Tyrol Basin

The last time I visited Tyrol, I was a kid and all I remembered was the old school lodge. In my mind, I pictured 5 runs, though they now have 20+ trails to explore. Even with the limited snow this season and all the warm weather, it looked like they had about 90% of their runs open AND a run with moguls.
When I skied there, the weather hit 60 degrees briefly but stayed in the 50s for most of the day. This made the snow slower and slushier than usual. I stayed on the far West side of the… basin. This was far from the many terrain parks and had the more challenging runs. Also, I was lucky enough to be there on a day that was a little slower and pretty much had Double Diamond and Yodeler to myself. Oh, and no lift lines!
As for the location of Tyrol Basin itself, it’s close to Madison (closer than Cascade and offers a comparable experience… even better for those that like terrain parks). Instead of taking the highway, you are on country roads, driving past farms and eventually traveling on dirt roads. It feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere and it pretty much is. There’s really no reason to go to Mt. Horeb (in my opinion) other than for Tyrol Basin. They had enough parking for busy days, all dirt lots and some narrow alleys to get through.
The lodging, I didn’t spend too much time in it but it was like I remembered, ‘old fashioned’ and a little run down (in the café). The café only accepted cash, the kitchen took credit. Their bubbler was out of order so they offered free water near it, which was empty when I got to it.
The overall skiing experience was a lot better than I expected for a small hill. They offered variety and the lift attendants were friendly and helpful. They maintained the runs well and marked potential hazards efficiently. They also stay open until 9pm (I believe they close the West half of the hill), which allows for night skiing. Worth the trip.

Tyrol Basin may be small in acreage but it is huge in experiences. As a lifelong skier, I was looking forward to sharing the sport with my grandson. I researched various ski programs in the area and found that Tyrol Basin had, hands down, the best deal for teaching little ones how to slide down the hill on two sticks of wood :-) The instructors are well trained on how to work with kids; despite a few meltdowns they get the little ones up the magic carpet and down the bunny hill. I was so impressed with Tyrol Basin, then I took advantage of their $ 12 Tuesday deal; for 12 bucks every Tuesday you get a lift ticket and if you need to rent gear that’s $ 12 also. Of course the skiing in Wisconsin can’t rival being out West, but when you can’t make it to Colorado or Utah you might as well spend some time at Tyrol basin you won’t regret it!

This place is awesome! So much cheaper than cascade or Devils Head. The $ 12 Tuesday’s and $ 12 Friday night deals are superb ways to get to the slopes a couple of times in the year without exhausting your wallet, and if you want to go with a group of friends to introduce them to the wonderful world of skiing it’s only $ 31 for a lift ticket AND rentals if you buy it before 3:45 PM. They have every kind of skiing type here too. They have three lifts: A, B, and C
Lift A takes you to all their park runs. (Their park is amazing, they do need a higher emphasis on progression but you will see some of the best park riders in the Midwest there)
Lift B is great for alpine skiing
And lift C is great for free skiing, tree runs, steep terrain, and they have a mini cliff jump!
I love the jump line they put on sutters ridge this year too. It’s marvelous.
These guys do a great job with what they have and put some epic features up on their hill.
It also has an incredible local vibe. There’s a real culture you pick up on when you go there, great to hang out at the bar or on the roof deck where they normally have a bonfire.

Best place I have been in the mid-​west (except for northern Michigan).
Seriously we got a deal on
for $ 12 after work, and I will be doing it again soon.
The place is bigger than expected and the terrain parks suit all levels. It was fun to board through the half pipe as well and try my hand at it :)
My only negative is there are A LOT of kids… which to me is frustrating sometimes, but I guess you can say the place is family friendly. The lodge definitely reflects that and is a bit «lived in».
The snow will never be like out west (big and fluffy) but its totally worth it if you live in the area.

