Hidden Valley Four Seasons Resort

Who’s ready for the sunny and 80 degree temps???
This review is a mix of past experience here (last January) and just hanging in lodge all afternoon (still can’t ski).
My experience with skiing here isn’t too bad at all! I know there other mountains with longer runs but change is nice! Last time I was here, the lift lines were non existent and would get right on the lifts! That is the case today as well. The temp of 7 and windchill of –20, only the crazy die hard skiers/​snowboards are out in this crazy temp! They are making snow on a few select slopes so that can make it a little difficult today for people! You could easily get 20 – 30 runs in on a day like today!
The price for an all day lift ticket is $ 45! That is definitely reasonable compared to the sister resort of 7springs!
They have a couple restaurant choices here but I didn’t venture around much! I just sat in the lodge facing the slopes watching people! This area how ever had no Tvs or fire place or even music! So that was lame! They also have a bar located right by the slopes! But the only noted open today was the bar and the café at the present time. I’m going to assume the other restaurants will be opening up around dinner.
It’s strange to me that it’s difficult to find a fire place or fire pit at a ski resort! Well especially a 4 seasons resort.
The works here today seem to be the skeleton crew! Just the bare minimum today.
We can’t really comment on ski rental equipment Bc we have our own gear.
We also cannot comment on food because we usually pack our lunches when we go skiing! But by the looks of it, the prices are a little ridiculous
So you may ask why 3 stars?! Well for one its Bc the the price is reasonable compared to its sister resort! No lift lines and crowds have always been a minimum for us when we have come! I’ll
Have to do a review update when /​if I come back during a busy time.

Regarding lodging only: This place is a disaster, nothing has been updated since the 1970’s at least. For these prices I expect Marriott level of quality. The bathroom was gross, we didn’t even bother showering. Upon first entering the room it was clear the heat wasn’t on. It was well below 40 °F outside and going to be in the low 20’s, and they didn’t turn the heat on!!!
The continental breakfast was a joke: muffins, bagels, and cereal. Nothing for gluten free visitors. Also the cappuccino machine only doles out water.
Making a reservation was agonizing, the staff was unhelpful and ridiculous. I would not have stayed here if it had not been for an event.

We recently spent the weekend at Hidden Valley and I’m going to review HV on several aspects. Some very good, some very bad. Let’s go over the bad first, and save the best for last.
Lodging: 1 star. We checked in to our «King Suite» at around 5:30 on Friday night. Upon entering we noticed how dated the room was. 1970’s carpet, vertical blinds on the window in the bedroom with several slats missing, bathroom vanity that looked like someone had kicked it several times as the door was smashed in; and then my wife opened what she thought was the closet… It was a small room containing the hot water heater and various «supplies» such as toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, etc. There were pieces of scrap wood on the floor along with rolls of toilet paper on the floor right next to the hot water tank. Not only was this sloppy, it has to be a fire hazard so close to the pilot light of the hot water tank. We were very disappointed at this point, but decided to go get a bite to eat (I review dining below). After we came back to the hotel room, we turned on the TV to find that NEITHER TV worked at all. Additionally, my son wanted to take a shower, and found that the water would not drain from the tub. This was the last straw — I went to the front desk and they sent Jeremy (I’m pretty sure) down to check it out. Jeremy was the bright spot — he checked out the TV and couldn’t get it to work, looked at the tub and the utility room and agreed that all was very sub par. I asked him if we could get another room and he immediately called the front desk to inquire. He and I went up to the desk together and found that they could not get us another «King Suite», only a standard room and refund the rest. Okay. I’d about had it anyway. Jeremy got the room number and said that he would personally go down and make sure that everything was in working order which he did. After we packed all of our belongings up and went to the new «Standard Room», we found that it was much better. Still pretty dated, but what you would expect from a ski resort that only makes budget upgrades once a decade. While the room was not very private, it was clean and everything worked fine. Outside of Jeremy, the front desk staff and, later, the manager didn’t seem very phased by my complaints. I get the sense that they have heard it all before and there’s nothing they can do about it. Didn’t offer anything other than the standard refund which I found strange. I’ve stayed in a lot of places and usually find hotel staff more than willing to make up for any issues.
Dining: One star. As I mentioned above, we went to get some dinner almost immediately after we checked in to our room. We went to the Clock Tower Restaurant and were quickly seated. Already in a bad mood, things turned worse… We waited about 10 minutes before we were even spoken to by a waitress who explained that she would be taking our table since the the waitress who should have taken our order was given too many large tables. My son’s water class was filthy and even had a lemon seed stuck to the bottom. By now you see where this is going. Took over 20 minutes for a couple of burgers and a pulled pork sandwich. The waitress was extremely apologetic and that seemed to be the theme for the night. All around us it seemed that waiters/​waitresses were getting orders wrong, food was not cooked correctly, etc… Never heard so many apologies in my life. That was it for the restaurant for us – except for the following day when Glaciers (the downstairs bar) was full and my wife was done skiing. The bartender was totally lost and seemed like she’d never worked in a bar before.
Skiing: 4 stars. Conditions on the hill were perfect. Got about 3″ of snow overnight and we had a great time. Only complaint was that the rope tow which assists you from getting from the North Side of the mountain to the main side went down. Had to hoof it up a slight grade to get back. At least we burned some calories.
Snow Sports School: 5 stars. My son was enrolled in the Rippers snow board program which is an all-​day group lesson. Usually they have 3 — 4 other kids of similar age and ability. However, when they started the lesson, they found that the 3 other kids enrolled had never boarded before or only once or twice. My son is more of an intermediate, so they had him go down the beginners slope once to show them what he could do and they got him out with his own instructor!!! Shout out to Ethan (also my son’s name) who spent from 10am to 3 pm giving my son a private lesson. Deal of the century and my son improved a ton that day!
Shuttle service was timely and drivers were always courteous. 4 stars.

