Fine early march skiing at Seven Springs

Last time I was at Seven Springs in mid February the temperatures with windchill were in the -30Fs, and I even got some frostbite on my neck. This time, Pittsburgh’s Arctic weather had just passed over, delivering lots of new snow and excellent coverage all across the hill. And it was 40F at the base, with luckily a stiff north wind keeping the snow from rapidly getting too slushy.

It wasn’t hard to have a really fun ski day. Good quality snow, light crowds apart from some small lines at the Gunnar lift, and beautiful weather – probably about as good as it gets at Seven Springs 😉

Sunday: 6600m vert

Season totals: 39 days, 308,600m vert, 12 powder days

Mid February skiing in the Mid Atlantic – Seven Springs and Wisp

The skiing near Pittsburgh might not be epic, but (1) it is near, and (2) on a year like this with good snow and cold, it’s actually pretty good fun for small hill riding. In three days trips, two to Seven Springs and one to Wisp, we got the full spectrum of local ski conditions, luckily all on the pleasurable side.

First was a Spring like day at Seven Springs. The mountain was fully covered, creating plenty of options for off groomed excursions as the snow softened. Early the groomers were excellent, and by 10.30am it was hard not to wash, rinse, repeat the excellent bumps under the Gunnar chair. By 12.30, it was 55F and Spring-like glue moved in, A few more groomers and it was time to call it a day at 1.30pm

After the thaw, three days later the freeze had set in pretty hard when we arrived at Wisp. This made all the off-groomed glacial, but amazingly the grooming crew had spruced up conditions to create some really fine corduroy. There wasn’t a bad groomer on the hill, and there was virtually no ice lurking underneath, so we just did a circuit of the mountain before lunch, and a circuit after, cruising every open run at least once. It was a really fun day.

The Wisp freeze was nothing compared to President’s Day Sunday at Seven Springs. It was literally Arctic – temperatures at the base of Gunnar didn’t rise above -10F until noon, and the strong northerly wind was creating windchills that would make an average  polar bear vaguely uncomfortable. It had snowed 6 inches in the last 24 hours and this gave the wind plenty of material to constantly redistribute during the day. All this had two very positive effects however for those who braved the cold. First, the groomers were almost western like, and stayed that way all day. Second, there was no one out. I skied on to every single one of the 36 lifts I caught that day. Thankfully. Standing around was not a pleasant proposition. Not bad for President’s Weekend 😉

Seven Springs 8100m

Wisp 5100m

Seven Springs 8500m

Season Totals 26 days, 192,200m vertical, 6 Powder days

Cruising Seven Springs with the Sunday Crowds

Conditions at Seven Springs last Sunday were close to as good as they get in PA . The whole ‘mountain’ was covered and skiable, and amazingly  the best skiing was off the gun pow. In the trees off Gunnar. And under the lift on North Face. There were good turns to be had all day on an almost temperate winters day.

The only downside was the moderate weather and good snow brought out the crowds. The lines at the fast chairs were sizable by 10am, and didn’t relent until I left at 3.30pm. And with the comedy lift loading that goes on here – it’s like watching a Warren Miller movie – it’s rare that a ride up these chairs doesn’t stop twice while some clown is retrieved from falling off the chair or clicking their skis off. In that respect, the old slow lifts are just as fast. they crawl up, but have no lines and hardly stop, Ah well … a fun old ski day in PA

Sunday 7200m vert

Season Totals 20 days, 144,500m vertical, 5 Powder days

 

 

Ending the season in the Mid-Atlantic

A late March Sunday at Seven Springs was a fair bit colder than expected, with a strong cold northerly keeping the well-covered groomers firm all day. The first two hours were shreddingly good fun, with almost no people to ride the Gunnar chair with. A few more folks turned up mid morning, but as the roid got scraped off, it all became a bit solid as the firm icy slabs beneath were exposed. By 12.35pm, I was heading to the car and back to Pittsburgh. It wasn’t going to get any better.

The official closing weekend at Snowshoe was one of stark contrasts. The forecast Noah-like storm held off on Saturday, and the skiing was actually really quite good on a soft, if damp, Spring cover. The deluge of Biblical proportions, minus Russell Crowe (he’s busy filming in Pittsburgh right now), finally arrived about 2pm, which was late enough for us to get in 30+ runs without getting too soggy.

