Mid-Atlantic Gathering at Laurel Mountain, PA, Feb 1-3, 2019

[Jim Kenney]

Mid-Atlantic Gathering at Laurel Mountain, PA, Feb 1-3, 2019

Great mtn, great conditions, great people, great time! I just returned from three beautiful ski days at Laurel Mtn, PA, Feb 1-3, 2019. This ski area about an hour east of Pittsburgh goes back to about 1940 and was lost for a time until reopening three years ago. It's a really cool retro place with light crowds and a country club atmosphere where everyone is your playing partner. Met many nice people there and we had 30+ different online ski buddies make appearances over the three days. Longest lift line all weekend was about 15 people, while other mid-Atlantic resorts were slammed. Here’s a first blast of photos.

Feb 1 was a powder day, Feb 2 was a nice mid-winter day, and Feb 3 was spring skiing.

Photo 1. Feb 1, L-R: Ron, Elizabeth, @LaurelHillCraze (LHC), Mrs. LHC, Rus, in front of historic Midway Cabin built 1940.

2. Mrs LHC

3. Son of LHC on lower lift line

4. Joey same area

5. Laurel Hill Crazy (LHC) skiing powder

6. Josh (one of several Josh’s in our group) on Upper Wildcat, Feb 1

7. Feb 2: L-R Snowsmith, Josh, Jim, Marcus, Camp

8. LHC night skiing on Feb 1

9. Morgan in Doc’s glades, which she helped clear last off season

10. @Mike C on Dream Highway (long, narrow, curvy, all natural trail)

11. Snowsmith

12. @crgildart and son, all the way from North Carolina!

13. @DeAnn Sloan leading on Lower Wildcat

14. Bousquet19 exiting Lincoln Highway (another interesting old-timey, narrow, all-natural trail)

15. LHC and daughter with hand painted Laurel Mtn t-shirt she created

16. Laurel Mtn local Elizabeth

17. Ron

18. Ron and Elizabeth with summit view

19. Justin (coming to Big Sky Gathering) and LHC

20. LHC on Feb 3, King of Spring. He got many compliments for his distinctive, custom T-shirt; note lodge and antique snowcat in background. Laurel Mtn is the bomb!

21. Justin on Lower Wildcat (my photos do a poor job conveying how steep this slope is). Note liftline or lack thereof. This is 2PM Sunday.

I'll post some more photos tonight. Hope others share some here too. Thanks to all for making it a party!

 

[eggraid101]

Great pics, Jim!

 

[DeAnn Sloan]

Thanks for sharing, Jim! Great to see and ski with you again.

 

[theNitza]

Thanks to Rob and Jim for showing me around all day; between that and the conditions, it was a fun first day at Laurel. Looking forward to Big Sky!

 

[Jim Kenney]

Another batch of photos:
@LaurelHillCraze pow pow Feb 1


Son of LHC

Joey

LHC Feb 1

Doc's Glades, very pretty

Morgan at sunset

@Mike C giving me the look

@crgildart on Broadway

@theNitza heading for the Lower Wildcat drop

 

[Jim Kenney]

More: theNitza on Wildcat
LHC and tshirt

Wildcart is steep



Feb 1 sunset in the Laurel Highlands of Western PA

L-R: @DeAnn Sloan , MikeC, LHC, Mrs LHC, Mark, Josh, Snowsmith

 

[MikeC]

Great to see and ski with everyone on Saturday!

Laurel definitely delivered the goods!

 

[Laurel Hill Crazie]

Jim, you always do a fantastic job of bringing our gatherings to life with great photos. I am so happy that I got to share my home hill when the entire mountain was open. I skied in places I haven't skied in over thirty years and until that week, places I've never skied. Thanks for posting.

It was great to see new faces and also actually being able to ski with old friends again. The hill was chill but yinz guys provided the real thrill.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Here's a short piece with a couple bonus photos recapping this fine weekend: http://www.dcski.com/articles/1574

 

[DeAnn Sloan]

Here's a short piece with a couple bonus photos recapping this fine weekend: http://www.dcski.com/articles/1574

Great write up, Jim. I enjoyed reading it!

 

[rickg]

Jim, sorry I missed this. I was up in Vermont at Mount Snow that week. I echo what everyone says about Laurel Mountain. Great small area with a big heart! I haven't had the pleasure in at least 15 years or so. Hope to catch up with you again at a ski area TBD.

Rick G

 

[cantunamunch]

What sort of shape is Laurel in this week?

 

[Laurel Hill Crazie]

What sort of shape is Laurel in this week?

Laurel is groomer heaven. 760 vertical of groomer intermediate and expert terrain. Lower Wildcat is holding up nice but no bumps to be found, perhaps if it softens tomorrow...You'll have the place to yourself. You can ski the trail instead of a moving people slalom. Well, Deer Path was like that one weekend this year. I haven't reaped any spring corn thus far. It's been partly cloudy with temps near freezing, not enough warm to sprout the kernels. There might even be a morning or afternoon of natural corn on some north facing slopes if you catch the right time and your rock n rolls.

Today's summary

 

[Marker]

I've skied HV and SS visiting my daughter in Pittsburgh, so now have a new Highlands destination I MUST try. Maybe next year if the Mid-A Gathering is there and it doesn't conflict with a Killington trip like this year.

 

[cantunamunch]

Sno Crowded

 

[Laurel Hill Crazie]

We were there yesterday and will be there tomorrow and Monday. Sorry we missed you.

 

[crgildart]

I thought I posted the videos here that @Chance of Snow took from the gathering.. Here they are, possibly again?

 

[cantunamunch]

Sorry, I had originally planned to be here two days but there is too much work.

Tomorrow should be superb, 4-8 of fresh. It's sort of spinning down right now.