Where I Skied
My family and I skied Perfect North Slopes yesterday in Southeastern Indiana, near Cincy. It's a short 90 minute drive from Indianapolis and not like Michigan or Colorado or Oregon or Utah, but it's close and convenient and relatively inexpensive. Great learning spot for my three kids (ages 9 and 2 twelve year olds). Twins on boards and youngest on skis. Plus not bad for me and the wife who have skied for years, even though only 400' drop.
What the Mountain is Like
Decent snow cover, set in hills of brown all around... They basically make about 95% of the snow, but it's not bad and has some semi-challenging stuff. Great place for new skiers to learn and prep for bigger hills in Michigan or out West. Instructors are not great but they do OK. Ours for our nine year old girl and 1st time skier was Jennifer and she was more like a tour guide than a technical instructor, walking us around to different stations on the bunny hill and putting the group (of ten) through some basic steps, but without a whole lot of technical input. And maybe that's good? Nothing about edges or too much about weight transfer, etc. - just how to snowplow and "pizza wedge" and to stay in control... about five "real" lifts and a few tows here and there. Some long waits on the green/beginner areas due to inexperienced skiers getting hung up and stopping the lift progress. The lines thinned out in the afternoon and were definitely bearable later in the day on the day we were there (although it was perhaps a work and school day the NEXT day and so perhaps that kept the night skiing crowd down - I know we've seen some HUGE crowds coming in late for night skiing on prior visits.
Tips and Tricks
- Get there semi-early - opening time is 9:30am
- Getting there at 10:15am gave us good day and into some night skiing at this time of year (01/17/2011).
- Getting in at 10:15am was little crowd or slow down - it was busy, but most of the time spent was us getting suited up and to the slope.
- Shop around during the day - the lift lines change and there are much shorter lines available at various times during the day. If it's long on the Green or Orange, head to the White or Red.
