Adam Jewell – Search & Affiliate Marketing

Once again for the 2009 PSIA National Academy the digs are at the Cliff Lodge. I ended up on the 8th floor with a nice view out the window of some of the slopes. Upon check in, the frotn desk offered an upgrade to some kind of room with a different view for an extra $20/night but that standard room was fine last year and is just fine again this year.

The room in the Cliff Lodge is far better than the room we got at The Vintage Hotel at Winter Park Colorado ski trip with the King of Prussia ski club in early April of 2009. It’s got a leather couch, confortable beds, a nice view, a small refrigerator, and of course it comes with a ski locker downstairs with ski in ski out convenience.

Breakfast today was excellent (as long as they have good bacon, the pretty much makes a good breakfast at a ski lodge), the lunches today were good even though they were essentially boxed lunches. The buffet dinners have been great so far as well.

There is a 32 inch flat screen TV in the room and the Internet access is both free and user friendly. To connect you just turn on your computer, it picks up the network and you don’t have to screw around with any funky network settings. It can be a little slow at times but it’s no big deal.

Some of the pother lodges here seem to be pretty nice as well but the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird is a very solid choice for a place to stay while skiing at Snowbird and/or Alta.

Today was the first day of the ski trip to Winter Park, Colorado with the King of Prussia Ski Club.

The conditions to be expected this time of year are much more in line with warm sunny weather, big soft bumps and little need for any kind of serious ski clothing. Those expectations didn’t pan out at all. In the last 24 hours, there has probably been about a foot of snow and in some places on the slopes it seemed that there was a lot more than a foot of powder.

Outhouse, a rather steep powdery bump slope was the first run of the day and got the blood pumping through the legs. It got me a little winded between having a cold and being at an elevation of between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. As usual, I got out on the slopes a little late (10AM) but much earlier than the usual when skiing back in PA (more like noon on most days). Skiing solo has its advantages. You don’t have to wait for anybody, you go wherever you want, you can crank the tunes up and nobody thinks you’re being rude.

Most of the day was spent skiing the Mary Jane area at Winter Park with plenty of steep and bumps. The double diamond portions of Mary Jane seemed to be closed or at least they were after 2pm when I finally figured out how to get there but there was plenty of other terrain to ski. It was also the first real test of the Rossignol B83 skis I picked up at Siera Trading Post a month or so ago. (Be sure to check out the full Rossignol B83 Ski Review).

The length of the Rossignol B83 was a 176, which is shorter than I traditionally get in a powder type ski but they held up well and performed well all over the mountain in anything from packed powder to bumps and glades with up to 2 feet of powder. In some areas, the Volant Machete’s (a stiffer, wider and heavier all mountian ski) would have ben easier to ski in today’s conditions but the Rossignol B83 did perform well all over the mountain. The other paid of skis in the quiver for the trip is a pair of 178 Salomon Cyclones. With all the powder out there and more on the way (another possible 12 inches forecasted for tonight and tomorrow) the Cyclones will probably not see the snow on this trip.

Following a long day on the slopes, an outdoor hot tub hit the spot for a half hour or so and then dinner at a place in the town of Winter Park. Ahi Tuna was the dish of choice. That combined with lots of bread and water hit the spot and helped to refuel after a long day on the slopes. It’s not even 11pm in Winter Park yet and most everyone has drifted off to bed. It’s amazing what the combination of age, altitude and exercise does to one’s stamiba when it comes to staying up on these ski trips. Of course, I’m probably the youngest one of the trip by about five years but I’m still pretty wiped out and looking forward to a shot of NyQuil to knock me out cold for the night.

Somehow I have to get better about including pictures in these posts. Those can always be added later but once the day is done the thoughts from the day start to fade, it is a lot harder to go back and try to recreate the memories and put them down.

Time for the shot of NyQuil, a great night sleep and another intense day of skiing at Winter Park, Colorado tomorrow.

It’s going to be an extended ski season this year! Thursday will mark the departure for Winter Park Colorado! For a while, it looked like we’d be a little light on snow for the spring bump runs but lately, the temps have dipped and they’ve gotten some snow. It looks like it is supposed to warm up just in time for our arrival out there. It will be a King of Prussia Ski Club trip; one of many they’ve had this year and my first major trip with the club.

A few people from the Elk Mountain house this past winter will be heading out there on the trip also. Unfortuneately, due to the economic conditions a number of people had to bail along the way, however it seems that most of those vacant spots have been filled.

It’ll be bumps all day every day out there. I’ve heard a lot about Mary Jane so we’ll be riding her hard all day, just as she would have liked. With the outrageous price of lift tickets these days, it’ll probably cost more to ride her today than it did the miners back in the day. We’ll see how the bumps have help up over the years and hope they are still nice and soft and supple!

The next ski trip for 2009 will be a 5 day get away to Winter Park Colorado for some hot spring skiing, soft bumps and good times with the King of Prussia Ski Club!

When you go up to Elk Mountain ski resort in Union Dale, PA chances are you’ll enjoy a great day of Pennsylvania skiing. What you won’t find at Elk Mountain is much of anything else. There is a ski shop, a bar and restaurant and a rental shop up at Elk Mountain but not much else. No condos, no hotels and no nightlife on the resort property.

When you are done skiing for the day, the best place to go is Chet’s Place. It is a friendly little bar with a good menu and nice selection of drinks. You can get dinner and a couple draft beers for about $10.00 any time you go up there. On the weekends, Chet’s Place usually has a band that starts around 9pm and the band is usually very good. A local cover group called “Out Cold” plays up there from time to time and there are a number of other bands that play Chet’s Place as well. If you get there early for dinner, there is no cover. If you go after 9pm for just a night cap, the cover is usually around $3.00. It is well work it.

When you go into Chet’s Place you’ll find 15-20 beat up bar stools at the bar, a number of tables made from old bowling alley lanes that were salvaged from a bowling alley that closed down, a pool and foosball table as well as a juke box with most modern music you would have any interest listening to.

The atmosphere in Chet’s Place is friendly, sometimes festive and always relaxed. People are mellow, sometimes toward the end of the night after the effects of a few drinks or pitchers of beer begin to kick in, the dance floor starts to attract a crowd.

The bar closes at 2 and the kitcken closes earlier than that, probably somewhere around 10pm or 11pm. If you want to stay up at Elk Mountain, Chet’s offers a number of rooms for rent but word is they sell out pretty fast since Chet’s is within about 1 mile of Elk Mountain and the rooms are priced like the food and drinks – very reasonable.

When planning your trip to Elk Mountain, plan to stop by Chet’s Place after you are done on the slopes and do yourself a favor and get a room somewhere up there so you don’t have to drive all the way back to Philly or NY or wherever you are driving in from.