Happy Holidays

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Have a Happy New Year from the Cobras!!!

2008 Ski Trip

The Cobras have picked Vermont for our 2008 annual ski trip. Last year we went to New Hampshire. This time we're staying on the eastern side of VT, so we can ski Stratton, Okemo, Bromley, or Magic. We're going to stay at the Palmer House, since it's centrally located and it has an indoor pool and jacuzzi. Here's their website, if you want to check it out: www.palmerhouse.com.

We'll be able to check out downtown Manchester, VT, which has lots of shopping and restaurants. Two of our favorite after ski activities.

Snow Report

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Remember to sign up for snow reports to be emailed directly to you!

Go to www.realconditions.com

Always be in the know about the snow!

Layers and Layers

Depending on where you ski and when - it's all about the number of layers you wear. but if it's a particularly challenging run those layers make you sweat and are so bulky that it's hard to move around.

Some ski clothing outfitters are coming out with high tech clothing to reduce the amount of layers, but still keep you toasty warm. Of course, nothing high tech comes cheap so be prepared to pay more then normal.

New Gear

What kind of new gear are you getting this year? New skis, new boots, new jacket and pants. There's a lot of cool stuff out there. Just pick up the lastest issue of Ski Magazine to see some. It's just to drool over. But, you may need a second job just to support your new attire!

Or perhaps real estate is more your gig. A ski condo, but where. So many places, so many choices. I'd almost hate to hit the lottery and have to choose.

KOPSC

Although I am a member of the White Cobra Ski Group, I attended a general meeting of the King of Prussia Ski Club. The KOPSC has over 500 members, which was impressive. I met a lot of nice people there and I learned that they have activities all year long. The extra activities include book clubs, motorcycle tours, dine arounds and happy hours. Here's their website to check it out for your own ski group: http://www.kopsc.com/

The White Cobra's have similiar activities such as jacuzzi night, the Chocolate Spa at Hershey Hotel, going to the Jersey shore, dining out in Lancaster or going to the movies. We're just a smaller group.

So, if your in a ski club/group and are looking for ideas, do what the Cobras do, or check out the KOPSC.

Stow

Did you know that Stow has a year around Spa called Stowflake? Besides enjoying a few treatments at the spa, you can also go hiking up and around the Stow mountain. There is a quaint small town to visit, hot air balloon rides, golfing and of course Vermont maple syrup.

Here's a link to see all that Stow has to offer: http://summer.stowe.com/

I haven't been skiing at Stow yet, even though I've been to almost all of the other ski resorts in VT. So, now I will have to add it to the list. My girlfriend and her husband just got back from a summer vacation in Stow and she's the one who told me all about her adventures there.

Higher Lift Ticket Prices

Even though it is August and it's very, very hot outside, I couldn't help thinking about the upcoming ski season. So, I decided to post an entry for our ski blog.

From what the headlines are telling me - ski resorts out west, such as Aspen, are going to raising their one day lift ticket prices to $87 -ouch! The most I ever paid was $67 at Deer Valley.

I guess the White Cobras will need to put a few more dollars away for our 2008 ski trip.

Mother's Day Poem

You ski all day,

so this Mother's Day dinner, I'll pay.

Don't eat too much,

in order to fit in you ski gear

and such!

Another Nor'Easter

Here it is April and we got snow! The nor'easter brought snow and a ton of rain and wind too, yesterday. A rather large pine tree fell over, caught on the wires and continues to block part of a street near our house. Oh, my. Vermont got 17 inches of snow, however a bit too late for the ski season.

Still, it's April and we got snow!

Look What's New

The WCSG's blog has been updated with a new layout!

Do you like it?

Let's us know via our guestbook. There are videos to watch and news stories powered by Google, so there will always be updated content on the blog, even if there is not entries that day. Come back and visit the blog often and tell fellow skiers, friends and family.

Club Med

Not only did it flurry yesterday, but Club Med sent me their European ski brochure. They offer 20 different destinations (who knew). I thought they were only for warm vacation spots.

It talked about skiing in places such as Peisey-Vallandry & La Plagne 2100, both in France, and Saint-Moritz Roi Soleil in Switzerland. Some Packages include spa treaments and excursions. A Cobra fav.

