UPDATED: Thursday January 5, 2012 12:20 PM
MANSFIELD, Ohio – It’s time to bundle up and grab boots and skis to hit the trails in Mansfield.
Snow Trails is a central Ohio skiing destination and this season features $2 million in improvements to the 51-year-old resort. That includes the opening of what’s now the longest trail in Ohio, the Timberline Trail.
“It’s real long. It has a couple steep parts, and down at the very bottom there’s a real long runoff,” said ski instructor Scott Latham.
Other improvements this year include a 9,000 square foot rental center which is stocked with everything you need for fun on the trails. There’s a new “snow cat” to shift the mountains of snow into place on the hills. They have also added 12 more snow guns for nighttime snow making along Mount Mansfield.
“We don’t rely on natural snow at all. What we do is build a natural snow-making system each year adding to it, making it better so that we’re able to blanket the slopes no matter if we have any natural snow at all,” said Nate Wolleson of Snow Trails.Thursday January 5, 2012 12:17 PM
In addition, the climate in this area is perfect for winter recreation.
“The Possum Run Valley, just tucked in the valley here, it’s definitely a lot colder. And we even see 5 to 7 degrees, even 10 degrees colder than Columbus sometimes just based on how the front moves northeast,” Wolleson said.
Snow Trails attracts up to 100,000 skiers per season including lots of kids. A new children’s learning center offers programs for kids as young as three.
“Our instructors are trained specifically for the children,” Wolleson said. “We take them out on the slopes, we get them used to everything again, sliding on the snow with one ski and two skis.”
Even if you don’t know how to ski, Snow Trails offers tubing in addition to its 17 ski trails.