FINDING WINTER
Seek out snow and ice to keep kids active
Is snow that accumulates ever going to come? With an occasional flurry and rain immediately following any snowfalls these days, kids all over the region haven’t had the chance to partake in all of the fun that winter usually offers up.
Laura Geiger, a mom of two young girls in Spring City, misses winters where her kids had the opportunity to stay physically active playing outside in the snow.
“It feels like winter isn’t coming this year, which is sad,” she said.
Geiger shared the main things her kids have been missing out on due to the lack of any snow sticking around.
“They can’t sled and ice skating outside is pretty impossible or the conditions aren’t great,” she said. “They haven’t had the chance to build snowmen, have snowball fights or build snow fortes.”
During the cold snaps of years’ past, it would be common for her to make a thermos of hot chocolate and then head with her girls to the frozen canal in Phoenixville to do some ice skating after picking them up from school.
“We love ice skating on the canal and sledding in Valley Forge when it snows,” she said. “We have also skated outdoors at Spring Mountain, but the conditions aren’t as good when it’s warmer weather.”
This year, instead of accepting Mother Nature’s inability to deliver, Geiger and her husband, Scott, have made more of an effort to go out of their way to seek out winter experiences for their kids, to enable them to partake in all aspects of the season they love.
“We like to do indoor ice skating at Power Play Rinks in Exton and Oaks Center Ice at the Oaks,” she said. “They have a public skate in the evening, so it’s fun for them to do something different at night.”
When they aren’t ice skating, they enjoy skiing.
“Last weekend the girls went skiing at Spring Mountain, which is just a half an hour from here,” Geiger said. “Scott took them and they had a great time with their friends.”
They plan to head back to the slopes this weekend and shared a unique offering for parents considering a trip to Spring Mountain.
“They have a nice ski school for kids in the evening and then parents can have dinner and drinks at the bar,” she said. “It’s a really nice setup for two hours.”
The Geigers see other perks to evening skiing.
“A night tip is most are skiing all day and then it clears out, so in the evenings there are no lift lines,” she said.
During the girls’ holiday break from school in December they traveled farther to fit in a winter experience.
“We went to Seven Springs in Pittsburgh,” she said. “It was snowing when we got there and most of the Mountain was open, so we were able to get some good skiing in.”
Other destinations have been various ski resorts in the Poconos and Bear Creek Mountain and Ski Resort in Macungie.
“The Poconos aren’t that far if we want to go tubing or skiing up there,” she said. “A neighbor went tubing at Bear Creek last week.”
The Geigers have found ways to make the expensive sport of skiing more economical.
“We have had season passes and get season equipment rentals from Buckman’s,” she said. “This year the girls have skis we bought at Buckman’s tent sale in the fall, so they can just pass it down, oldest to youngest, and then we sell it back to Buckman’s.”
Many of our area’s ski slopes offer discounts on certain days or times of day for those who prefer making a smaller commitment with a day of skiing, tubing or skating. Spring Mountain offers ‘Men’s’ Day Mondays’ with $25 lift tickets before 3pm; ‘Ladies’ Day Thursdays’ with $25 lift tickets before 3pm; ‘Student Night Thursdays’ with $25 lift tickets and $10 ski rentals from 4pm to 9pm; and ‘Family Skate Sundays’ featuring public skating tickets and skate rentals for four people for $65.