I consider Hidden Valley my home ski resort. This is where I learned to ski probably 13 or 14 years ago. I ski here 10+ times a season and will most likely continue to going forward. Its certainly not the best resort out there. Not even the steepest in the Laurel Highlands. But it is a nice family resort. Crowds are fairly light on weekends when compared to Seven Springs.
They purchased new state of the art snow guns several years ago that make great snow. Also the snow grooming crew does a great job overnight to groom deep and pack down a great surface.

+Good to great skiing, cool trick parks, and huge 22′ halfpipe with daunting jumps running parallel to the pipe
+Good bar scene at the foggy goggle.
–Unfriendly staff, no help selecting/​buying/​or returning equipment.
— I was never checked for a lift ticket (on a Monday)
–No breakfast /​food/​drink options available beyond the formal restaurant (open after lunch) and the foggy goggle (after lunch)
*** come to ski, pack your own lunch, and get some pitchers & delicious wings at the Foggy Goggle-​just about the only good thing on the menu.

Great little family friendly ski resort that is great for beginner to intermediate levels. Only about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. I love this place and have gone to it many times as I’ve been advancing from beginner to intermediate level and it’s been great for the learning process. The instructors and lessons are great, and most of the slopes are nice and wide and not usually that crowded (way less crowded than Seven Springs). When I go ski here by myself everyone is so friendly here and will just start up a conversation. There are a nice variety of green and blue slopes and a few blacks. Lift lines are rarely that long. One downside is that the North side is kind of a pain to get to since there is a long flat area you have to get past first to get over there, though they have a tow rope on the way back. I really wish they would run the tow rope both ways or get a magic carpet there, as it would make it much easier to go between the two parts of the park.
The food options are typical food court variety. There is also a pub and a fancier restaurant. I’ve been to the pub a few times which has a nice selection of draft beer on tap, but the food options are also mediocre and the service is terribly slow unless I sit right at the bar. But decent options for a small ski resort. There are several rooms inside with tables that people usually leave their stuff at, and I’ve never had a problem with anyone messing with my stuff there, so I’ve never had to use the lockers. You can also bring your own food and I often see families and large groups setting up an entire picnic in there.

I just called Hidden Valley to inquire about Christmas rates and lodging options. The guy on the phone told me they are in the process of being acquired by Seven Springs so the rates haven’t been set for those dates yet. He couldn’t even give me a ballpark range, but it sounded like he thinks the rates will be going up. Very disappointing that they’re in limbo and unable to be helpful with my planning. I’ll likely head somewhere else.
A big heads up to those people who said this was a better price/​deal that Seven Springs — sounds like the good deals may be over.