The storm changed from rain to blizzard sometime during the night. 4 inches had fallen by the time the time the lifts opened, and this actually meant virtually zero in wind-exposed areas, and 8 inches where the blowing snow was settling. The front side skiing was excellent, with light pow everywhere, and the wind filling tracks after every run. The west side was a little more exposed, the wind howling up the runs and depositing snow in various select areas. It was mid-winter cold, with a 30-40mph wind and face-blasting snow all day. Quite a day to end the official season on. Snowshoe will open for a bonus next weekend. Shame it won’t be open tomorrow as it would be primo.

Seven Springs 8400m, Snowshoe 8100m, 6700m vert

Season Totals: 50 days, 413,100m vert

7 powder days

Some local skiing – Blue Knob, Wisp and Seven Springs

At Blue Knob last month, it was tough staring at the closed tree runs, thinking just a few more inches and they’d be riding nicely. Luckily, a few week later, my wish came true. President Weekend’s Saturday was hardly a zoo at the Knob, the glades were all open, and the snow was more western than eastern. All glades were successfully conquered, and the picks were the Ditch Glades, a windy steep-ish stream bed with excellent cover (and one bush), and the wide open Laurel Run, which had bumps seemingly formed with Japanese-like engineering precision. D-Trail and East West Glades were also in good condition, just a little more twiggy. And with the rest of the mountain in uniformly excellent condition, even Extrovert, this is quite possibly the best day we’ll ever have Knob riding.

The following weekend, a day at Wisp was classic SWAPS* behavior. Sat in the lodge at 9am, watching it rain, eating a monster breakfast sandwich, catching up onwork, and praying the mid-morning cool down in the forecast would happen. When we saw heavy snow ay 10.30am, we knew it was time to boot up. An hour later we were carving the whole mountain, on and off groomed, under a deep blue sky. How the conditions were this good after a 2 day warm up and a decent rain shower, I have no idea. We did the usual Wisp circuit, skiing straight on to every lift, and at 4pm said goodbye to a surprisingly delightful ski day.

Sunday at Seven Spring is normally a pretty good choice crowds-wise. This was no exception, and under a blue sky, we got plenty of runs in off Gunnar before 10am peak hour arrived. There were a few bare spots off-groomed, but this was good Spring-like skiing. Stowe bumps kept us occupied in afternoon, and the gentler mounds on Avalanche and the glades between the runs were perfect tele-practise terrain for yours truly. By the time we left, it was dumping wet snow – hopefully hailing the return of winter in the Mid Atlantic.

Blue Knob 5500m, Wisp 5300m, Seven Springs 6900m vert

Season Totals: 32 days, 252,900m vert

3 powder days

PA Pow Mining at Seven Springs

Yep, I must confess, as a former Western skier, I find the title of this post somewhat incongruous. But with the Northeast under the grip of some serious Arctic weather, this has been a pretty snowy week in Pittsburgh. There’s certainly no January doldrums here like those plaguing the Pacific Northwest right now.

We rolled up Friday morning to a mostly deserted, frozen (0F) and snowy Seven Springs. 3 inches overnight was the report, but with a decent breeze, it wasn’t hard to find pockets twice that deep lurking on the side of runs and in the trees. The weird part was, hardly anyone else was hitting this pow. Even when the 1pm ticket crew turned up, doubling the number of people riding, there was still drifts to mine without trying too hard. The right side of Giant Steps was ungroomed, and skied beautifully all day, as did the bumps under the Gunnar chair. There were a few spots where you were reminded of the gun pow glacier underneath, but these were few and far between. It was an excellent, cold day.

Sunday wasn’t far off a repeat. Add a decent crowd only from 10-11.30, and a minor blizzard starting about 10.30 and abating just before I left at 3pm. With more fresh snow, continually topped up all afternoon, some of the off-gunpow areas were skiing like the west should be. Light, fluffy drifts, soft bumps, and groomers that accepted an edge as willingly as a Clinton accepting a political donation.

750 feet vertical sounds pretty grim to a Western skier. But in these conditions, with a fast lift and a reasonably extensive PA hillside to play on, I can happily keep myself occupied for a day. And despite the size of my heating bill, I’m all in favor of this eastern winter hanging around for a while. Some decent skiing an hour from home is a luxury I could get to enjoy.

Friday 8600m, Sunday 8700m vert

Season Totals: 21 days, 167,300m vert

Starting off the New Year with some Maryland and Pennsylvania turns

One bonus of living in Pittsburgh is that Wisp and Seven Springs are easy day trips. This made it possible to party (a little) in town on New Years Eve, and still be riding the lifts at Wisp just after 9am on New Years Day. A truly beautiful day it was too. Deep blue skies, pleasant temperatures, a good cover of god-made and man-made snow, and crowds still in bed, are ingredients for an good day of sliding. A few fast lifts and a little more vertical would’ve been a bonus, but we made the best of what Wisp offers, and soaked up the marvelous views of Deep Creek Lake as we carved some tasty groomers.

