This winter has been unusually warm. We haven’t had any snow at the house. The ski resorts have gotten some snow, but not much. I bet business is not great this year.
Some friends and I went skiing at Winterplace in WV a few weeks ago. It was so warm it was raining in the morning, and the only snow was on the actual trails; in between in the trails and under the lifts was green. Normally, that makes for terrible skiing conditions, but the weather dried up by mid-morning and we still had a blast. Since one day of skiing just isn’t enough, we headed out to Sugar Mountain yesterday to play in some rare fresh snow.
It was pretty cold on the mountain. And it was snowing and windy. And, since it was actually below freezing during the day for once, the ski resort was compelled to make snow while they had a chance. If they don’t build up the base now, they’ll be closed pretty early this year. However, snow making machines are pretty unpleasant. They are loud, and blow icy manufactured snow everywhere (obviously that’s the point, but its not fun to ski through or have it blown on you while you are on the lift). Visibility is reduced as you try to avoid the streams from the machines every few hundred feet down the hill, and the icy snow sticks to your goggles as you ski down, making it even harder to see. The hill was full of people stopping every so often to rub their goggles. Despite this, the hill was crowded, as it usually is on a Saturday, especially after fresh, real snow.
And yet, we still had fun, and it was totally worth it. I’m sure it doesn’t make any sense, but most hobbies probably don’t :)
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We have 3 inches of fluffy, light snow this morning — our 1st of any note in a couple of weeks. Total thus far for the ” winter “, less than 25 inches ( should be 125+ inches by now ). Are we sad —- no, no, no.—– smile