Tyrol Basin is the closest ski hill to the Middleton/​Cross Plains area (I don’t count Blackhawk). We had never been there, but with a day off of school, we thought it’d be a good time to try it out. Thankfully, the Mt. Horeb kids DID have school — I think that helped keep the crowd down.
When we got there (around 11am), it was pretty quiet. Business picked up around noon, but you could still get right to the lifts. There must’ve been some lessons or parents bringing their toddlers to the hill, as nothing on the lifts or up top seemed to be different.
Later in the day, there was a noticeable rise in attendance. I’m not sure if it was area ski clubs or just the fact that school was out. On top of that, a race took over one of the black diamond hills, closing that to the public.
So — how’s the hill you ask? Let me tell ya’.
For skiers, I’d give it a 3-​star rating. More like 3.5 stars. It’s decent. As an «alright» skier, I like to start with a green run. Well, there’s one green run. It seemed a little narrow and twisty for a green, but apparently putting up «slow» signs (in the middle of the run, even!) makes it a beginner run. I decided the blue run would be better for me. It wrapped around the green run, and frankly wasn’t much different (except for no «slow» signs clogging up the run). I did enjoy that run, but lamented there weren’t more. I spent most of my time on the black diamond runs. They weren’t too bad. Pretty steep to start, giving you a nice «hole shot» or «drop in» feel. Thankfully, the snow was GREAT, giving me all the control I needed to manage my speed and direction. It was excellent.
For snowboarders, this place may be 5-​star. The feedback from my son and his friend (both snowboarders), along with my younger son who skis, was that the terrain parks were amazing. And you can see it from the bottom, too. This hill really caters to the snowboarding crowd. A lot of creative and well-​kept features to keep the kids interested all day long.
Complaint: This isn’t the biggest hill around, so the runs aren’t numerous. When they closed down one run for some races, they also closed down the blue run next to it. That’s a serious chunk of the SKI runs for us skiers. The terrain parks were hopping, but I was getting squeezed off the hill. I didn’t see anything on their website about these events. Granted, my body was long done skiing for the day, so I didn’t mind being done. Had I just gotten there, I probably would have been pretty mad. It looked like they opened a third lift and the runs it serves (a double-​diamond and a black diamond), but like I said — I was done.
The hill itself is not that high. Cascade Mountain has much longer runs (and a turbo lift to match). Tyrol has shorter runs, but they are nifty and engaging. If they consistently don’t do the traffic that Cascade does, you can probably equal your ski time with sheer volume. Go up, ski down. Rinse, repeat. Adding a wait at the lifts would knock the experience down.
The little café was nice — their food was decent, and some of it was reasonably priced ($ 1.50 nachos was a perfect mid-​day snack, and a $ 2 hotdog is good to keep the kids’ bellies full for a while). ** March 2016 update — prices went up. $ 6.50 for a small order of cheese curds, $ 3 hotdog.
So — four stars? Sure. Why not. It’s a culmination of all factors. I’d RATHER ski a bigger hill, but Tyrol Basin had me on the lifts with no waiting, the snow was great, and the runs weren’t full of people. If this hill was busier, I’d knock the rating down, but I had such a good time, I won’t assume anything.
NOTE: Tuesdays are $ 12! Friday nights are $ 12, too, I believe. I got our all-​day tickets on
for about 50% off. I will continue to look for that deal when coming here, as it makes good «bang» for less «buck».

Of the three ski hills in the Madison area (Tyrol, Devil’s Head, and Cascade), I like the vibe at Tyrol best, though they’re all pretty nice. Tyrol has the shortest runs by far, but some decent terrain park areas, especially for snowboarding. Food at the Tyrol lodge is by far the best of the three (beef brisket sandwich!) and most reasonably priced. For any of these places– recalibrate any expectations you have based on skiing in California or Colorado! And if you’re taking your kids, they won’t know the difference anyway and will have a blast.
I’ve finally figured out that in Madison, the fake snow is about as good as the real stuff, and they all make the fake stuff. So when there is no snow on the ground in Madison no one thinks «hey, let’s go skiing!» and the crowds are pretty sparse.
Like someone else said– check the website for the various specials… it can work out to be less $$ than Cascade, even with the «kids ski free» at Cascade.

This is a bar review, not a ski review.
Bar: Who doesn’t want to refresh apres ski with a great beer or two?
Best Bloody Mary. Whole salad bar and shrimp. Shooter of Spotted Cow.
Hard to stop at one.
Atmosphere is total dive ski lodge, wood paneling, old ski décor and cool Tyrol photos from decades ago. PIck up some delish french fries to go with your drinks and you are set. Take in the fire and the smell of ski boots and dripping snow from your gear.
What’s not to love? They do have an outdoor patio as well depending on how busy it is, that’s a fun spot overlooking the runs or keeping an eye out for your friends hitting the slopes.

You cannot get a better deal than $ 12 for a whole day of skiing (weekday). This place has so many awesome deals.
As a native Californian (grew up skiing in Tahoe), the runs feel terribly short, but I don’t think you’ll do better here in Wisconsin.
There were no lines to speak of, everyone was nice, the conditions were near perfect. Lodge isn’t huge, but had everything I needed and was very clean and accessible.
Kids 5 and under ski free (doesn’t required paid parent ticket), and parents can teach them for free (if you’re in street boots), so if you buy rather than rent, you’re basically teaching them for free, which is amazing.
Can’t wait to go back!

