Somehow I missed this great thread earlier. So many beautiful nostalgic memories! A great many of you experienced your first ski day at this time of the year - Dec/Xmas/NYE. It reminds me not to be jaded about Holiday crowds and appreciate how important the Holidays are for introducing new folks to the sport.
I honestly can't specifically remember my first day of skiing. I know it was during Christmas vacation and it was at Blue Knob, PA. I believe it was in late December of 1967, when I was age 14. My earliest ski memories are an aggregation of several cold and icy experiences at Blue Knob. I have joked over the years that I thought the area was called Blue Knob for the color of the ice on some of the trails due to leaky, inefficient snowguns. Blue Knob is an upside down resort. The base lodge and beginner slopes are at the top of an exposed mountain, elevation 3100' in western PA that is often subject to wind and temps that are relatively frigid for Pennsylvania.
This is my dad in the late 1960s with a Scotty trailer that we slept in at the summit of Blue Knob during several of my earliest trips to Blue Knob. In 1972 my father purchased a vacation home near Blue Knob that we visited frequently for 15 years.
Here I am on right with my two older brothers at Camelback, PA in 1968. My brother in center had just returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam, USMC Infantry. My other brother on left has a new pair of black Head Standard skis that he got that year for Christmas.
I honestly can't specifically remember my first day of skiing. I know it was during Christmas vacation and it was at Blue Knob, PA. I believe it was in late December of 1967, when I was age 14. My earliest ski memories are an aggregation of several cold and icy experiences at Blue Knob. I have joked over the years that I thought the area was called Blue Knob for the color of the ice on some of the trails due to leaky, inefficient snowguns. Blue Knob is an upside down resort. The base lodge and beginner slopes are at the top of an exposed mountain, elevation 3100' in western PA that is often subject to wind and temps that are relatively frigid for Pennsylvania.
This is my dad in the late 1960s with a Scotty trailer that we slept in at the summit of Blue Knob during several of my earliest trips to Blue Knob. In 1972 my father purchased a vacation home near Blue Knob that we visited frequently for 15 years.
Here I am on right with my two older brothers at Camelback, PA in 1968. My brother in center had just returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam, USMC Infantry. My other brother on left has a new pair of black Head Standard skis that he got that year for Christmas.