Awesome Memorial Day weekend. Lots of kids stuff to do

I will probobly never go back to Hidden Valley Resort. It was a nice room and the slopes were okay but the employees suck, the breakfast wasnt good, the bars/​restaurants werent very great.
To start, my boyfriend asked for a room with a Jacuzzi suite, the way they answered him made him think that we had it in the room. Therefore booked him for a suite.(which is obviously more expensive) Then they said they were sold out and couldn’t book the second night but will put him on a list. They called him one night, left a message and he called back. They said the room was no longer available and will keep him on the list. We got there and they said there is no Jacuzzi suites but we had a fireplace (we had to put 100 $ deposit to hold the room, which was already misled because there were no Jacuzzi suites, just at the gym). We were then told that we were booked for two nights, they never told us that so we looked into other hotels for the second night. We were happy about having it but they messed up telling us.
Then she told my boyfriend to talk to the manager the next day about the issues because the person that booked the room was new. He called and I believe her name was Beth? it started with a B. She was rude, basically said it was my boyfriends fault and her staff knows what they are doing and didn’t do anything wrong and its his mistake for not understanding them correctly with the second night being added. Also said that her staff is not new but added later on that the girl that send the email conf was new. therefore that was somehow a lie? Her stories didnt match up. She ALSO hung up on him without saying goodbye or saying they are sorry about the inconvenience. My boyfriend doesn’t get really rude, so he didn’t deserve the attitude. HORRIBLE customer service. I will never go back there again.

This is a review of the resort process and not the slopes themselves (which are fine). I was very excited to go to Hidden Valley for a ski weekend. I booked reservations online, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to attend the trip. Very disappointing.
Even more disappointing was the realization that if you make your reservations online, you must cancel fourteen days in advance in order to receive a refund, and thus I forfeited over $ 200. While I am very aware that I should have noticed this myself, it still would not have changed the fact that I would have had to cancel.
I called to do this, and asked the front desk clerk if anything could be done…*very* politely. She was exceedingly rude, pointing out that I had the information and should have known it. Definitely adds insult to injury.
The policy itself is harsh — lots of things can unfortunately happen in 14 days, but the treatment and condescension was especially unnecessary. There are too many other resorts within a days drive, and we will definitely prefer those in the future.

I love going to Hidden Valley to ski. It is a great place for beginners to learn how to ski and for more advanced skier to take the higher ad steeper slopes and challenge themselves.
Their prices are one of the main things that make Hidden Valley such a great place to go. Compared to some of the other places, Hidden Valley is a much better deal, and in my opinion, the slopes are fantastic for the price.
They also have a great bar and some food selections that you can enjoy during your break from the slopes. You gotta check this place out if you haven’t already.

If you are planning a SUMMER trip ask about AC. Many of the residences do not have AC at all. Unfortunately we went during a heat wave and it was almost impossible to sleep upstairs; It really impacted our stay. Choose a place with AC. We left a day early.

My wife surprised me with their stay and ski package. $ 99 for a Monday night in the lodge bundled with free lift tickets, rentals, and lessons. I have to hand it to Hidden Valley — they’ve been doing a great job keeping the slopes open despite the lack of snow this year.
It was easy to find the main office to check in and the girl at the front desk was very friendly. We were given our welcome packet and directions to get to our room. The accommodations were a bit «rustic» to say the least. We had to walk through the snow to get to the back of the building where our room was. There wasn’t a clear path. We used our keycard to get in and walked up some stairs to our room. It definitely had a mountain lodge feel to it. I assume they are doing some updates throughout the rooms. I saw some nice flat screen TV’s in some of the rooms as we walked past, but ours was an old, small tube TV. Nevertheless it was cozy. They offer free WiFi in each of the buildings.
We had a continental breakfast included with our stay. The selection wasn’t great and there were so few tables we couldn’t find a place to sit. One of the employees pointed us to another room down the hall where there were some open tables.
The snow has been very meager this year, which means the slopes are not all open. Some of the trails on the North Side had no snow at all. I can’t hold that against Hidden Valley though — they’re making the most of what they’ve got to work with.
I will continue returning to Hidden Valley for the value. It’s rarely ever crowded, the prices are good, and it’s always a good time.