Tyrol is one of three ski hills in the area that I’m aware of. I really like Tyrol for their great deals. Check this:
$ 12 Tuesday 10am-​9pm
$ 12 tickets, all folks, all day
$ 12 rentals, $ 12 beginner lessons
Friday Late Nite Great Nite Special
Every Friday Night
$ 12 Ticket: 7:30 pm — 11pm.
There are plenty of other deals, but these ones always stand out. Also, it’s awesome that they’re open until 11pm on a Friday night!
Other than great deals, the hill is just an average southern Wisconsin ski hill. The lifts are kinda weak… it’s 2013… time to upgrade to high speed lifts. I was really happy that there were no lift lines on a Saturday night.

I skied here for the second time now, so I am a repeat customer. Proximity does have something to do with that. I like to go on a weekday because I hate to wait for the lift and weekdays are pretty wide open. Nites might be busy, I don’t know but guess they might be. It’s not a large place but they have decent easy or medium runs. (green or blue signs) I think there may be only 1 or 2 black diamonds or so. The runs could be a little longer. Great scenery at the top: you can see for miles around. I thought the rental skis/​boots were decent, my feet didn’t hurt at all! Nice boots. They make a very good Bloody Mary in the lounge, and you’re in Wisconsin, so that comes with a beer chaser of course! 2 large shrimp plus other goodies in the Bloody Mary. Plenty of New Glarus beers on tap. Never tried any of the real food here and likely won’t. (I’ve eaten at other Wisc. ski hills before-​ehhh) Lift tickets $ 12, rentals $ 28, helmets $ 5. Parking on a weekday is wide open too.

Loved it. I took my two intermediate level kids skiing at night with rental skis included for $ 79. Flat out best deal ever for skiing. Yes it’s small but it has a terrain park and some nice steep hills to play on. I missed a bump run but hey, what do you expect for that kind of money.

This is the closest skiing/​snowboarding area to Madison. The hills aren’t great, but it gets the job done.
The season pass is pretty reasonable. I’ve gotten it for around $ 250. You also get a free one-​day ski pass, which you can use for a friend. For those that just want to ski recreationally once in a while, I’d recommend going on Tuesday nights. The lift tickets are only $ 12. As the ski season progresses, usually there are more discounts during weekdays. Parking is cramped, but I’ve never had trouble finding parking.

I’m a skier, and this hill has a higher concentration of snowboarders than I’m used to. Many of them are inconsiderate and will sit in the middle of a run to watch their friends or will sit very near where everyone gets off the lifts to strap in their other foot. So it’s less enjoyable than it could have been due to people being in the way.
The crowded feeling is made worse by not having large enough area at the bottom of the hill where you either get back on the lift or head inside. The inside area is tight and the upstairs portion is unreasonably warm for a place people are coming into wearing snow gear — by the time I got to a table I was uncomfortably hot!
The rental area is also very small and crowded. Also it has a bare cement floor with lots of standing water.
As for runs, the eastern runs have a lot of terrain which is great if you want to do jumps and tricks. These always seems to be the most crowded runs though so I tend to avoid them even though I like hitting a little jump every now and then. Being neither a beginner nor an expert skier I find that most runs are too easy or too hard for me. There’s quite a jump between slow easy runs and narrow windy steep runs. There are multiple places where you could cut over from one run to the next, but there are always fences up so you can’t.
After getting off the lift you usually don’t have much of a hill to go down and you often have to work to get to the run you want. This is at it’s worst coming from the West chair lift back to the east, where the ground is basically level so you get in some cross-​country on your downhill skis.
The parking goes up in tiers and I tend to end up two long flights of stairs up from the bottom of the hill. After a day of skiing the last thing I want to do is carry my equipment back up to the car! There’s a marked loading /​unloading area, but that’s in the especially crowded lower parking area. If you stop there you’re in the way of any cars looking for a spot in that lot because there’s not enough room to get around you.
This is the closest ski hill to where I live, but I think I’ll drive further for a better experience. If you’re a snowboarder interested in dodging others on the terrain park or either a beginner or expert skier there’s something for you here, but it’s not a good fit for me.

I feel little bad for giving 2-​stars review because you can’t ever have a bad experience at ski resort. I’m just saying, if you know how to ski at the intermediate level or beyond (i.e. skiing since 2 yrs old), you will crave more. It’s not exactly a place where you can «rip» mountain, however, I guess you can zing a hill.
For a beginner and kids, this is a great place. It’s small, and there’s no way you can get lost. Otherwise, it will take you 2 seconds to come down the hill, and turns are optional. One lovely feature is that the parking is right in front of the lift. That saves little muscle power.

This place is sooo cute!
I feel like I’m in a Tyrolean Theme park built in the 50’s. My son LOVED it. The lift gets you up top in a few minutes and it takes a few more to come back down. This is the lowest of the lo-​fi skiing experience ever, but we had a BLAST!!!