Olana State Historical Site

Olana State Historical Site, New York

I am not an architecture aficionado by any means. I'm usually too interested in natural things. Don’t get me wrong, I like interesting buildings, but I rarely go out of my way to see one. I am fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, but actually taking the time to visit it has never been high on my agenda. I’ve never even been in the Empire State Building in spite of the fact that my grandfather was one of the steelworkers who erected the original mooring mast on the building before it was replaced by the broadcast antenna that currently sits atop the massive Manhattan edifice. On the rare occasion I do visit a historical building, I normally am consumed by taking a microscopic view, or rather a series of microscopic views, camera in hand, searching for good photo ops and imagining what someone who lived in the place experienced in day-to-day life. I look for the odd shape of a window pane, how light showing through a skylight casts a shadow on other elements in the room, a rusty portcullis, the flaking pain around a doorjamb…that sort of stuff. My approach to Olana was no different.

I have lost track of how many times I have driven past Exit 21 on the Thruway, saw the brown-and-white road sign, and paid no attention to it what-so-ever. I knew what it was, but I had little interest in stopping. I was either on my way to Vermont or to Pennsylvania, or (even worse, I suppose) on my way to Windham Ski Area which is off the same exit, but in the opposite direction. Olana was always an afterthought. In fact, much of the Hudson Valley is an afterthought to me. Maybe “afterthought” is a strong word. Let’s say “also-thought”. Given my passion for the outdoors and the environmental movement, one would think I would have an attraction to the early period of “wilderness” themed art and writing that came from this area.

The fact is I don’t. Cole, Cropsey, and Church to me symbolize fantasy, not reality. They were from an era where the wilderness was still feared. It was something that needed to be tamed. Man’s job was to carve out the wilderness, but was never a part of it. Cole’s art in particular annoys me. Wondrous landscapes, often exaggerated in their grandeur, always contained some element of man’s hand…a road, a horse and rider, a distant farm. Church, being a disciple of Cole started his career painting in such the same manner. Following Cole’s death, Church began a modest road to redemption and little by little began to focus on the landscape, eliminating man’s presence. I say “a modest road” because by this time much of the surrounding hills had been obliterated by man. The logging industry and the need for pastures to support the wool industry had devastated the Hudson and Delaware valleys. Perhaps this is why Church went on grand voyages around the world looking for new subjects. What he saw around him had been ravaged by the wheels of the infant Industrial Revolution. What had been the American frontier only a few decades before was now a series of coal-smoking, brick and iron towns connected by turnpikes and canals. I suddenly began to understand where Church was coming from…perhaps.

Frederic Church was a man of means. His art showings were akin to a present-day theatrical blockbuster premier. His constructing a home befitting of an artist such as himself was inevitable. Like many other significant persons of his day, the Hudson Valley was the place to be. However, many of his contemporaries built summer cottages and retreats from their city homes. Church was different. Olana would become his permanent home.

Our tour of Olana was confined to the actual house and the visitor’s center. Rambling around the vast expanses of property would have to wait for another day. However, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that the vast majority of the building and additions to the house were done after Church’s artwork ceased to be the talk of the town. American tastes were changing. The American landscape was changing. Olana became Church’s focus.

The same attention to detail Church had once put into his masterpieces on canvas he now put into the design and decoration of his estate. This wasn’t just relegated to the buildings, but to the grounds, the farm, the gardens, and the miles of carriage roads he built on his property. While the surrounding landscape of his neighbors to the south) Church became, at best, a fledgling conservationist. He planted massive amounts of trees of dozens of varieties on his hillsides only to break them up by carriage paths. The house’s Persian design, while wholly unique even by today’s standards, contains classical elements of middle-eastern floral and geometric patterns. Local stone blends with earth-tone colored brick. The mingling of man and nature reminiscent of his earlier works can be seen throughout the grounds. Church’s use of large plate glass windows throughout the home allow one to gaze upon the natural surroundings as if they were looking at one of his paintings. Olana was, in my opinion, Church’s obsession and attempt to relive his past. However, unlike his previous masterpieces which were intended to gain him fame and fortune, Olana was for his family and friends. It is not opulent, quite the opposite in fact. It was a home, it was intimate, and it was lived-in. Its grand staircase/stage was use for parlor performances. Friends were likely to find a crash space on a bed in a hallway if no other room was available.

Still in all, I found myself consumed by the decorations and the details of Church’s designs. Perhaps because, while now things of museum piece quality: the hats, the tea cups, the frayed sofa, the Aztec sculptures, the taxidermy peacock, a piano, these things were once used and were bit parts of the Church family’s life. Instead of looking through the glass windows at the scenery, I looked at the windows, searching for where the stem had been cut from the plate. I stared at the patterns in the tile work, trying to imagine things in the way Church might have done. I gradually became lost in the details of the home, probably in the same manner Church did and upon departing began to rethink my opinions of the man himself.

