The kids had an extra long winter break this year, so we took advantage of an 'extra' week before Christmas to head out to Snowshoe WV for a week of skiing. We have season passes for Snowshoe, which were just a little over $200 for three of us, and then the two youngest kids were free - a great deal for our family, who planned to do about 15 days of skiing at Snowshoe this season. We left after school on Friday, and got in at about 8:30. It was nice and cold, 19 degrees, and when we woke up it had dropped a little more to 16. 

Saturday morning, we gathered together our ski equipment and got out to the slopes right after rope drop at 9, heading down Heisler Way to get to Ball Hooter lift. The conditions were pretty good, there had been a long cold snap of about 2 weeks that allowed Snowshoe to crank out the snow and they got a little help a couple days ago in the form of 6 inches of natural snow that still covered the ground and tree branches.

 

The next few days, we split our time between the snowshoe basin, the Western Territory and a lot of time at Silver Creek when we wanted to avoid the crowds. The crowd weren't too bad, they got worse as the week went along, until Friday, when they seemed to be lighter than on Thursday. The snow was icy on Thursday and the crowds were heavy, so it turned out to be the worst ski day. Friday was warmer, and the crowds were lighter, and all of the lifts and most of the trails were open. The snow was soft, and didn't get skied off into the ice. Cupp Run was open the whole week, but Friday it was at its best, soft snow and light crowds let Daniel and I get some serious speed - the slopes on several of the runs were all but empty. 

 

The highlights of the trip: At this point, all the kids are good enough skiers that we can go anywhere on the mountain and all ski any terrain comfortably. It makes it a lot of fun to not have to worry about compromising in where we want to go to make sure everyone can get down safely because everyone can. The week was a great way to spend time before Christmas.