By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com

GALENA, Ill. -- A friend of mine went skiing in Austria over the holidays. The lucky dog said she had a wonderful time schussing down the Alps.

SLIDESHOW: Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort Images

I went to Illinois. And I had a great time skiing, too. I'm not making this up, either.

Down Galena way -- about 100 miles southwest of Madison -- is a little gem of a resort called Chestnut Mountain. It features a 500-foot vertical descent in gladed palisades, a few steep and challenging runs, (a batch of intermediate and novice ones, too) great views of the Mississippi and a retro, Alpine hotel with a pool and a hot tub.

Best of all, I was there with my 18-year-old son. Moreover, it was cold and snowed buckets. Since then, it has rained. But I'm sure it will snow again.

And even if it doesn't, the resort has a ton of snowmaking equipment. All it needs is temperatures below freezing.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, checked into the hotel and got my son a snowboard and boots from the spiffy rental shop. Then, as the blazing red sun sank over the rolling hills of eastern Iowa, we took off for a few runs.

But first my son had to tune his iPod, hitch up his sagging pants and then adjust his snowboard bindings. It's very important, I have learned, to have your music just so before each run. (This drove me to distraction at times, which is why I had to go off and make a couple of runs on my own from time to time.)

It was a weekday evening and we practically had the place to ourselves. Because the temperature was in the teens, the snow was crunchy and the turning easy.

We skied nearly every run of the mountain in a couple of hours under the lights. I especially liked the more difficult runs of Eagle, Warpath and Mine Shaft. They were a hoot.

Now I know some skiers and snowboarders (the fools) who look down their noses at Midwestern resorts.

And as someone who has lived in Colorado, Washington State and California and skied all over the West, Canada and a couple of other continents, I can confirm that the hills in this neck of the woods are not as big as say, Whistler/Blackcomb, which has an impressive vertical drop of more than 5,000 vertical feet.

But what the heck. Sliding on snow is sliding on snow. And the boy and I had a great time at Chestnut Mountain.

We could have stayed out until 9 p.m., but we called it a night after three-plus hours and headed for a dinner of burgers in the bar. Some nights, the lifts run until midnight.

When morning rolled around, we had breakfast (oatmeal with brown sugar, orange juice, coffee and milk) in the nearly empty restaurant and headed for the again unpopulated slopes.

The emptiness reminded me a bit of heli-skiing in British Columbia last year, only different. Sort of.

My son checked out the terrain park, which is for both boarders and skiers, and I did more laps on the slopes, trying to get some miles under my skis to get ready, in a fashion, for a "steep and deep" camp I'll be do this month at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.

That's another one of those big Western resorts that has, yes, thousands of vertical feet and huge mountains (the Tetons) as a backdrop.

At Chestnut, the snow sparkled on the trees, there was a cold nip in the air and my son and I skied/boarded to our collective hearts' content. We also talked about his first quarter as a college freshman, life away from home, jobs and other assorted man-to-man stuff.

In other words, we bonded. And we made plans for a February trip to Park City, Utah. (More really big mountains.)

Then, after lunch and a batch more turns down the slopes, we headed for the resort hot tub and pool. Which, again, we had all to ourselves.

Then we bid adieu to Chestnut and headed off to Iowa to visit relatives.

We also attempted to find another ski resort called Sundown Mountain near Dubuque, Iowa. But it was getting dark and I got lost, so we put that on off for another visit.

Besides, we were more than satisfied with Chestnut, which, you can be sure, I plan to visit again. And again.

And maybe sometime, Austria, too.

For more information on Chestnut Mountain, visit this Web site.