‘Not even cold’: Local skiers, boarders embrace frigid temps over holiday weekend

PENINSULA, Ohio (WJW) — On a day when prolonged exposure to the bitter winter temperatures could be dangerous, many in Northeast Ohio were making the most of it.

With school out for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Karuso Pindor, a student from Brecksville, said the first thing he thought of when he woke up Monday was to go snow skiing.

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“I ran to my parents bedroom, wake them up, make breakfast then came straight out here,” said Pindor, 15, who says he has been skiing since the age of 3.

He was not alone.

On Monday, the Boston Mills Ski Resort was packed with skiers taking advantage of the bitter cold.

“I’ve done much worse, I’ve been in much colder weather so this is about what I expected. It’s cold enough that they can make snow at least, so I’m happy about that,” said Tara Foley, a Case Western Reserve Medical Student from upstate New York.

“The excitement is high. Snow guns have been on for a couple of days now and they will continue throughout the week,” said Jake Campbell of Vail Resorts who works at Boston Mills, the nearby Brandywine and the Vail-owned Alpine Valley resort in Chesterland.

The resort does offer a lodge for skiiers and their families to warm up.

Ali Orr of Akron brought her 14-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to ski on their day off of school. And even though Orr does ski, on Monday she chose to stay in the lodge and stay warm.

“I like to stay warm by the fire, I plan to read a book today. They [her kids] don’t care about the cold, they just care about having fun and it gives me an opportunity to get out of the house, sit by a fire, have some hot cocoa, nothing better,” said Orr.

Out in the, cold the skiers say one of the secrets to staying warm is to keep moving, another is to make sure you are protected from direct exposure as much as possible.

“I’ve got, like, three layers on and I’m sweating right now so … it’s not even cold,” said Bruno Berlin, also a student from Brecksville.

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“The trick is layers, there’s no other trick other than that,” said Graham Nye, a student from Hudson.

The low temperatures were also helping the resort create its own snow after a slow start to the season.

“We are always heavily reliant on mother nature to provide those cold temperatures. We don’t really rely on the natural snowfall but when temps are right, our incredible snow-making team works 24 hours making sure we have a great experience at the resort,” said Campbell.

Campbell says the conditions were helping them make enough snow that he anticipated them opening another ski run as soon as Tuesday.

Skiiers on Monday were saying the activity is something they not only look forward to regardless of how cold the conditions are, but it is something they can only do in the winter.

“It makes winter fly by and its just fun hanging out with people and meeting new people,” said Pindor.

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