Last season after buying a board I promised myself I'd go snowboarding more often. I didn't do very well last season only hitting Timberline twice and this season hasn't started off well. Thankfully Teri forced me to plan a trip to Snowshoe over Presidents Day (Valentine's Day) weekend. Unfortunately I have a late Friday afternoon meeting with my client on Fridays. And of course the meeting started late this Friday and went on till after 7:00. Teri and I were mostly ready to go; we grabbed a bite to eat and took off.
The trip there wasn't too bad. The roads were almost completely clear from the previous snow storm. Lots of high snow on the passes. We saw some deer going in and up on the mountain. We arrived after 2am. I didn't know about the central check-in and we fumbled around for a bit. We did enjoy indoor parking though and squeezed in to the last spot. After a relaxing beer we passed out hard.
We tried to get up early to eat and beat the line at the rental shop. I brought my snowboard but Teri was renting skis. The line was nuts but it only got worse after Teri joined it. After the long wait and a quick break we still got out on the slopes around 9:30am. The conditions were great. It was ungroomed with a good couple of inches loose snow everywhere. This is not normal for the Mid-Atlantic. Once the lines got long at the Ballhooter lift we moved on to Soaring Eagle. We ate an early lunch at Cheat Pizza and enjoyed the rest of the day at Soaring Eagle and the Western Territory. We had fun on the tree runs near the Soaring Eagle lift. Lots of deep and fresh snow in there.
We relaxed and had a beer after the lifts stopped and planned for a late dinner. That didn't work out too well. The wait was still over an hour at 9:00pm at the few restaurants. We finally went to the Foxfire Grille with a 30-40 minute wait. We ran up to the room for a quick break and drink all of about 100 feet away and when we got back we had to wait another 30 or 40 minutes before we could sit down. After that wait the food was crap and very expensive. A place to avoid in the future. That night we passed out hard again.
Sunday was another good day on the slopes. Similar to Saturday we started at the Ballhooter lift and then hit Soaring Eagle and Western Territory. We took a break in the tree run. We heard of long lift lines but were able to avoid them. The sun was out for the afternoon. We went to a fine lobster dinner at the Ember restaurant that night. The place was booked up all weekend but we were lucky and got a 6:00 seating after someone canceled. They had a special three course lobster dinner for two. It was most excellent. Especially compared to the previous night. We passed out again watching the Olympics barely making it to the bed.
They groomed the slopes on Sunday night and we were out Monday morning for first chair. Except at Snowshoe since you stay at the top of the mountain its more like first run to the first chair. The packed groomed trails were not as fun as the loose stuff the previous days but you could ripe up a fast run making wide fast turns. It didn't take too long for it to get chopped up even with a fraction of the people that Monday. We went to the Soaring Eagle lift to get some runs in before we left. It was snowing just as it had been all weekend but this was actually sticking and starting to accumulating. By the time we stopped around 11:00 there was a good fresh inch of snow from that morning. Bummer we had to take off with new snow coming down. I was starting to worry about the drive home. We ate lunch and took off for home.
We didn't have my directions so we went the route of Teri's GPS. It took us off in the opposite direction that we came. Before long we were heading straight up mountain roads in the snow. I was having trouble maintaining traction. I couldn't keep the speed up while going up hill and started to slide. Eventually we slowed enough to slide to the side of the road and we couldn't get back going again up the mountain. So we headed back down and tried one more time. I didn't even make it up as high the second time. We turned back around again and headed back past Snowshoe and drove the original way we came.
This was a little easier and I had slightly more traction. There were a few mountain passes that were close but we made it over them. The GPS was taking us in some far south direction to I-64. I wasn't complaining too much assuming that the highway was the easiest way out. About 3 miles before the road cleared I came around a corner in the hills and at the bottom I saw a guy in a huge pickup flagging me down. I was lucky to stop without hitting him. The road was downhill and a sheet of ice. He informed me of an accident around the corner and down the hill ahead. Cars started coming behind me and I'm surprised no one ran in to anyone else. A car was sandwiched at the bottom of the hill with a few other cars off the road in the snow. A semi was stuck on the hill going up the other side. As people walked from their car to the accident scene almost all of them would slip on the icy road. I was beginning to think we would be parked there all the night. Of course we were out of cell phone coverage. We did have a full tank of gas, warm clothes, and a small amount of food.
After awhile the emergency folks came. All of them. Fire, EMS, and the volunteer crew were all out. The ambulance took some folks away. Eventually the semi-truck got up the hill. And only about an hour after we stopped we were waved passed the accident scene. I was worried about getting up the other side but a plow came by and put down gravel just before we were waved by. From there on out everything was smooth sailing. A long ride but we made it. Definitely a fun weekend on the slopes.
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