Really good read.

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2014/02/02/Hidden-Valley-reaps-the-benefits-of-its-partnership-with-Seven-Springs/stories/201402020031

I went to hidden valley once on a weekday in early December and it was a ghost town.  From what I hear they get very little business on the weekdays.  

Also, I have heard that they are doing a great job with the terrain parks.  Planning on checking out HV sometime this week...currious how the terrain parks tuned out. 

Anybody else visit HV this year?  What have been your experinces with the new change? 

There have been pluses and minuses. The commitment to making snow is impressive. The renovations that were accomplished in a short time was impressive. The ski conditions have been very good. The areas requiring improvement: - the menu at the Clocktower is uninspiring. Not one fish entre on the menu. - the ski lodge food is mostly unhealthy junk food ( Mac, cheese and bacon?). - limited menu at Glaciers, again consisting mostly of unhealthy food. We used to have paninnis! Overall, i have been pleased. I get tired of hearing the tight wads from the Burgh complaining about the prices. The Burgh has to be the most parochial city in the USA.

ParkCrewDrew wrote:

Anybody else visit HV this year?  What have been your experinces with the new change? 

I've been there twice this year once on a Sunday with a group of 3 and once on a Friday by myself.  I tend to agree with Snowsmith's comments.

The article mentions long lift lines and high food prices but I disagree.  These folks need to get out of their vacuum and explore a little.

I have never experienced long lift lines at HV.  Perhaps it's the days I choose to visit.  That includes this year and past seasons.

Food / beer prices seem comparable to all the places I've skied this season which includes, Snowshoe, 7 Springs, Wisp and Blue Knob.   

In my opinion, the dining and rental areas "look a lot nicer" but I can't justify the higher priced lift tickets since these improvements are of no real value to me.  I respect that these improvements do have value to others though.

I ski there pretty much every weekend and an occassional weekday evening.  Overall, I would say I am happy with the direction.  It's certainly a tough balance to strike...people want expanded terrain, nice terrain parks, better food and more food choices, all lifts running all the time, but we want it cheap.  It's kind of like the old bike component joke, cheap, light or strong, pick two.

If I had to complain, my list would be the following, most of which have already been mentioned:

1.  Lift line managment; it's not rocket science.  You need, for example, 4 lines merging at separate points to two and then two merging to one with some employee trying to fill the chair (i.e. pair people up).  Right now, more often than not, it's a mass of people all in one line with more creative and/or rude people filtering in from the outsides closer to the front of the line.

2.  Stopping lifts preemptively.  I know it's a family resort and you have to stop the lift if someone falls getting on, but more often than not it seems they stop or slow the lift in anticipation that something might happen, whether it actually does or not.  This increases lift lines and generally results in slower lift rides to the top.

3.  Not running Thunder lift.  I would rather see them run one triple and Thunder than both triples.  I am more likely to make some runs on Thunderbird and Cabe's Run if Thunder lift is running.  Those slopes are too short to justify the ride up the triples.