Olana is less than an hour's drive south of Albany, New York. The grounds are open during the day throughout the year. Organized tours of the house and studio are available Tuesday through Sunday, and holiday Mondays, from April to October. From November to March, tours are conducted Friday through Sunday. Reservations are recommended, but not required, for groups of fewer than 15 people. (518) 828-0135 www.olana.org.

"Sno" Mountain Resort.

I’ll start out by giving some trivia which should set the stage. SnoMountian is located on a road named Montage Mountain Road (the resort used to be called Montage, but I refuse to call it Sno least it be confused with Mount Snow in Vermont.) and Montage Mountain Road is actually on Moosic Mountain, but I suppose “Moosic Mountain Ski Area” wasn’t flashy enough in the early ‘80s when the resort opened. These facts support my belief that no matter who runs the place, or what they choose to call it, one should beware of the marketing department.

I was a regular skier here from 1992-1999. This was essentially my home mountain and I skied there 2-3 times a week because of it’s proximity to my home and the ridiculously low lift ticket prices there when the resort was run by Lackawanna County. (You truly do get what you pay for.) A few years ago, around 2006, the county sold the resort to a private company and every skier in the area quietly rejoiced in the hope that someone with actual experience would now be running the place. In the past, lift attendants were rumored to be minor offenders serving community service time and it was widely alleged that the managers got their jobs due to who they know in the country courthouse. Things have not gotten much better.

On my last trip there in January 2010, lift attendants were smoking while loading, and were seen texting on their phones while loading as well. I voiced my concern about that to one of their on-snow “Skier Awareness Team” members (basically wanna-be patrollers who probably can’t pass the NSP medical tests) and they said they would look into it. Not more than 30 seconds later one of the “Safety Team” members flew by me on a snowboard so quickly and so close, I could have easily slammed the buffoon with my arm. “Safety Team” my sweet $%&*##!

The new management team did install a bunch of new snowmaking machinery and to their credit, has put it to good use. In the ‘90s, at least 3-4 slopes would regularly go without snowmaking the entire season. Since I moved back to the area and started skiing there 2-3 times a year I have to say that trails I hadn’t seen snow in since the Blizzard of ’93 were once again open and groomed. Likewise, additional connectors and a gladed area had been added to terrain that had a reputation for being bare.

Unfortunately, the overall conditions at Sno have not changed. The top portions of the mountain tend to be icy at night and can range from icy to slushy during the day. The western facing mountain takes a lot of sun during the day and can get really sloppy until sunset, then the temperature drop and skier use turns it to boilerplate by 6:30pm. The lower portion of the resort, where the expert runs are, will tend to stay soft and ice free most of the day and into the evening as well.

Two or three hours are all any expert skier needs to spend at Sno. The lower trails, Cannonball, Smoke, and Boomer are all excellent runs and Lower Fast Track and Lower Runaway can also be fun excursions. The coup-de-gras is White Lightning. It is a short, but steep run almost always bumped up and it can tend to be icy because lots of people who shouldn’t be on bumps still try to ride it. To its credit, if it were longer, it would be more difficult than Killington’s Outer Limits.

The cafeteria is overpriced, the gift shop is under stocked and overpriced, and the staff is less than professional. A friend of mine went to inquire at Skier Services about an upcoming deal Sno was offering. He had a copy of the flyer with some information and the girl at the counter stated she had no idea about what he was asking about and no one there had any other information. Another similarly Hollister-clad teen-queen was working the cafeteria register and had difficulty ringing up my chicken fingers and fries. I attempted to give her the odd change needed so she could give me back two quarters in change. This perplexed her, but she giggled at her poor mathematical skills. Awww…how cute.

The ski school is either inept or my buddy’s girlfriend really is the moron he claims she is because she’s taken at least five lessons over the past two years and still can’t get down the easy slopes in under 40 minutes.

Overall, if you are driving to SnoMountain from the south, just stay on I-81 North for a few more miles and take the exit for Elk Mountain. Save yourself some grief and skip on Sno. If you are a local, it’s an OK place for a few hours, every couple of weeks, but becomes old-hat very quickly. Of course, if there is a blinding snow storm all bets are off and the terrain can be really great, so you won’t mind the second-hand smoke from the liftie as you wait to get on the chair.

