Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: skiing

Snowshoe 2015

Chris and I are back from our first trip in 2015! We went away for another long weekend in Snowshoe, WV. This was our fourth trip to the resort, so I almost didn’t take any photos this weekend. Plus, every time we take a ski-lift-selfie it looks pretty much the same. See? I think we have enough of these.

We keep staying at the same Soaring Eagle Lodge condo each year because it’s in a good ski-in/ski-out location and most importantly it’s warm, cozy, and quiet. As evidenced by the guest book, we’ve rented this exact condo for Chris’s birthday weekend twice before!

It was bitterly cold and blustery when we arrived on Friday, and the resort had received quite a bit of snow throughout the week. Ordinarily this is music to our powder-loving ears, but my gosh the wind was sharp and the snow that was blowing pelted our faces. When we ventured out for dinner I had to walk around with my eyes shut because of the painful gusts. (It was nothing a margarita couldn’t fix – and yes, we drank margaritas at a ski resort in January!)

Thankfully we had a sunny Saturday for skiing, but it was still super cold. The temperature read 9 degrees in the morning at about the time when we would normally head out to the slopes, so we waited until it was a tad warmer, but it never got above 20. Eek!

Twenty degrees is not quite in my window of comfort so it wasn’t my longest day on the slopes, but we had a fun weekend. I can’t help but look forward to our next trip in a warmer locale though – next up is Belize! And we’ll totally drink margaritas there, too.

February 2, 2015
Photo Friday – Soaring Eagle Lodge

Hopefully everyone is staying nice and warm with all these winter storms that are going around! Our area only received a few inches of snow this week, but we’re excited that one of our favorite ski resorts, Snowshoe in WV, has a good foot or so of new snow. This is the condo where we stay, looking all cozy and magical in a snow storm.

January 30, 2015
A Steamboat Adventure

Well hello, warmer weather! Chris and I just returned from week in Colorado to visit my family and to ski at Steamboat Resort and we’re surprised to find that Virginia is a comfortable temperature in comparison!

The part of our Colorado trip in which we visited my family was wonderful and relaxing. My sister and brother-in-law hosted their annual Winter Solstice party and Chris and I were finally in town at the right time to attend. We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner at my mom and dad’s house and exchanged gifts. We watched movies, ate and drank at our favorite spots in Fort Collins, and shopped. We even helped my dad shovel the driveway when Fort Collins received 6-8 inches of snow.

The part of our Colorado trip in which we drove to Steamboat Springs for a mini ski trip was quite an adventure! The drive to Steamboat on a nice day is absolutely stunning, but in bad weather it can be a bit perilous. Guess what kind of weather we had on the way there? Yep, snow. The stretch through Rabbit Ears Pass stressed us out a little – when the wind blew across the loose, fresh powder and whipped it into a cloud of solid white, we couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of our car. Combine a white road and a white sky with a big cloud of white, and it’s a miracle we didn’t steer right off the cliff! Obviously we made it though, and had an awesome time at skiing Steamboat Resort (no snowboards this time). It’s tricky to take pictures whilst skiing, but I did bring along the point-and-shoot and my iPhone on the trip, so here are a few snaps!

December 30, 2014
Deep Thoughts on Snowboarding vs. Skiing

Hope everyone is still staying all warm and cozy through this long winter! Chris and I just returned from a quick trip to Seven Springs in Pennsylvania where we broke in our new skis and enjoyed playing on the snow. We decided to go during the week rather than on a weekend so that we could practice skiing with fewer people on the trails. Hardly anyone was at the resort, and we really did have the place pretty much to ourselves so we felt like that was a good call! The drive up was so beautiful, and the mountain was also really lovely. We stayed at a cute condo with ski-in/ski-out access, and were able to get in lots of practice.

So now that I’ve skied a few times after spending the last two seasons learning how to snowboard, I think I can say with confidence that skiing is much (much much) easier to learn. I have fallen maybe 4-5 times total so far while learning on skis, whereas with snowboarding I fell at least 4-5 times per run in the learning stages. Ow. And that’s not counting falling when getting off the lift, which was at least half of the time. Oh, the bruises and aches I collected while learning! It took me at least five separate trips to various resorts to get the hang of snowboarding (meaning, linking smooth turns all the way down without falling), but with skiing I was able to successfully make it down the green runs on my first try. I’m not really counting the first time I ever skied when I was sixteen, although I was able to ski down the greens back then, too.

I’ve read that snowboarding is harder to learn but easy to master, and that skiing is easy to learn but hard to master. I wouldn’t say I mastered snowboarding, but I did become proficient enough and I can agree with that statement – skiing is waaay easier to learn. But I can see how it’s going to take some more time to improve my skiing techniques, and I imagine the patience comes into play during the intermediate level. So if you’re new to snow sports and trying to decide what to try, maybe that will help. If you enjoy a challenge and have the patience to stick with it, try snowboarding! If you’d rather have an easier time with just getting down the mountain on your first day, maybe skiing is a good option. Or you can always choose to try both so you’ll know for sure which one you like better. I’m planning to put more time into skiing next season to work on technique.

Here are just a couple of photos from Seven Springs. I meant to take more, but the one thing that is harder on skis is taking photos! It’s hard to hold both poles and a camera. 🙂

February 27, 2014
Snowshoe 2014

I can’t even believe it’s February already! Chris and I went on out first trip of 2014 over the weekend – just a long weekend in Snowshoe, WV. We had great weather and conditions! And we love Snowshoe – the Village area is so fun with lots of good restaurants and shops. The first time we went in 2012, we stayed right in the heart of the Village. There was even a Starbucks on the first floor of our building, and we were steps away from everything. It was really (really really) noisy at night though, so the past two times we stayed at the far end of the resort where it’s definitely quieter at night. It’s still a ski-in-ski-out condo steps away from the lifts, but we did have to take a shuttle bus to get to most of the bars/restaurants.

The Village is super cute all lit up at night.

And yes, we skied again! Chris and I both wanted to give it a few times before deciding if we’ll take the plunge and buy our own ski equipment. We’re really enjoying it, so we’ll probably go ahead and do just that – rental boots are kind of icky if you think about it.

Check out my fancy moves! (Really, I was probably going at a snail’s pace here, so not that fancy at all.)

Annnnnnnd here’s the shot we always take. Someday we’ll have quite the collection of ski lift selfies!

February 4, 2014