A Ski Day at Belleayre Mountain

This past Saturday I went on my first visit to Belleayre Mountain for a day of skiing. I had signed up through Zogsports and this was listed as a beginner friendly trip. Since I have not gone skiing for many years, I thought it was the perfect way to get back onto the slopes!

The day started off quite early. The bus left the city at 6:30am (!) and I had to wake up super early in order to take the subway from Astoria to get myself there on time. The good news is that we had a drive of approximately 3 hours to rest up before we got to our ski destination.

Once at the mountain, it was time for everyone to go their separate ways depending on their skiing expertise. Many had brought their own equipment and went straight from the bus to the slopes. Then there were those who needed to rent equipment. I was in that category. I was so excited to get on the slopes that I could barely wait to get my ski equipment on!! The benefit of signing up for this trip was that lessons were offered for whatever ski level you were. The beginners and first time snow boarders had a place to go on the lower part of the mountain for their lesson. And for those of us who were intermediate or advanced, the place to find instructors was higher up on the mountain.

Once I got on the slopes, I started out cautiously to see if I could remember what I was doing. Luckily, I was still able to go down the intermediate level slopes to get reacquainted with the sport again. I loved it! Having only been to ski slopes in either MD or Pennsylvania before, it was refreshing to be in NY where there was more snow and less ice. This particular mountain was really nice since it was less crowded than the other places I had been to. I loved that I had the chance to move more freely without so many people speeding past and of course less crowds meant less lines at the lifts! There was a beautiful trail for intermediate skiers that started at the top of the mountain and the view from this slope was incredible the entire way down. It was definitely my favorite trail and I kept going back to it.

Even though our group had gone in many different directions, the day was organized so that we could still meet up during the day if we chose to. Members of the group had the option to meet for lunch at the Overlook Lounge and then after the lifts stopped at 4pm we also had time for happy hour and a bit of relaxing. Then at 5pm it was time to return our equipment and head for the bus.

Now, this particular Saturday had snow in the forecast. And snow it did. It began coming down at around 12:30pm and didn't slow down before it was time for us to go. We had about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground when our bus started the trip back to NYC. I was nervous but luckily our group leader had a movie for us to watch during the drive back which helped to distract me. Due to the road conditions, we had a much longer trip home but we got back safely which is all that mattered to me. I made sure to tell the bus driver a very appreciative thank you for driving so well in such crazy weather - some of the roads on the mountain didn't even have lights and it was snowing hard up there! Of course, when we got to the city there was barely any snow on the ground so it was a very different scene than where we had just been.

To summarize, Belleayre is a great day trip since it is a short drive from the city. It has a variety of beginner and intermediate slopes so if you are wanting to learn how to ski, it is a great spot to try. There are plenty of difficult slopes for those advanced skiers too! For all the info on Belleayre, you can go to their website at http://www.belleayre.com/.

Zogsports did a great job of organizing this day trip. I had so much fun that I signed up for another day trip to a different mountain in March with them. In addition to day trips, Zogsports also offers some weekend ski trips and a week long ski trip this season too. Spots fill up fast so if you are interested definitely head to http://www.zogsports.com/ and sign up sooner rather than later.