low E guns on the southern ridges of the resort. Finish off with a remarkable temperature inversion.

What you get is a scene right out of the Alps or the Sierras: skiing and riding above clouds which fill the valley below like soup in a tureen.

It all happened on Tuesday morning, December 22, 2009, and it provided the very real illusion that we measure our vertical in the thousands and not the hundreds – and it certainly showed that humans can control the weather, at least on a local scale. The pictures tell the story – scroll down to see them all. A magical holiday season it will be . . .

 Cary Adgate, BOYNE Ambassador of Skiing