As I mentioned in my last post, I went on a ski trip to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia, and returned yesterday.  It was my first skiing trip outside of Perfect North, and I have to say that the experience exceeded my expectations!  Admittedly, the actual ski conditions were not ideal.  Due to the time of year, we experienced a mix of powder, hard-packed snow, slush, and ice, depending on the time of day and use of the trail.  However, the conditions were not horrible, either, they were just representative of late winter / early spring skiing.  The resort did not make any snow during the time we were there, but they did groom it every day.  Considering that the resort only had a week left in the season, I thought the runs were fairly well maintained.  I've seen worse conditions on a February day at Perfect North. 

We arrived late Friday afternoon, and were only able to ski for about an hour before the lifts closed for the day.  Only one area was open for night skiing, and we didn't want to have to drive over there (the rest of the areas were approachable by walking from our room).  Not to mention that there was the small detail that we were not aware of the night skiing until Sunday.  We started off immediately with a blue run, Gandy Dancer, and ran it several times before the lifts were closed for the day.  It was a very fun run, but in retrospect it may have been a bit aggressive for getting warmed up.  I would say it was more difficult than any of the blue runs at Perfect North, perhaps even equivalent to Center Stage (a black run) in difficulty.  But, I am happy to admit that I handled it quite well after the first run.  I was able to make pretty sharp turns and maintain speed and composure.

Saturday we were able to ski all day, and we took advantage of that fact.  The day started out a bit drearily - we had to deal with off and on drizzle and some icy conditions all morning.  After lunch, however, the sun was coming out and the weather warmed up.  Although that made for nice weather conditions, it did create slush and a few bare spots on some of the runs we took.  Sunday's weather was much better - perfectly sunny skies.  However, we did have to deal with hard packed snow on the runs in the morning.  We certainly got a workout with frequent turns on the fast runs.  As the day wore on the trails did soften up from the sun and crowds. 

Outside of the skiing, there wasn't a lot going on at Snowshoe.  There were a few decent restaurants (the pizza at Cheat Mountain Pizza was awesome), but there weren't very many shops at the village.  To be honest, that is fine with me - I'm not going to a ski resort to shop anyway.  I would have liked to have seen a couple more restaurants, judging from the wait times they may have been able to make a case for it.  But, I didn't really care too much about the non-skiing activities.  Outside of skiing and eating, we just stayed in the room and watched the March Madness games.

Overall, it was an excellent experience for my first time at an actual ski resort.  I had an absolute blast on the slopes, and now at least I have a taste of what a ski resort is supposed to be like.  Mike has been to Lake Tahoe and Breckenridge, so he does have more experience than I do; and he admitted that Snowshoe was a pretty nice resort - particularly for the location and time of year.  Compared to Perfect North, the runs were much longer and more advanced; in fact all of the green runs would be classified as blue runs at PN, while at least some of the blue runs would be black runs at PN.  There are more difficult and longer runs out west or even up in New England, but for a half day's drive, Snowshoe seems like a great weekend getaway for skiing.  It does seem that it wasn't the ideal place for new skiers, though, since the resort did not seem to have much in the way of bunny hills.  I classify myself as somewhere in between beginner and intermediate, and even I found the green runs difficult at times.  That could have been a factor of my jelly legs near the end of the trip, but still they seemed too difficult for anyone who has not skied before.  Thanks to this trip, I am feeling inspired.  I am seriously considering getting a season pass at Perfect North so that I can work on improving my skills, in fact I am feeling confident that I may even be able to attempt Center Stage next time I am there.  I probably should buy it soon while I am in the mood.  If I wait until next fall I will probably just continue with my tradition of going once a year, and not actually developing my skills anymore.

For those who are interested, I did take some pictures during the trip.  They can be found here.