I skied last weekend at Hidden Valley. There hadn’t been any snow locally for a week – but HV had most of the trails open, and they had decent snow. I looked at the ski report app on my Droid and saw that HV was listing more snow than any other Eastern resort. Then a ski patrolman told me that a lift inspector who works the whole East Coast told him that Hidden Valley had more snow on the trails than anyone else on the East – all the way to Maine.
The new ownership at HV has replaced a number of lifts, added Magic Carpets to the quad lifts so that they are easier to get on, and worked on the trails. They have also added a huge number of snowmakers, with the obvious result.
I love skiing there since all the recent improvements! The new management has improved the food a lot, and it’s OK, but I think it’s fair to say that they are still finding their way in that area. You’ll like the food but I suspect that when they are done it will be terrific.
Dave Roberts

Not much has changed. Great place for families and many people bring own food and put on a table. Some updating to one large room overlooking the slopes. Also, added Subway sandwiches to the cafeteria.
Glaciers Pub was busy and service slow, so go to the bar and get your own.
While many in the Burg were having trouble with the snow on Thursday and Friday, those at HV were skiing some nice fresh powder. Unfortunately, HV over groom and do not leave enough powder for Friday except on the one side of Comet so we skied there early and often. Fun to see your tracks when you get to the bottom.
Fun was had by everyone.
Have to give HV some credit for lack of snow fall and warm weeks the slopes were in good condition.

**SKI/​RIDE REVIEW**
I came here on Dec 30^th, and I was pretty impressed at what they had open. The weather hasn’t been the best for skiing so we expected there to be a shortage of trails. Although we had to work with the shorter trails I enjoyed every moment of it. Everyone knows the bigger and «better» mountain of 7Springs but I think that Hidden Valley deserves some props as well. First the lift tickets are a great value considering the wider trails and the well maintained runs. You’ll be happy to know that you’ll stand in line for a LONG 2 MINUTES! You spend your time skiing/​riding there which is something everyone loves. We paid $ 25 for night skiing and it was well worth the money. There are a few slopes in the front that are classified as beginner/​intermediate trails but don’t count those out. You can cruise at high (er) speeds and in some cases fly down because of the space you have. it’s not crowded like 7Springs and you don’t have to dodge a ridiculous skiier making long turns (I HATE THAT). When you get a chance go to the backside or further left because of the fact of the slightly steeper terrain but good snow. For the day we had there and the great time we had at the resort I wouldn’t hesitate to come back. I got a sense of a lot more locals at Hidden Valley but I could be wrong. What I am NOT wrong about is that its a great resort that has the Skiing/​Riding that’s needed. If you want to get your money’s worth and Ski and not stand in lift rides — drive 15 minutes and check it out.

Very impressive. Not so crazy like 7springs next door. Great kids program and very family oriented. They really work with you on reservations for the kids lessons too.

I love Hidden Valley. Been going since I was three years old, so it feel like a second home to me.
No lift lines and the trails are little more interesting than at 7 springs. Also, less crowded, which I enjoy.
It’s a little run down, so I can’t really give it 5 stars, but I kind of like it that way.

I’m a naysayer on Seven Springs, but I loved Hidden Valley by comparison.
POSITIVES:
–NO LIFT LINES, they beat seven springs with a stick with this. The lift lines were quick, and so were the lifts.
–Wide open trails, well groomed and covered.
–Brand new snowmaking equipment, the snow quality was fantastic for spring skiing.
–Challenge is there if you look for it (IE tree skiing, some narrow steeps).
–Cheaper tickets than 7S
–Better parking than 7S.
–Easy access to the lodge from the slopes (7S is also poor on this, unless you get dropped off on the lower plaza by the ticket office).
–Better slope grading around the trail tops and bottoms (at 7S, you constantly have to ski «uphill» to go downhill.)
From what I understand in talking to resort staff while there, ownership just really changed in the last few years, and huge improvements are on the way. More trails, a new lift, a hotel, and better food.
I found the food to be ok, but it was outdoor patio food as part of the winter fest, so it’s not an accurate measure of their normal selection. But Donegal is quite closeby with a few great options (See my review of «out of the fire»).
It just felt better than Seven Springs as well, the staff were all much more friendly and personable than anyone I encountered at 7S. It looks like they generally just care more about their resort, whereas 7S is about how many skiers per square foot can you pack in at the highest price.
Even with only a 10 – 15 mile difference, it’s worlds ahead of 7-​Springs. I loved it here and wouldn’t hesitate to make the drive again.

This ski resort feels more like a local Michigan hill (where I’m from) than a resort. It has a limited number of runs but they do fairly price their lift tickets. As Erin W said in her review, Seven Springs is superior to this resort in amenities and variety of trails but if you like the small town homey feel this is it. There’s a ton of condos and houses for rent that are right on the slopes. Given the choice though I would pick Seven Springs over Hidden Valley for the variety of ski slopes.
I’ve never visited in the summer but have heard that it’s also quite nice to vacation here for all the outdoor offerings in the area (including mountain biking, white water rafting, hiking, etc).