There are still several months left in the winter season and so it’s a perfect opportunity to engage in some outdoor activities. Whether you’re looking for something to do for a family with young children, a group of teenagers or a bunch of fun loving adults, Whitetail Ski Resort in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania offers some great choices. At just an hour and a half from either Washington DC or Baltimore, Whitetail Ski Resort provides a perfect opportunity for a quick getaway for people in the DC, Virginia or Maryland area.
As the name implies, the main attraction at Whitetail is the skiing and snowboarding. But if you’re looking for something a little less physically engaging, or – and as was the case with myself – looking for something that engaged the wallet a good deal less than renting equipment and a ski ticket, than you should go to their snow tubing area!
Off to the side from the ski mountains, the snow tubing area offers 10 “groomed lanes. The lanes are all side by side and vary from one smooth descent down the hill to several up and down hills during the descent. The side by side launching area gives a great opportunity to try all the different variations of snow tubing including: tying your tube to other people to ride down together, taking a running head start and going as fast as you can and racing against somebody in the adjacent lane. Additionally, there are two person tubes in the shape of a figure 8 that people can ride down together in. Don’t be fooled, while the snow tubing mountain might not seem huge at first, you can build up a great deal of speed!
The beauty as compared to snow tubing by yourself on some desolate backwoods mountain is you don’t have to climb back up! They have an outdoor (but covered) conveyor belt that brings you and your tube back to the top of the mountain as many times as you can handle. With plenty of staff on hand to help out, the tubing at Whitetail is perfectly entertaining and safe for anybody over 5 years old. For children younger than that, there is a tiny tubing area off to the side.
Close by is an outdoor fire pit to warm yourself up as well as a lodge that serves snacks and drinks. The main Whitetail lodge and ski area is a short walk through the parking lot. It’s a perfect situation if you have older, more adventurous kids that want to ski or snowboard and younger kids who don’t want to quite take that on yet.
Don’t worry about the weather because they make their own beautiful, white, powdery snow. They also groom the lanes daily and during the day they smooth out and ice the lanes to make them faster and more enjoyable. A two hour session is $20 on the weekend and $16 during the week; while a one hour session is $16 on the weekend and $12 during the week. You can enjoy the snow tubing during the day, or go under the lights up until 10 pm. As compared to ski and snowboarding prices that can exceed $100 per person when you consider lessons, rentals and the lift pass snow tubing is a great option for a large group of any age that wants to have some snowy, mountain fun!
For more information visit www.skiwhitetail.com; or go directly to the snow tubing site at www.skiwhitetail.com/tube.htm.
