Conditions Report
This report is from Friday, January 24, 2025
On paper, Shawnee Mountain does not offer a lot to write home about, even by Pennslyvania standards. The mountain is small, old school, and really only an ideal place to spend a day if you are a beginner or intermediate skier or rider. And while that makes this place a write-off for many advanced/expert-level skiers who only look to the cream-of-the-crop ski resorts as places to even consider visiting, I took my Friday off to drive the mere 1 hour and 30 minutes outside of Manhattan to get some turns in and experience the scarce true winter weather that falls on this area of the U.S. I’m glad I did because I had no regrets!
Quick Facts & History
- Date Opened: 1975
- Multi-Destination Pass: Indy Pass
- Number of Trails: 23
- Skiable Acres: 125
- Vertical Drop: 700 feet
- Base Elevation: 650 feet
- Summit Elevation: 1,350 feet
- Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches
- Terrain Breakdown:
- Beginner: 30%
- Intermediate: 40%
- Advanced: 30%
- Number of Lifts: 11
- Night Skiing: Yes (on all trails)
- Other Activities:
- Snow Tubing
Like most trying to dodge crowds in an increasingly busy ski scene, I thought I made a solid pick for a crowd-less ski day by going to a local mountain on a weekday. Yet when I rolled into the parking lot at 10 am, I was stunned to see how busy it was. Four coach buses sat in the parking lot alongside enough cars to fill up Shawnee’s lower parking area. What were all of these people doing here on a Friday?
After I redeemed my first of two days at Shawnee Mountain thanks to my Indy Pass, I booted up in the lodge and instantly realized why all of those coach buses were parked at the mountain: school field trips. For countless mountains, especially local ski areas, school groups serve as a vital source of business during the weekdays, while simultaneously developing their next generation of clientele.
With the crowds now making sense, I rode up Chair C after no lift line delighted to see that the majority of skiers and riders were confined to beginner and intermediate terrain, while other individual skiers visiting Shawnee for the day would have all of the advanced terrain to themselves. After my first couple of laps, I was pleasantly surprised but how great the conditions were, thanks in large part to the recent snowstorm that brought 5″ of natural snowfall to the area. That, combined with consistently below-freezing temperatures the entire week, kept snow conditions optimal and rare for a ski area this far south.
As my day at Shawnee went on and I rode the F Chair Double, I had vivid flashbacks to memories of what made me love skiing as a child. For my first several years skiing, I didn’t just dislike it, but I absolutely hated it. After years of such a strong dislike for the sport, my sentiment finally started to change after I started to experience what I saw dozens of other children experiencing themselves that day at Shawnee—freedom. At such a young age, I remember never being allowed such freedom as going out with a group of friends on skis and simply roaming the mountain. When you’re a kid, the size of the mountain doesn’t matter, you couldn’t have cared less about the conditions, and all I remember caring about was lapping any lift I had access to until I was literally the last person down the mountain.
By hearing the laughter, shouting between chairs, and the groups of kids skiing around the mountain, I could tell they were experiencing the exact same thing I did, which made skiing for me turn from a sport, into a passion.Â
Weather Outlook
Conditions
Photos
As I left Shawnee that day, I left with a sense of warmness and joy, not only for the day I spent skiing that otherwise would have been indoors in my cramped studio apartment but for seeing firsthand the next generation of skiers having an experience that I so clearly remember made me become a life long skier. Those days and opportunities are so important, not only for those kids but for the ski industry as a business, and I am happy to see that Shawnee Mountain is ground zero for making those opportunities happen.
For more information, check out Shawnee Mountain’s website.Â
Oh man, I now live in Park City – but learned to ski at Shawnee on Friday nights with my high school ski club. Great times. Glad to see they now have safety bars on the lifts!!