Last Friday we made our first ski trip of the season. Thomas and Evelyn and I spend the afternoon at Hidden Valley, in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania.
Thanksgiving weekend is one of the best times to ski, as everyone is home from school and from work, and most non-skiers are out shopping. The main problem with early-season skiing in the mid-Atlantic is the climate. Local resorts make most of their snow, and this requires cold temperatures. We hit Wisp the day after Thanksgiving back in 2005. The last two years have been too warm.
This year Mother Nature has been cooperating. For several weeks now cold air has been streaming out of Canada and south across the Great Lakes. This means plentiful lake-effect snow at the higher elevations, and excellent snowmaking conditions just about everywhere.
I packed the car Friday night, and we drove up first thing Saturday morning. This would be our first ever trip to Hidden Valley. This small ski area has new ownership, and has been aggressively trying to attract new skiers. This year they are offering free early-season lift tickets.
The concern would be the crowding. And crowded it was. We were lucky to find a parking space, and even still it was still a long walk to the lodge. Our first look at the lift lines was daunting. One chairlift was down, the bunny hill surface lift was down, and the two working lifts had very, very long lines. We made two quick hikes of the bunny hill, when we noticed that the third chairlift was back on line. We decided to give it a try.
The long line actually wasn't that bad. After about 15 minutes we were ready to load. This was typical of the remainder of the day. The lines were long, but the waits weren't really that bad.
Even better was the snow. Each run had fully covered, and the mix of natural and man-made snow was about as good as it gets. The sun was bright, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the temps quite comfortable. We made about eight runs before it was time to go. Lets hope this day was an omen, the beginning of a long, snowy winter.
