Mt. Brighton is a ski and snowboard area in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, that opened in 1961. As no hills large enough for commercial skiing or snowboarding exist naturally in Brighton, Mt. Brighton's slopes are man-made and reach a maximum height of 230 vertical feet. Contrary to urban legend, Mt. Brighton was never a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

. Mt. Brighton has 5 chairlifts and 7 surface lifts. Silver is the longest and newest of the 25 runs, running 1,350 feet. A terrain park, featuring rails, boxes, and jumps, is available to freestyle skiers and snowboarders. Almost all of the snow on Mt. Brighton is created artificially using water stored in an on-site reservoir and industry standard

snowmaking Snowmaking is the production of snow by forcing water and pressurized air through a "snow gun", also known as a "snow cannon". Snowmaking is mainly used at ski resorts to supplement natural snow. This allows ski resorts to improve the reliabilit ...

equipment. The resort was sold to

Vail Resorts Vail Resorts, Inc. is an American mountain resort company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The company is divided into three divisions. The mountain segment owns and operates 40 mountain resorts in four countries, Vail Resorts Hospitality o ...

in December 2012.

Trails and Runs

Mount Brighton offers 25 Trails and slopes to ride on. The beginner hills, Snowshoe, Larkspur, Bunny, and Flatiron are represented as a green circle on the map. The intermediate runs, Easy Street, Chicken Chute, Blue sky, Crosscut, Ryan's Run, Gasoline Alley, Sawtooth Ridge, Sidewinder, Thalackers, Wolverine Way, Spartan Street, and Jax Bowl are labeled as blue squares on the map. The advanced slopes, Golden Eagle, Osprey, Grand River, Big Risky, Cheetah, and Snyder's Escape are shown as a single black diamond on the map. The expert only hills, Challenge, and Perk's Folly are seen as two black diamonds on the slope map. The parts of runs with terrain parks are shown on the map as orange ovals.

Stats and Amenities

Height, Base Elevation: 1,100 ft (335 m) Summit Elevation: 1,330 ft (405 m) Vertical Rise: 230 ft (70 m) Total Area: 130 acres Trails and slopes: 25 30% beginner 40% intermediate 30% advanced/expert 5 chairlifts, 7 surface lifts, Uphill Capacity per Hour: 17,200 people. Snowmaking: 130 acres. Dining at Ore Creek Mountain Grill for casual table service and Ski Hill Grill for quick serve. 2 Bars

Groups and clubs

Mt. Brighton's Snowsports Academy offers ski and snowboard lessons to groups and individuals, and offers specialized programs for children (skiing and snowboarding) as well as ski racing. The Snowsports Staff is made up of highly trained instructors—many of whom are AASI (American Association of Snowboard Instructors) or PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) certified. "Ski and Snowboard Club" is a popular activity for suburban and metro Detroit elementary and high school students who want to learn to ski or snowboard, and Mt. Brighton provides lessons to many of these groups.

National Ski Patrol The nonprofit National Ski Patrol (NSP) is the largest winter education organization in the world. The NSP provides education, outreach, and credentialing related to outdoor recreation and safety. It is currently composed of more than 31,000 memb ...

certified staff and volunteers provide education and training in leadership, outdoor emergency care, safety and transportation services. XLR8 alpine Racing also calls Mt. Brighton their home. They teach young skiers how to race.

NASTAR NASTAR (an acronym for NAtional STAndard Race) is the world's largest known recreational ski and snowboard race program. It allows ski or snowboard racers of all ages and abilities, through a handicap system, a way to compare themselves with one ano ...

(NAtional STAndard Race) racing is available to the public as well as Epic Race, Saturdays and Sundays, allowing racers to compare their race results to other NASTAR competitors. There are additional events held throughout the season, including a New Year's Eve party, Rail Jams, and numerous ski races.

The Golf Club at Mt. Brighton

The Golf Club at Mt. Brighton is an 18-hole golf course that was added to Mt. Brighton in 2001. Bruce Matthews designed the par 71 course with four sets of tees ranging in yardage from 6,655 to 4,826. This was then closed in July 2020.

Aspen Extreme

Mt. Brighton made a national appearance in the 1993 feature-length film, "

Aspen Extreme ''Aspen Extreme'' is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Patrick Hasburgh. The plot is about two ski buddies, T.J. Burke (Paul Gross) and Dexter Rutecki (Peter Berg), who move from Brighton, Michigan to Aspen, Colorado to seek a be ...

." The movie was filmed on location at Mt. Brighton and also in

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

, Colorado. The main character, T.J. Burke (played by Paul Gross), walks onto Mt. Brighton in late Fall at the start of the movie. Burke hikes up the Black run to the top of the Red, Black and Silver chairlifts where Dexter Rutecki (Peter Berg) is welding a two-person chair that belonged to the Blue chairlift. The Blue, Green and Yellow chairlifts are on the second peak at Mt. Brighton, which is clearly visible in the background. Throughout the movie, Rutecki wears an orange hat created for the movie, but is mistakenly believed to be the official hat of the Mt. Brighton maintenance department employees. The movie indicates that Mt. Brighton was built on top of an existing land fill, which is somewhat misleading. Mt. Brighton was created with excess

road debris Road debris, a form of road hazard, is debris on or off a road. Road debris includes substances, materials, and objects that are foreign to the normal roadway environment. Debris may be produced by vehicular or non-vehicular sources, but in all ...

from the construction of Interstate 96 and US 23, which could also be considered land fill, not with garbage. The owners of Mt. Brighton were the Bruhn family, who also managed the golf course during the summer.

References

{{Metro Detroit Tourist attractions in Livingston County, Michigan Ski areas and resorts in Michigan 1960 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures in Livingston County, Michigan Vail Resorts