Hidden Valley wasn’t the first local or regional ski area to open for the 2007-08 season, but it will be the last one to close when it shuts down two of the chairlifts that serve the front side of the resort tomorrow afternoon.
The resort will be open for skiing and snowboarding from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and tomorrow on Continental, a novice slope, and Imperial, an intermediate slope.
Both have a base that is 2- to 3-feet deep, thanks to the new snowmaking equipment the Buncher Company bought last fall.
Lift tickets will be only $10 for adults and children.
“It will give beginner and novice skiers and snowboarders an opportunity to take their skills to the next level,” said Buncher’s controller, William R. Doring, a veteran snowboarder.
He’s correct. The softer snow will enable them to control their speed — and cushion their derrieres — if, or rather, when, gravity calls.
The resort will celebrate the last weekend of the season with a “Final Slide” Rail Jam this evening on Bobcat, the beginner slope that’s within easy walking — and viewing — distance from the new deck outside the base lodge. Registration begins at 6 p.m., practices runs at 6:30 and the jam is scheduled to start at 8.
In addition to watching skilled skiers and snowboarders compete for cash and other prizes, spectators also will be watching a concessionaire prepare a variety of items for sale on a grill set up on the plaza beside the lodge.
The bill of fare will include pulled pork sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs.
There also will be beverages for adults and children.
Doring said he and other resort officials are looking forward to celebrating the conclusion of their first winter season with guests, Hidden Valley homeowners and their Somerset County neighbors.
More information can be found by going to www.myhiddenvalleyresort.com or call 1-814-443-8000.
Always prepared
The program that introduces scouts to skiing, snowboarding and snowtubing and improves their skills in subsequent years continues to grow at Mystic Mountain at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort %26amp; Spa.
More than 1,000 scouts, venturers and families from more than 150 units from four different councils in the Greater Pittsburgh area participated in this year’s program.
“That was twice as many as last year,” said Michael Marks of Crafton.
He said approximately one-half of the participants were boy scouts, one-third were girl scouts and the rest were cub scouts and venturers.
Venturing is a youth development program of the Boy Scouts of America for young men and women aged 14 to 20.
Marks said Venturing Crew 306 sponsored the event over two weekends in February. I was there on the last Sunday and met Marks and his son, Robert; Tim Jackson of Kennedy, the lead adviser of Crew 306; and Irv Gable of Mars, a district scouting executive.
Robert Marks, now 18 and a freshman at Community College of Allegheny County, was 15 and the programming vice president of Venturing Crew 306 when he proposed a snowriding program at Mystic Mountain.
The former one-day event will be on three weekends next year — Feb. 21-22, Feb. 28-March 1 and March 8-9.
There were 130 participants in 2006 and 413 last year, including a group of more than 30 girl scouts and some of their parents who arrived in a chartered bus.
“They had a great time, so did everyone else and the word got around,” Michael Marks said.
For $25, scouts and venturers got a lift ticket, lesson and a group lesson.
That represents a savings of about 75 percent.
“The scouting program does so much for young people,” Michael Marks said.
“It has brought my son and I closer and it has made him a better person.”
For more information, go to ski.306-bsa.org, e-mail GPC_Venturing@verizon.net or call 412-922-8949.
Snowriding
That’s the “werd” that was chosen to describe skiing and snowboarding in the 2008 Ski/Snowboard Lingo Contest. It also describes snowtubing and snowbiking.
The contest was sponsored by Ski Utah and Winter at Westminster in partnership with Addictionary, an online dictionary (www.addictionary.org) of made up “werds.”
For more information, go to www,skiutah.com, www.winteratwestminster.com and www.addictionary.org.
Larry Walsh can be reached at lwalsh@post-gazette.com and 412-263-1488.
amp,somer,wb
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