If interested visit: www.clubmed.com.

The Lottery

If you won the lottery.... where would you build your ski chalet? The Alps? -too obvious, Canada? Out west in Colorado? Utah? I think I would have to have a few places. It would be ski-in /ski out, outdoor jacuzzi, log cabin style with a big fireplace and lots and lots of room for family and friends.

Spring Nor'Easter

I can't believe it was almost 80 degrees on Wednesday and then a Nor'Easter came through on Friday dumping up to 12 inches of snow in some places here in PA.

Some ski places were getting ready to shut down operations - but instead got a little surprize of a few more days of skiing in. It's suppose to warm up again next weekend, officially ending the ski season here on the east coast -I think?

40th Birthday!

Copperhead turned the big 4-0 yesterday!

Happy 40th Birthday!

May your snow be deep and the runs long!

El Nino

El Nino is/will be delivering fresh powder to the west coast. Places like CA, UT and the Canadian rockies. Although, the WCSG doesn't normally plan any spring skiing, I wanted to put out some ideas for those of you who might be considering it.

Some of these places get as much as 100 inches of spring powder!!!!

Soon Ending

Even though ski season is coming to an end for 2007,

please keep coming back to our blog.

There will be entries here all year long.

Please sign our guest book, we love to know you were here.

Spring Skiing

It's possible that there could a be a few late snow storms here in March, but the question is where? It would be nice to have one here on the east coast, so we could have some spring skiing. There's nothing like skiing with your jacket open and sunglasses instead of googles.

Snow Angels

It's SNOWING again here in PA!!! Yeah! It's been coming down in big fluffy flakes, then small little ones and then back to fluffy ones again. It's so beautiful out. Making snow angels would be easy in this kind of snow - so, get out there and make one!

Flat Tire

Today, Copperhead and soon to be ski member Anaconda were heading to Bear Creek Ski Resort. The key word is "were". As Copperhead headed out to load up the SUV, it turns out it had a flat tire. What a bummer!! Racer has a season pass to Bear Creek and gets to go all the time.

All was not lost though. Copperhead and Anaconda went sledding instead in their backyard. The sleet on top of the snow makes for excellent sledding conditions. Although it was a little too fast for Copperhead.

Dangerous Ice

Remember to remove all snow and ice from your vehicle's roof and hood (it's a law now anyway). Here in PA, we had a snow storm that ended with sleet which formed a snow/ice covering on our vehicles. The other day my husband and daughter were driving down the highway and big piece of ice flew off of a car in front of them, although my husband did his best to avoid it, it still hit the car causing damage to the grill. An another smaller piece hit a car behind my husbands and badly cracked the windshield of the women's car. My husband had to follow the driver who caused the damage and make her pull over. She was really mad until she realized what had happened to the other two cars.

The Cobra's wish you and yours

a Happy Valentine's Day!

Take you're sweetheart skiing!

Big Snow Storm

The weatherman is telling us Pennsylvanians that there's a big snow storm on the way. Either, Tuesday (13th) or on Valentines Day. In talking to Racer, she said she heard between 2 inches to 2 feet. We're both hoping for the latter!!

Vanilla Maple Martini

PimpingYourSpace.com Rules!

For those of you who have been reading about our skiing adventures --I promised to give you the recipe for the very Cobralicious drink we had at the Bretton Arms called a Vanilla Maple Martini.

Vanilla Vodka
Maple syrup (the good stuff, not some no name brand)
Vermouth
Shaken, not stirred
Served in martini glass.

We might re-name it to the Cobratini!!!

Homeward Bound

On Friday, the Cobras decided to leave a few days early since we're all skied out -yes it's possible. The trip home started out with hitting the shops (does that surprise you?) in North Conway and then heading to the highways. We got caught by a snow storm, but punched our way through it and we all made it home in one piece.

Sunday River -Thursday Feb 1

Happy Birthday Viper!!! We decided to drive to Sunday River in Maine. It was only 46 miles from NorthConway, NH and took a little over an hour to get there. Sunday River has eight mountains and on the day we went there were 111 trails open, which was awesome. Freshies poured on us the entire time we were there. The sun was doing it's best to peek through, but no luck. What was really cool about Sunday River is that the whole ski resort is 100% wind powered, who wuddo thunk!. We stayed on the blues which were challenging at times, but it's definetly a resort that you could spend a few days at and not get bored.