Snowshoe, West Virginia

I’m going to start by saying that I almost never ski-and-stay at a self-contained resort. The notion of parking my car and not moving it for four days is both a novelty and also prevents me from spreading my money around. I almost always never stay in resort accommodations and normally try to go to an area where I can hit up several resorts on my vacation. I have nothing against those of you who like to move into a condo and ski the same resort for several days, I’m just saying that’s usually not for me. Due to its remoteness, Snowshoe doesn’t really allow for that sort of thing, and for two years I had been hearing wonderful things about the resort, so I shifted gears and booked four nights at the Allegheny Springs condos, slopeside, at Snowshoe.

Since my non-skiing wife was accompanying me on this trip, I purposefully chose the accommodations close to the spa, hot-tubs, and other amenities so she wouldn’t have to go all over the place to do something. As it turned out, she slept until 10:30 every morning and confined herself to the room reading, catching up with social networking sites, and napping on the couch. I didn’t object…it was her vacation too.

Getting to Snowshoe was an experience in itself. Coming there from the northeast is probably the longest way to get there. Just looking at the maps, I know why Snowshoe can draw from Ohio, Virginia, and the Carolinas with more ease than it can from the Mid-Atlantic. After leaving the Interstate in Strasburg, VA we were on two lane roads for all but a short stretch where WV-55 is being turned into a freeway. From Strasburg it was 3.5 hours to Snowshoe. This was the route suggested to me by the reservationist when I phoned the day before to check on the best route since I had been told Highway 66 was prone to high snow drifts and was periodically closed. (That was the way Yahoo Maps and my GPS both said I should go.) Thankfully I only needed to throw my truck into 4WD once when crossing the high areas on the Pocahontas County line and then again when we actually got onto the Snowshoe access road. Like Vermont, the roads to the resorts get plowed frequently.

Check-In was easy and the desk agents, Wes and Morgan, were helpful and very friendly. Prior to coming I had made arrangements with the Ski Patrol to procure discounted tickets, which I was told I would have to get at The Depot. To my pleasure, Wes was able to print out my tickets right at the Allegheny Springs desk, thus saving me from going halfway across the resort the next day. So far, so good!

I was a bit disappointed with the size of the Junior Studio Room we chose. While it was well apportioned with a two-burner stove, a small refrigerator, toaster, and a full size microwave, I could see no way how four people could stay and function in the room as it was advertised. The dining area was a tiny against-the-wall bar shoved into the entry nook, there was very little closet space, and no room in the cupboards for food storage. There was about 12 inches of space between the wall and the side of the queen sized bed and no end table or other storage space on that side of the bed. The bathroom was too large and the designers could have easily shaved three feet out of the bathroom and given the main room more space. Likewise, I have no idea where we would have put the trunk/coffee table that contained the bedding for the pull-out couch if we did have four in our room. We barely had enough room for the two of us. Our room was available for sale at $144,000. Not a bad investment, but I wouldn’t use it as a vacation place on a regular basis. I would instead allow the sales team at Intrawest rent it out to unsuspecting suckers like me.


Thankfully, the remainder of the Allegheny Springs complex was superb, and since I was there to ski, I didn’t mind not spending a lot of time in my room. The courtyard between the two wings contained an outdoor heated pool with a connected hot tub (the cooler hot tub) and a separate hot-tub which was much warmer and thus more popular. Nevertheless, families could be found swimming in the large pool even while the air temperature hovered in the low 20’s. Full size storage lockers easily capable of holding four sets of skis and several ski bags were located in the lower level of the condo complex adjacent to the ski shop and a hallway lead directly out to the slopes near the Ballhooter lift. This was extremely convenient. Similarly, one could exit stage left and walk right into the main village complex where shops and dining were available, much as they are at other Intrawest resorts. It was very Stratton-esque.

Another reason I chose Snowshoe was because of the massive amount of snow that had fallen this season on the area. The Poconos had only reaped the rewards of one really good snowfall so far and Vermont had suffered rain and poor conditions all season. I witnessed that first hand in January and further calls to the North Country had not yielded a good prognosis. Snowshoe, much to my happiness, was covered in snow! My first run down the Blue-Square Ballhooter trail confirmed how good the snow was. There was no way it had seen the groomer the night before. There were too many tracks, but yet the snow was still loose and I was making effortless turns. Then I came to the bottom…a bit more sooner than I expected. The promo materials put forth by the Intrawest Ministry of Propaganda state the Vertical Drop is 1500 feet. There was no freaking way what I just skied had that much drop. So I continued to ski around the resort, enjoying the wonderful conditions on the trails near the Soaring Eagle lift. The Sawmill Glades were kinda pre-fab glades, but good for the average Snowshoe clientele. Camp 99 was the most challenging slope I found all day, and it wasn’t much of a challenge for someone who spent six years skiing the major resorts of Vermont. I began the first day at 9:30am and by 2:30 had pretty much skied everything at the main resort area except the terrain park and a green trail I wasn’t going to bother with. I still had yet to find anything of considerable length or anything with a high degree of difficulty. The snow conditions, however, remained excellent throughout the day.

