The first two weeks of January brought nothing but warm weather to the Mid-Atlantic. Frustrated and anxious to make some tracks, I decided a week ago to book a short trip to Okemo, Vermont, for the inauguration weekend. I was just about to pack my car and drive 8.5 hours to Okemo when cold air and natural snow caused me to suddenly change my mind. Rather than trying to ski in -7 degree Fahrenheit temperatures with a wind chill of -35, I thought a short trip to Seven Springs would be much more pleasant. I was not disappointed.

Seven Springs has one of finest snowmaking systems in the world. At maximum capacity, its 976 snow towers and multiple portable canons can produce 12 inches of snow on 54 acres in just five hours. In less than a week’s time, Seven Springs went from just a few slopes open to 100 percent. On Thursday, the resort offered 28 trails of skiing and by Friday morning, it had all 31 trails open plus some gladed and open space terrain between the trails.

In past trips, I had always stayed at one of the roadside chain hotels in nearby Somerset, Pennsylvania. The Days Inn offers rooms for just $37 a night - a tough deal to beat. On this trip, however, I opted to splurge and spend a night at resort’s main hotel. Seven Springs is a dry land cruise ship. To get the full experience, one must stay at the resort. The Hotel and connecting lodges offer just about anything a vacationer would want - a multitude of dining options, swimming, hot tubs, live entertainment, bowling, and even roller skating. Indoor passageways connect all these amenities together so one never has to put a coat on to eat, swim, bowl, or watch a football game on a big screen with a lot of Steelers fans (go Pats!). We even saw kids walking around the halls in their pajamas. It’s these off-slope activities along with some of the best skiing in the region that make Seven Springs one of the Top Five Resorts in the East according to Ski Magazine.

But I’m a skier and that’s why I came here. Thursday turned out to be a gray, cold day but the snow proved excellent and in the end, that’s all that counts. For the first day, I focused on the Front Face slopes. The Front Face is the oldest part of the ski resort, which was founded in 1932 by a German immigrant from Pittsburgh named Adolph Dupre and his wife Helen. The slopes on this side are a bit shorter than those on North Face, but they are almost as steep and ski much bigger than they appear on the map. I particularly enjoyed the black diamond Avalanche slope. At Seven Springs, the further one travels away from the main lodge, the quieter the slopes become. There can be a mob at the Polar Bear Express, high-speed 6-pack and no lines at some of the older triple chairs. The secrets of the Springs are always found in the wings.

My wife and I skied non-stop from 2 until 8 p.m. when our legs finally gave out. At Seven Springs, there is no difference between night and day since 95 percent of its terrain is lit. I usually arrive at 1 p.m., purchase a twilight ticket, and ski until I collapse. Lifts don’t close until 10 p.m. during the week and 10:30 on weekends. Lift tickets, by the way, were almost half the price of Okemo’s: just $34 for a midweek twilight or day ticket.

Dining at Seven Springs is cruise ship style. Buffets rule! There is a daily breakfast buffet for $9.95 and a seafood buffet on Friday nights featuring all the lobster, crabs, scallops and other treasures of the sea you can eat for just $37.50 a person. Hint: hungry day-trippers might want to load up on the breakfast buffet, which runs from 7 to 11 a.m., and then skip lunch.

On Thursday evening, we ate a la carte at the Slopeside Grill - a wood paneled venue featuring panoramic views of the slope. My wife ordered the ribs, and I tried the crab cakes. Both entrees were delicious. We then took a long stroll around the third floor of the main lodge: the resort’s “Lido deck.” I introduced my European wife to the joys of pinball, and then we sat around the roller rink, watching kids going nuts to sounds of “Smells like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana: “With the lights out it’s less dangerous; here we are now; entertain us.”
At Seven Springs, entertainment is job one. One can ski, dance, and party until you drop. The focal point of après ski is the Foggy Bottom bar in the skier lodge, but later on in the evening, the party shifts to the Matterhorn Lounge on the third level of the Main Lodge and does not stop until 1:45 a.m. I have traveled to ski resorts around the world and the only après ski scene I have witnessed that rivals Seven Springs is the one at St. Anton in Austria.

Friday turned out to be an epic Blue Bird day. Seven Springs dropped the ropes on my favorite slope on the mountain: Gunnar. Gunnar is on the far left wing of the North Face and is a tree-lined trail full of twists, turns, dips and run-outs. Arctic air allowed Seven Springs to blow extremely light, dry snow on Gunnar, giving it a natural snow feel and a perfect texture for high-speed cruising. We could have skied this trail for the entire day but there was so much more terrain to explore. The wide North Face and Giant Steps slopes offer bowl-like skiing similar to what one can experience in the West or in Europe. At Seven Springs, if you can see it, you can ski it: only a small percentage of acreage on the North Face is designated out of bounds. With limited midweek crowds, I enjoyed carving huge arcs on the Giant Steps trail and throwing rooster tails of dry snow into the air. Conditions on the North Face Slope were not as perfect - one had to watch out for the occasional death cookie zones - but the blue skies, the scattered spruce trees, and huge open feeling of that slope reminded me some of the lower trails of Lech, Austria.

I left Seven Springs on Friday wishing I could have stayed longer. The much-anticipated natural snow on Saturday promised further great skiing. This year, Seven Springs also is managing Laurel Mountain - a resort with 21 trails and a 1,000-foot vertical. Your Seven Springs lift ticket is always good at the new “Springs at Laurel Mountain” and Seven Springs offers a shuttle service between the two resorts. Additionally, the Laurel Ridge State Park and the 100-mile long Allegheny Highlands bike trail offer a myriad of possibilities for cross-country skiing. If that were not enough, one can always visit the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, including the world-renowned Warhol Museum.

Photos provided by John Sherwood.