Woods Valley - 2/21/11

Woods Valley is a small ski area just outside of Rome, NY right next to Delta Lake.

View of Delta Lake from Timmy's


Lodge


Conditions this winter have been fantastic there, we had a solid month of powder/packed powder until the warm temps of last week.  This week's conditions went from bulletproof on Wednesday, to spring conditions Thursday and Friday, to getting 4-5" of fluffy snow Saturday night.  The groomers were nice packed powder today, and first thing in the morning the ungroomed stuff was awesome even with all the bulletproof snow underneath.  It was dead quiet for about the first hour this morning and I pulled off first tracks down the ungroomed parts of Copy Cat and Lower Timmy's, as well as Sting and Bowl.  Untouched fluffy snow = very happy me.  

Fresh snow on Sting


Copy Cat


Bowl


The Ramp


Corduroy on Pepper's


Lower Timmy's


The deer had been out and about in the morning.  There were deer tracks across Pepper's, Copy Cat, and Timmy's.

Lots of deer tracks on Timmy's


I skied for about 4 hours, would've stayed longer if I could have.  The ungroomed trails were starting to get scraped off a bit by the time I left, but it still was a big improvement over Wednesday.  I couldn't believe how well they were skiing early in the morning though, you never would've known that it was bulletproof underneath!

I know a lot of people that don't like Woods because its small and not much vertical etc etc.  But I love it for what it is: well maintained, in the land of lake effect snow, has night skiing Wednesday-Saturday, and is 5 minutes from home.  Oh yeah, and they have cheap (and good!) food and beer. Of course I like to ski more challenging places on the weekends when I can, but as far as I'm concerned Woods is great for unwinding after work and being able to get some turns in when I only have a couple hours to ski.  Sure beats sitting on the couch!

Love these pics, especially view from Timmy's.

I spent my college years in Central NY, but it was long before I was a skier. If I had only known.

Of course I went to the website and looked for snowfall to date or an estimated annual average. Like some of these other little hills the people who ski it don't care about the numbers.

The place is adorable.  And of course bonus points for another NY Hill checked off Harv's List.

Thanks Rosie!

Never heard of it, and I grew up in Syracuse!

Ha!!! I learned to ski at Woods Valley!!!

PS Hey Harv let's go to Don's Rok!

Great pictures ... I love all the rows of pine trees along the edges of the trails.

Face4Me wrote

Great pictures ... I love all the rows of pine trees along the edges of the trails.

I noticed that, too. Wonder what the reason is ? A little cushion ?

They sure look nice.

Not sure what the reason for the cute trees is, if there is a reason other than they look good.  In some places my guess would be they keep people on the trail (i.e. the line of the trees between Copy Cat and the T-bar).  I'm pretty sure the family that owns Woods also owns a Christmas tree place, that could have something to do with it too...  ;)

Hmmm ... Christmas tree farm was actually one of the things I considered!!!

Looks like a real nice place ... it would be nice to have a place like that 5 minutes from the house.

Oh, awesome!