Skiing opportunities can be a cure for cabin fever

By ERIC LONG - elong@sungazette.com
For some unfortunate souls, winter is a season of dread and inactivity, but some people who enjoy skiing say there is no reason to suffer from cabin fever during the colder months — when enough snow is available.

No excuses

“I have often had this wonderful feeling while skiing out in the woods — it is glorious — and I think of all the people who could be enjoying it and aren’t,” said Dr. Michael Gross, a physician from the Picture Rocks area. “It is a shame more people don’t get out to enjoy this more. You can have a spectacular day out on the trail and everybody is sitting home, watching television.”

For Gross, cross country skiing has become a way of life that he’s been enjoying for some time.

“Sunday afternoon, there were maybe a dozen people up there at Crystal Lake (Ski Center) and there could have been 200,” he said.

Several inches of snow were on the trails, enough to ski on, Gross said. He and his wife, Rickie, moved to the area in 1975 from Baltimore and fell in love with the area’s skiing opportunities.

“We had skied wherever we had been and we skied cross country when we were younger,” Gross said. “John Manifold had started to develop the trails there (at Crystal Lake) for cross country skiing and we’ve been skiing up there ever since.”

Manifold, he said, moved away for a few years but has returned and is working to restore the old trails and develop new ones at Crystal Lake. He and Gross also started Crystal Lake Skiers Association to support that trail work.

“The terrain up there is unique. It is the terminal moraine of a glacier, so it is a gift for cross country skiing,” said Gross, who also partakes of some downhill skiing.

Joe Smith, a friend of Gross’ who lives in the Mill Creek area, said he also likes cross country skiing best.

“I’ve probably been doing that for almost 30 years, I think,” Smith said. “I basically enjoy the outdoors and being out in the snow in the winter. When I found there was a way to go anywhere you want on skis, it was a natural attraction for me.”

Smith said cross country skiing offers back-country scenery along forest roads, as well as skiing at places such Crystal Lake, with groomed trails and tracks already set in the snow.

“The set tracks allow you to go faster and you can use the hills differently,” Smith said. “It’s a thrill to point your skis downhill and ski around the trees, too.”

Smith said he just returned from the Alberta-British Columbia border area in Canada, at Crow’s Nest Pass.

“We went there last week and it was phenomenal. It was on the edge of the Rockies,” he said. “But at Crystal Lake, the trails are better and more challenging.”

Retired high school football coach Russ Manney of Wellsboro said he prefers downhill but does some cross country skiing in the region, too.

“I prefer downhill because I started doing that in high school,” he said. “I used to ski on Sharp Mountain in Pottsville, where my high school football coach took me.”

Manney said he skied through college, but “I got away from skiing for a while when I was coaching a lot. Now, in the last two or three years, I’ve gotten back into it.”

Last Tuesday, he was preparing to leave for a few days to ski in Colorado. He admitted he likes cross country as well, having been out on those trails last Sunday.

“I live up on the edge of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon and I was out cross country skiing in the 1970s when nobody was out doing that yet,” Manney explained. “The only thing I haven’t tried is snowboarding. My son, Russ Jr., is going to try it in Colorado.”

His children went out cross country skiing as soon as they were able to walk, he said, and Wellsboro Area High School has a ski club for students now.

“Downhill is nice to do certain days, but I have my cross country skis in the back of my pickup so I can go anywhere I want to,” Manney said.

Opportunities plentiful

Numerous opportunities exist for skiers of both basic kinds in the region, at ski resorts and in state forests and some state parks.

At Ski Sawmill, 22 miles north of Route 220 on Route 287, manager Mike Knefley said the downhill areas were open and running prior to the rain early last week.

“We have 13 slopes and trails, a chair lift, two T-bars and we have snow tubing, which is a blast,” he said.

Sawmill also offers telemark skiing, a sort of cross between downhill and cross country.

“The big difference is in alpine skis, your heel is locked down,” Knefley said, “and in telemark, your heel can come up.”

The resort is near Little Pine State Park and the Grand Canyon, which offer cross country trails when there is enough snow cover.

“You need at least 6 inches of snow cover for cross country skiing,” Knefley said.

Sawmill also has a terrain park that he said is popular with younger skiers, who can perform jumps up to 15 feet high. It also has seven rails suitable for skis or snowboards. A lodge with a coffee shop and cafeteria and ski rentals are among the amenities.

Before last week’s rainy spell, Sawmill had a 12- to 36-inch base of snow for skiers.

At Ski Denton, along Route 6 in Potter County, co-owner Scott Carts said the season is going well.

“We’ve been making snow all week,” he said. “We have opened the mountain all the way back up.”

Downhill skiers can enjoy 22 slopes and trails and four lifts. Denton also has one of the steepest slopes — at a 66-degree angle, which is comparable to skiing in Vermont, he said.

It also has about 20 miles of cross country trails.

“We keep those trails groomed and maintained and we have partnered with DCNR (the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry) to help maintain some of their trails that are accessed from Denton Hill,” Carts said. “When everything is groomed, there are more than (20 miles) that are groomed and tracks set.”

The resort is next to Susquehannock State Forest and operates on Denton Hill State Park.

Meanwhile, over at Sno Mountain, formerly known as Montage, marketing director Andrea Prokop said the season has been amazing.

“We installed a state-of-the-art snowmaking system last year and we have 193 new snow guns this year,” she said. “We have between a 28- and 48-inch base on the mountain.”

Prokop said more people should take advantage when snow is on the ground.

“When people see snow, they either get scared or excited,” she said. “We want to see more people excited about snow and the sport and offer more events, rather than have people stay at home, locked indoors.”

A terrain park there has grown in popularity, Prokop said, with more jumps and rails available this year.

“We will have the only 22-foot halfpipe on the East Coast,” she said. “That is huge for a Pennsylvania ski resort.”