Once back in the hotel room I fired up the computer and logged onto Google Earth. Just as I had expected, Google Earth put the top of the Ballhooter lift at 4758’ and the base at 4072’. You wanna do the math? No? OK, I’ll save you the trouble. It’s 686’! Further playing with Google Earth revealed that the slopes on the Western Territory section were much longer (1426’) but still short of the purported 1500’.

Luckily the Western Territory was on my schedule for the next day, but first I wanted to hit the Silver Creek area a mile away from the main resort. I started late the next day, not getting out of my hotel until almost 10am and then I had to wait for the shuttle and spend some time on the bus. Upon arrival I easily cruised Robertson’s Run (a Green) and then rode the lift to the top of Fox Chase in the anticipation of heading to the couple of Black-Diamonds that were on the far skier’s left. Much to my chagrin, I found the connectors were roped off and I was confined to Fox Chase. Did I miss something? Perplexed as to how to access the other slopes I asked the lift attendant who informed me they would open those trails around noon. Noon? I remarked, “It’s barely 10:30!” So I proceeded to ski the rest of Silver Creek. I relegated myself to staying on the Cascade chair except for one ride on the Cubb Run lift. The massive 395’ vertical drop kept me occupied for about an hour and I quickly polished off the five other open runs several times over before I ducked into the snack shop at the base and leisurely sipped a Seattle’s Best coffee. At 11:45 I took the chair back up to the top of Fox Run and waited again for a bit before I descended to the crossover, which by now was finally open. The other two dozen skiers and riders who were at Silver Creek did the same thing. I was happy to find fresh snow since it had been snowing all night, but again, the length and grade of the trail weren’t anything remarkable. I took three runs on Flying Eagle and two on Bear Claw before I decided to head over to the Western Territory.

The shuttle arrived soon after I got to the stop and the ride to the top of the Territory area was quick. I decided to first try Cupp Run in spite of the warning from the departing guest that it was windy and I would be cold. Surprisingly, Cupp Run was actually a good run. While the snow here wasn’t as quality as it was in other parts of the resort, nonetheless it was not icy and the length of the piste was commendable. There were some longer dropping sections and a few short flat spots along the trail which made for a nice variety. I had the quad to myself on the way up. It was mid-week. The traffic was low and I was fine with that. Next was Shay’s Revenge. The upper section was not remarkable. The snow was great, but there wasn’t anything particularly hard, then came a long flat spot which led to the mogul area. The moguls are signed Double-Black. It was not a particularly long section but I still haven’t mastered skiing bumps on telemarks, so to me it was the most challenging slope I found. Had it been groomed out I would have dropped that section in two turns…no problem. It wasn’t big or steep. I played on these two slopes for an hour or so and decide to head back to the condo around 3:00pm.

My third day started out with a run down Grabhammer (a Black Diamond) and a lift ride on the Powder Monkey lift with the intention of hopping the road and hitting the Western Territory again. Instead, noting the amount of loose snow under the lift, hit that instead and was very happy I did. While not steep, the Choker (another diamond) was rather fun and now it was time to head over to the Western Territory. I spent an hour and half over there before returning again to the main Snowshoe area where I proceeded again to ski Sawmill, Camp 99, and Soaring Eagle several times. As usual, I skipped lunch and skied through the noon hour rarely waiting more than one chair to load the lift. Short runs and faster lifts meant a lot of slope time and by 2:30 I was bored once again. Thus ended my skiing time at Snowshoe.

While there we dined at the Hot Dog place that featured Taco Hot Dogs as well as a deep-fried PB&J sandwich sundae…totally awesome grub. A Taste of Asia had excellent food but the service was lacking. The Junction was good, well-priced, but not spectacular. The Foxfire Grill however was the best ski-trip dining experience I’ve had in a long time. Our waiter, Paul, was extremely attentive and very prompt. My rack of ribs were excellent, my wife’s salmon was delicious (I tried it) and for dessert we had DIY S’mores. We were given a basket of S’mores fixin’s and a small metal firepot with which we toasted the marshmallows on. This was hands-down the coolest dessert I think I ever had in a restaurant. Paul admitted that it is very popular and when they run out of an ingredient there is a small revolt among both the staff and the patrons.

In spite of the shorter-than-expected trails, I had a wonderful time and would return if I was running a trip with a large group of intermediate skiers who wanted a vacation that involved skiing…but maybe not a “ski trip.” The snow conditions were excellent but Snowshoe is at best a beginner-to-intermediate resort well suited for families, couples, and college kids who only get to ski a couple days a year.

http://www.snowshoemtn.com