Right before we arrived at Sunday river we stopped off a little bitsy town called Bethel. There was an organic bakery that we dropped into to have breakfast and coffee. Racer said that the raspberry scone she had was one of the best she had ever eaten. It was an interesting little town, offering yoga, book stores and healing hands massages.

For Viper's b-day dinner we went to the Red Fox restaurant, which was on our way home to NH. We had brought changes of clothes, make-up etc. to freshen up before we went out.

Day Off

Soooo it's Wednesday and as usual we thought we'd take a spa day. However, the rest of the world was not in sync with our plans. Not a hot stone massage therapist to be found. We consoled ourselves with shopping, eating, shopping, a snow coach ride, shopping, and 2 members skiied 2 hours at Wildcat Mountain (1 just to say she had skiied 5 days straight). Wildcat was a small but challenging mountain.

The founding members plus one went on a Snow Coach ride to the treeline on Mount Washington. Mount Washington is where the manned weather station is located. It is manned 24/7, shifts are 1 week at a time changing every Wednesday. Due to the extreme winds (231 mph record), the equipment and buildings are chained down.

For dinner we wanted to treat ourselves to a finer dining establishment. We called the Mt. Washington, only to find out that the dress code was suits & ties for men and dresses for women. So, we made reservations at the next best place Bretton Arms which is in an adjacent building to the main hotel. They allowed resort casual wear. Our bartender, Richard, introduced us to the a new drink called a Vanilla Maple Martini, which the WCSG has now adopted as our new official martini. Look for a future post for the drink recipe. The food was divine and the desserts heavenly.

Bretton Woods

It was minus 15 degrees, but our best day of skiing. Bretton Woods is a nice boutique ski resort and is situated in such a way that there's no wind, otherwise it would have felt like 30 below. We had the mountain to ourselves since it was a weekday. No lift lines, no waiting for other skiers or looking out for them. Viper skied all day with no breaks, but the rest of the Cobras stopped for lunch by the fire. After skiing, we stopped in at the lounge and had "spiked" coffee and hot apple cider beverages compliments of Asp.

Dinner was delicious at Delaney's Irish Pub. We were welcomed directly to the back room (hmmm -- out of sight, out of mind????). Copperhead would have enjoyed her fill of Sushi (YES -- IRISH SUSHI that would be O'sushi to you), however, Asp and Racer helped her out.

Waterville Valley

Brr, was the word of today. It was a cold one for skiing Waterville Valley. The trails were hard pack with crud and some ice, but we still had an enjoyable ski day. I'm sure if the conditions were better it is a very nice place to ski.

Cranmore

We arrived in North Conway, NH on Saturday after a 10 hour drive. Sunday was our first ski day. We decided to go to Cranmore which is located in North Conway only a few minutes from our hotel. It's a very nice mountain, where we had a great ski day and got to meet their penguin mascot. Diamondback wore her penguin hat all day to ski in. Like most east coast ski resorts there was a bit of ice skiing on some of the trails.

After skiing we tried to get into the indoor pool at the hotel, but the water was toooo cold, brrr! Later that night we ate dinner at Fandangos.

New Hampshire Bound

It's finally here! Our annual ladies ski trip is starting on Saturday. We are driving up to North Conway, New Hampshire. From our centrally located hotel we will explore different ski resorts, so keep up on our activities by reading the blog often. It's also our goal to go to Sunday River in Maine, which is about 46 miles away. As of the 21st, the ski report at Waterville Valley has packed powder and a 12-30 inch base.

First Freshies

West Chester finally got snow for the first time this winter!!!

I was so surprized that there was a light covering of freshies on the cars and driveway.

Not enough for a snowman, but there's more snow in the forecast.

Only 24 More Days...

In just 24 short days the White Cobras will be leaving for their annual ski trip!!! We're going to New Hampshire this year. It's been a bit warm here in PA, so I'm hoping it's been chillier there, so that they can make snow. Folding hands, bowing head and praying for snow and world peace, just to be on the safe side. Pray that Denver, CO get's no more snow and that it all comes to the east coast - or at least the eastern ski slopes.