The next day, a school day, seemed appropriate for the first trip to Seven Springs for the season. I was probably the youngest person sat in the base lodge at 8.15am, which says more about the clientele that were skiing that morning than my tender age. In the lift line with my fellow SWAPS* at 8.55am, I hopped on the 3rd chair and headed straight to the Gunnar 6 pack. And I stayed there for 5 hours, lapping the 4 runs that were open and meticulously groomed.

Gunnar was the pick, making for some fine fast turns on trails that were mostly empty until about 1pm. Skiing straight on the lift, it was 10 runs per hour pace all day long. 51 runs (!) later I headed back to the base, had a bowl of soup and monster pretzel and headed on home, where I was drinking beer by 4 – an usual but very welcome luxury to celebrate a free ski day with my Snowshoe season pass. There’s 4 more 50% off days to indulge in with that benefit too. I might try and make those school days too.

Wisp 6000m, 7 Springs 11,100m

Season Totals: 12 days, 92,500m vert

*Skiers With a Problem – Skiing

 

What a difference a month makes – Sunday at Seven Springs

Not much more than a month ago, we fought moderate crowds and stop-start lifts at Seven Springs on a cold February Sunday. It was skiing, and the downhill parts were fine, but today showed how much more enjoyable Seven Springs can be. Crowds approximated the number of Obama compliments on Hannity, with virtually every lift a straight ‘ski on’ affair. Once the Gunnar chair started, somewhat mysteriously late at 10.15am, the action got fast and occasionally furious  for the rest of the morning on the firmly frozen granular groomers. The locals weren’t venturing off groomed, where a patchy but respectable cover looked tempting, so we took heed and headed to lunch at 11.45am, just as the sun poked through the thin cloud layer for the first time.

By 12.30, the application of solar radiation had done it’s job. The thin cover of off-groomed hardpack had softened to a carvable consistency, making for some fun lines through tree debris, patches of grass and occasional glaciers that lay in the shade. All these obstacles simply added interesting navigational challenges, needing a little care to make sure you got to the lift without an unceremonious crash along the way.

All in all this was a fun day from the moment we scored $35 lift tickets in the parking lot to walking off the hill at 3.15pm with 36 runs under our skis. Without crowds and with decent snow cover, Seven Springs is well worth a visit.

Sunday 8400m vert

Season Totals: 56 days, 22 powder days, 512,600m vert

A little easterly move – skiing at Seven Springs, PA

All good things have to come to end. We’d just skied 35 from 37 days during December and January at numerous Pacific Northwest venues. And then reality returned. We relocated to Pittsburgh for new pastures. Good professionally, not so good skiingly.

Ah well, new ski adventures to be had, I guess. And they started on an early February Sunday at Seven Springs, a 70 minute home-to-parking lot ski hill to Pittsburgh’s south east. ‘Hill’ is the operative word here, with 750 feet vertical and some 30 runs to sample. It’s a bit of come down from Mission Ridge, never mind Whistler, our previous two ski venues.

Expectations were not high, to say the least. But crowds were manageable, the snow cover decent – there was even some glade skiing out of range of the snow guns – and it softened nicely as the day went on. The north face area off the 6-pack Gunnar chair had some fun little gullies, pitches and bumps that made for surprisingly good skiing. It was firm, but far from the East Coast bulletproof that everyone had warned us about. If only the runs were twice as long ….

It took us the best part of 6 hours to rack up 6100m vert (from 29 runs!!). This slow pace wasn’t caused by the obvious – short runs and long lift lines – as the lines weren’t too bad anywhere but the 6-pack Gunnar chair, and even there the singles line usually made for a 5-ish minute wait, which was very respectable. The slowness was due to the lifts continually stopping as people hit the deck on the increasingly icy on and off ramps. The lifties,  mostly fine looking Appalachian woodsmen, simply watched and helped people get up off the deck. No attempt to throw snow on the ramps, or raking to break up the surface. They just watched as things got more and more treacherous at every lift. And picked people up from the deck.

The consequence was every lift stopped multiple times as the day went on. The 6-pack took about 3 minutes normally, but it seemed nearer 10 by the afternoon. The fixed grip chairs moved slower than an average glacier, stopping every few seconds to allow the carnage to be cleaned up. It was all very weird. Fun, but weird …

6100m vert

Season Totals: 48 days, 20 powder days, 448,800m vert