WTH Sat Dec. 22?
Limited snow made on front (instead they were making it on back ... why) and NO CHAIRS running until almost 10AM when advertising "opening" at 9AM... all for just $55 per person.
Okay we understand chairs get iced but ALL of them on the front. Parking was a bugger, the buses were .. well where? ... and the $20 lot had 3 cars in it.

Way to make a happy pre-Xmas ski trip!

At least their doing something (next to nothing) there. At laurel Mountain their doing nothing but let it fall in. I like Hidden Valley and wish the state would have given it to The Buncher Group. It would have been open years ago. I guess when you own that many newspapers and magazines, the government gives you your way.

This weekend was a bust for me. All this time wishing I could go, and finally had today to do it. I had a bunch of other things that I wanted to do at home but ducked out early hoping for a good day.

A 7S passholder, I saw what the crowds were like on Sat so I opted to go to HV on Sun. They upped their rates, and while they opened the north summit, when I arrived they were blowing snow still and based on the temps, planned on doing so for the much of the day. People were moving at a snails pace down the hill from that tough manmade snow that, ungroomed, is like cement. SO I opted to go to 7S...

When I arrived, they were ushering people already up the secondary lots. The lifts were already packed full of people and it was only 9:30!

I was already stressed about getting stuff done before the holiday, so I drove back home. I dont live far so, it was not a completely stupid thing to go there and back home. Never did that before.
I dont want to waste my 'free' pass on HV for a few hours which is all I wanted to do. To ride on manmade stuff until it settles and gets run down. Maybe the eve season would have been best for me.

....and 7S is becoming a clown factory.


I swear they read these forums because now they are reporting on their 12000 gal/ min snowmaking equipment. TAKE that DCSKIERS esp that Sincraft guy who calls our systems 'backyard snowmaking'.

It's still crap. Gosh darnit, they went from almost NO snow to what little mo' nature dropped on them, to opening wagner and stowe back up. So why couldnt they make that snow to the east and west to open up more? I didnt buy a pass there to ski on wagner and wait in the 100 person deep singles line on the polar bear express. I bought it to ski the longer trails , the halfpipe, and the north face slopes/trails. OK OK desperate times...blah blah - gotta get what you can. But that means that I should have stayed at HV, and probably for teh next few weeks also if I dont want to wait in painfully long lines only to ride a few areas.

Did you see 7S cams mid day? Holy cow. How is it that more people arent getting hurt? A body every 5'. What if you want to make a sharp turn, or stop because you have a Bolivian flying squirrel in your helmet? I'll tell you what. Someone will smash into you...you will fall down and said BFS (bolivian flying squirrel) will get mad, and probably CLAW YOUR FACE OFF!

Dont have your face clawed off, go to hidden valley.

I'm hoping HV does something smart next year and has more land developed for riding. I'm not sure how they would work it as the shape of the mountain they would need to go further off sideways then work their way back inward, which I think that land is owned by the gov in the form of a park. I'm not sure where HV can go from here honestly. Limited height to work with.
Maybe more focus on snowboarding in the form of a real pipe and some decent beginner to expert jumps. Not those little things in the kid park, and not the crap they have been putting up at the north summit that you MUST have the right conditions of snow in order to hit the right speeds and HOPE you dont die on landing on that solid sheet of ice after the knuckle, which is hard to miss unless you have alot of speed.

I still like HV the best.

My wife and I arrived at 7S Sunday afternoon around 1PM in hopes that some of the crowds would have eased due to the Steelers and Redskins both playing early games. Was I wrong!!!

Skied 3 runs in an hour (Wagner, Tyrol & Stowe) and then went to the Foggy Goggle for a Miller Lite and then departed.

I normally am the first in line to criticize 7S, especially because of what has happened (actually what hasn't happened at Laurel), but a few positive notes:

1) The lift lines were long, but there were several employees / ski patrol members organizing the chaos really, really well.
2) The snow was unexpectedly and remarkably good.
3) A 12 oz Miller Lite draft cost $4.50. Outrageous price, but hopefully the high price for alcohol discourages excessive drinking, which is in the best interest of everybody. Yep, I'm an old, crotchety fart.

Wow, a beer at a local sporting event, must drive you bonkers!