Holiday Valley - Day One

Five Days of Winter Bliss Despite this being the beginning of our vacation, I was up and out of bed just prior to 6am. After all, the kids’ morning routine would look like any other school day. I exercised, walked Ykraps, and made coffee for Mindy & I. While walking Ykraps I marveled at how I’d be skiing in Holiday Valley, NY in roughly ten short hours. Also, weighing heavy on my mind was entrusting our home & Ykraps’ well-being to daughter Courtney. I didn’t leave for my run until almost 7am. By then all the kids were up & stirring. As luck would have it, it was raining albeit only lightly. The temperature, however, was much warmer than it’s been. It was about 34 degrees. That was important because I didn’t want to wear my heavier winter running garb as it was freshly clean & packed for our ski trip. I wore my back-up-back-up gear, which is far lighter. I ran just three miles keeping with my usual route for ski days. I was back by 7:30am. Soon after my return, Mindy left to run Landon & Rocky to Grandma Sharon’s and then to take Bella to school. She hoped to be back just after 8:30am. That would give me about 30 minutes of alone time to do last minute packing/organizing – something I cherish. I tried to shower quickly, but Jacob was still hurrying me out the door. It was already 7:58am. The bus arrived on time. I wished Jacob well just before they pulled away. I hurried back home to finalize packing. I grabbed two coolers from the garage, and then carried down our packed luggage from upstairs. I printed and reviewed the Courtney list. I also printed off driving directions, although I felt confident I already knew the way. By the time that Mindy got back home I had all of our gear ready by the front door ready for loading. She knows the fire drill. She had the kiddie seats out and the back seats lying down even before I uttered a word. She organized the cold food cooler while I loaded the Honda. That went smoothly. We were ready to roll by 9am. We spent a few minutes double-checking the locks and reviewing the game plan. We left a little cash along with instructions for Courtney. We hit the road at 9:07am. Knowing that Bob & Mary Ann were heading on their own ski trip, I suggested that we make a pit stop at Bob’s office to drop off his ski keeps. It’s just a block or two from our house. While I ran them in and dropped them with the receptionist, Mindy called Rocky’s teacher to fill her in on our trip. Finally, come 9:15am we were on the freeway. The rain was mild to moderate all the way up I-71. We stopped at Wendy’s for lunch – the same Wendy’s we stopped at one month ago. I believe we were in or near Mentor. The rain intensified dramatically once we got back on I-271N to 90E. It poured buckets! The temperature hovered around 39 degrees. Given the rain, I worried that we might not be able to ski this afternoon. The rain didn’t let up until it turned to snow just east of Erie PA. Initially, it was a very heavy, wet snow – giant flakes too. By then the temperature had dropped to 33 degrees. The highway got a little slick as we passed over Lake Chautauqua, NY. In fact, a tractor trailer carrying a load of large milled lumber began swerving immediately in front of us. That scared us enough to pass him once and for all. There were times when the snow was so heavy that we could barely see in front of us. Yikes! We slowed our speed the rest of the way in. Once we got close to Jamestown the snow fall lessened. The rest of the drive in was fairly easy. We arrived in town around 2:30pm. Like our last trip to Holiday Valley, we decided to fill-up as soon as we arrived rather than wait until we leave. Mindy asked if I wanted to stop at the Ellicottville Brewing Company after fueling, but I figured we’d get there at least once during our 5 day visit. We decided instead to check-in. Although I knew where the Snow Pine Village condos were located, we weren’t sure where to check-in. That’s something I overlooked in the booking process. Our paperwork made no specific reference, although they used The Inn at Holiday Valley logo. We decided to stop in there & ask. Meanwhile, the snow was coming down big time just as we pulled into the Inn lot. Mindy went in to ask where check-in would be. She returned telling me how long the line was. I went to park the Honda then joined her. We were about five families deep. It didn’t take that long, though. Turns out, check-in for Snow Pine was just down the road at the Holiday Valley Property Management office. We waited behind a guy debating the cost of additional lift tickets. I was growing admittedly more impatient by the second. Come on! Check-in took just a minute or two. While there, we went ahead and bought our lift tickets good thru Sunday evening. We were all set! We drove back south about ¼ mile to the Snow Pine Village entrance. We drove up a winding snow covered hill surrounded by giant conifers looking for building “G”. Mindy spotted it. We were within 100’ of ‘The Wall’ lift. Our one-bedroom unit was on the back half lower level – a true ski out condo. The only trouble was getting all of our gear there. We carried the first batch down the wooden steps to the building and through three doors and then down two more sets of stairs inside the building. Enough of that! We decided instead to bring everything else around via the sliding glass patio door. That meant we had to trudge through the snow and walk down a gentle slope, but that was a far easier proposition. It took us about three or four trips each. Nice condo, but smallish. Perfect for the two of us. After unpacking our gear we wasted little time getting into our ski gear. It was 3:50pm. The Wall lift, by design, closes at 4:30pm each day. That meant we had to plan accordingly. We wouldn’t be coming back to our condo (skiing down) until we were done for the day. Here we go! From the outset, the snow fall was ferocious. Let it snow! We were digging it. For starters, we both agreed to do a green run to allow us time to get our ski legs. We chose Snowledge. We took the Cindy’s Run lift back-up. Just after we disembarked the lift, a kid directly behind us fell out of his lift chair awkwardly and let out a horrendous shrill of pain. It was scary. They stopped the lift as he lied there screaming in pain. I figured it his ankle or leg. Either way, not good. To make matters worse, he nor his buddy had any idea how to remove his snow board binding. We opted to ski on and not gawk, but his incessant screaming stuck with me until we were beering later. We skied are butts off while re-familiarizing ourselves with the various lifts and trails. We skied for about two hours before taking a beer break at the Yodeler Lodge. Up to that point, we had skied almost exclusively blue, save for me taking one relatively easy black diamond run – Maple Leaf. Right way, we met three guys from Columbus sitting just outside Yodeler Lodge by the fire. They were very friendly and offered to photo Mindy & I. We talked with them for about ten minutes before heading in. They were on a boys-only weekend getaway. After two beers and a hot dog, we headed back out for round two. We sipped some Goldschlager heading back up the lifts. We skied Mardi Gras several times and eventually sprinkled in a couple of the easier black diamonds – Shadows & Firecracker. We ended our skiing around 8:30pm. Just like our last visit, it started spewing ice pellets, which eventually seeped through Mindy’s ski pants. As Mindy put it, we looked like glazed donuts! Realizing that we had lots and lots of skiing ahead of us, we decided to bag it for the night. We skied back to our condo. We had no choice but to take Bob Sled, a rather treacherous, winding & narrow run in the dark (no lighting). We made it with little trouble, though. Back in our condo, we wasted little time getting out of our ski gear and back into street clothes. We chose to dine at Cadillac Jack’s. I wanted wings. Once there, Mindy ordered lobster bisque & salad. I ordered wings. I washed them down with a Sam Adams Winter Ale. I mistakenly thought they served EBC Pale Ale. No biggie! The wings were good. We didn’t stay out late at all. We were tired from a long day of driving and skiing.