Seeing as we’ve had all this snow this winter, we might as well put it to good use, right?  Since we’re not particularly far north or up in huge mountains like the resorts in Vermont or the Rockies, conditions at ski resorts in the Mid-Atlantic (in my experience, at least), typically consist of packed, machine-made snow which can become icy as the loose powder is pushed away, or heavy and slushy if it melts and re-freezes every day.  Not that it’s ever stopped me from wanting to go skiing, mind you, it’s just not always the easiest stuff to ski on.  Well, that wasn’t the case this winter, thanks to frequent snow and very cold temperatures.  So we busted out the skis twice this season to take advantage of the great conditions.

Who is that masked man?

Back at the tail-end of January, we headed to Seven Springs Mountain Resort, near Pittsburgh, with my coworkers Pete and Sam.  None of us had been there before, but we had heard a lot of good things about it so it sounded like a nice place to try out for a weekend, and we enjoyed it.  There were many merging/crossing trails on the mountain, and not a whole lot of signs, so much of the first day was spent figuring out where we were and how to get to particular trails.  Some of the green trails were very crowded, so they became more about people-dodging than skiing, and most of the blues were too steep for Pete and Sam’s comfort.  But by the end of the day, we had found an area that was relatively empty and had some nice trails with greens for them and blues for us.  We did get Pete and Sam on one of the blues, Giant Boulder, which was a really great run and probably my favorite on the mountain.  The second day, we returned to the same area, with occasional excursions out to other parts of the mountain.  The conditions over the weekend were really good; a few icy patches here and there, but the snow was very light and powdery because it was EXTREMELY cold!  The high on both days was in the upper teens, so we were definitely bundled up!  (see picture)

One funny story to demonstrate our confusion over the signs: we found a blue trail we really liked, Little North Face, but were having some trouble figuring out where it started.  At first, we had found a way to drop into it from an adjacent green, but we knew that wasn’t the intended starting point.  Consulting our map, it looked like the actual entrance was just behind the unloading station of one of the chairlifts.  We skied around the station, and found ourselves at the top of a very steep drop.  “Well, this must be it,” we thought, and down we went.  It was VERY challenging, but we both did well and had fun, so we did it again.  The next morning, over breakfast, we were looking over the trail map and realized that the blue we had been searching for (Little North Face Slope) continued along the top of that cliff and into the woods, winding its way down to meet the main slope further downhill.  We had skipped that part and gone straight down North Face Slope, which was a black diamond!  So we had inadvertently skied our first-ever black diamond, twice.  It was kind of nice to know that we were good enough to survive it, but we decided not to press our luck and try again since our legs weren’t fully recovered from the first day of skiing!

Also worthy of note from Seven Springs, both days we ate at this amazing diner in Somerset, the Summit Diner.  Our meals were great, and very cheap (as diners tend to be), but the best part was their pies.  They had an impressive selection of pies to choose from, and every one we tried was fantastic.  Somerset is right off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, so if you happen to be passing by, I definitely recommend stopping for some pie.  The next time dad and I head to Ohio for a roller coaster trip, I know where we’re having dinner…

Two weeks ago, my wife and I again took to the slopes, this time spending a day at Camelback with my mom.  I had been to Camelback once before, but it was way back in high school and like my 2nd or 3rd time on skis, so I had struggled some back then and was now excited to try the mountain again.  We had a great time; the conditions were absolutely amazing and the trails were really nice and LONG.  There was a little bit of confusion with crossing trails again, but it didn’t really matter because we loved everything we skied down.  The one disappointment was that four of the lifts in the middle of the mountain were closed, despite the fact that we were still paying holiday rates on the Friday after President’s Day Weekend and that there were a lot of people at the resort that day.  So that meant that the lines at the two quad lifts on either side of the gap were pretty long at times, which was a little annoying.  But we still managed to get a lot of skiing in, so I guess it wasn’t too much of a problem.  Either way, it was a nice day and we’ll probably go back sometime, being more careful to avoid the unusually-long holiday periods.

There was a bit of irony related to our two skiing outings this year, both times we went, the ski resorts had a significant snowstorm the week after we were there.  As I mentioned before, the trip to Seven Springs was at the end of January, so the following weekend was the first of the two “Snowmageddon” blizzards.  Our Camelback trip was two weekends ago, and last weekend there was a storm which, while it turned out to be only a dusting in Maryland, brought about a foot and a half of snow to the Pennsylvania ski resorts.  Very interesting.  Maybe ski resorts should hire us to come ski so that a snowstorm will follow after we’ve left.  Any takers?