Woods Valley: Wednesday Night Lights

Skiers and boarders adapt to all kinds of change.  Conditions, weather and equipment are constantly in motion. In the flurry of change, there are also constants.

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Our favorite mountains do not move, our favorite lifties still spin our favorite chairs, and we can count on our best partners to ride with us. Back at Woods Valley for the first time this season, it all felt right.

After work on Wednesday, I drove to Woods. When I pulled into the lot I noticed changes around the mountain. The new lodge is almost complete and was just starting to glow as the external lights turned on.

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Woods Valley: Ski Local, Be Local

This is the year of the season pass. We’ve seen the Indy pass steadily rack up new resorts, the SKI3 pass be the only guarantee for ORDA mountains, and the Epic pass shutter under travel restrictions. Then there is everyone in between, with passes to their home mountains.

Given the uncertainty of this year’s ski season, buying a local pass seemed like the only guarantee to ski or ride. For me it’s been a no brainer for years. I remember the days before I started purchasing season passes, the race against time to ski as much as possible in a day. These days my approach is much more relaxed, and just last week I logged five solid days at my local hill Woods Valley.

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Woods Valley Opening Weekend 2019

There was powder to be shred early this month. As is often the case, I was faced with the question: where to ski? The Catskills were the epicenter of winter storm Ezekial, but 16 inches had fallen at Woods Valley.

Woods wasn’t open during week and another 4 inches was forecast to fall on Friday. I watched the webcam all day at work; Woods was empty and the snow was coming down. I hurried to ski the last hour. The first run through deep untouched snow was all it took it to convince me. I told Paul the liftie I would see him before first chair at 10am.

True to my word, I pulled into Woods at 9:30 on Saturday and was first in line. My first lap was one of the those dreamy groomer runs, 3 inches of fresh snow on packed powder cord.

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