Mt. Brighton

Overview
Mt. Brighton is a ski resort in Brighton, Michigan that opened in 1960. As no hills large enough for commercial skiing exist naturally in Brighton, Mt. Brighton's slopes are man-made and reach a maximum height of 250 vertical feet. Mt. Brighton is not made of garbage as some people believe. Mt. Brighton has seven chair lifts and ten tow-rope surface lifts. Silver is the longest of the 26 runs, reaching 1350 feet. A terrain park and halfpipe are 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 equipment.

Groups and Clubs
Ski School offers ski and snowboard lessons to groups and individuals. Ski Club is a popular activity for metro Detroit grade school students who want to learn to ski or snowboard. NASTAR (NAtional STAndard Race) racing is available to the public, allowing racers to compare their race results to other NASTAR competitors. National Ski Patrol certified staff and volunteers provide education and training in leadership, outdoor emergency care, safety and transportation services.

The Jackal Golf Course
The Jackal 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.

Aspen Extreme
Mt. Brighton made a national appearance in the 1993 feature length film, "Aspen Extreme." The movie was filmed on location at Mt. Brighton and also in Aspen, 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 Yellow 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 that was 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 untrue. The owners of Mt. Brighton are the Bruhn family, who also manage the golf course during the rest of the year.