Paoli Peaks — Attraction in Paoli

First off, I haven’t been to Paoli Peaks in over 4 years and I know that my expectations should be lower compared to other resorts due to their location. I thought I would give Paoli a try and see how the resort has changed since their rebranding. With temps in the single digits and teens the previous weeks I expected prime skiing conditions considering the large amounts of opportunity to blow snow and get the slopes groomed nicely. Unfortunately, it was the same conditions as always at Paoli. For the majority of the open trails for the twilight session it was unbearably icy. There were sections that I could have easily ice skated. Particularly at the bottom of the runs (caution/slow areas). I’m an intermediate to advanced rider and it was difficult at times to even get an edge to shed speed off. This leads me to my next area of concern. I have never seen so many people being pulled up the mountain due to an injury. In the 3-4 hours, I was there I saw at least 3 people with some sort of injury. As Justin mentioned in his review earlier “People stand all over the hills/runs, block entrances/exits from lifts, will cut in lines, don't pay attention to other riders on the hills, and are generally quite oblivious to any common courtesies.” I personally helped 2 riders out that went through the bottom fence into the wooded area. I understand that a large number of customers come with no prior experience but found it ridiculous the number of riders laying on the hills and crashing at the bottom. I was pretty excited to come back to Paoli. Their social media did great advertising their 100% open and come on out for the college weekend / open until 3am. This could have been on me, but I was under the impression that the entire hill would have been open the entire night. On my second run of the night I decided to go down the Walnut Alley. Once I got to the bottom I was stopped and told that you can’t ride over here and that this side is closed. They were clearly very upset I was even there. I asked what was going on and why I wasn’t able to ride back up. I didn’t receive an answer and was told I had to walk back up the hill to access the other main lift. I never once saw a closed sign or ropes anywhere indicating that the slope was closed. Later the night a worker mentioned that there were having motor issues with that lift and that’s the reason they closed it. I completely understand that as far as safety concern and I’m not terribly upset about the situation. Just possibly next time close the slopes so that people don’t get stranded at the bottom. Lastly, having only one lift from the bottom of the hill to the lodge is ridiculous. With only half of the hill open everyone had to funnel into one lift. Luckily it wasn’t too crowded and wait times were minimal to none. The one lift was a issue to do those how rode the family trail to the very end (Large number of people) were forced to unbuckle and walk up an incline in order to access the lift. I’m guessing this was due to short staffing but It was slightly disappointing seeing beginners having to struggle to get uphill to get to the lift. Also, with only one lift operating I understand that you want to keep It moving to but there were times where 6-8 people were laying in the off ramp of the ski lift area. The operator rarely would slow the lift or stop it. At times, I don’t know if they were watching. Overall, Paoli Is wonderful for southern Indiana and those who are looking to try out skiing and snowboarding for the first time. Their limited number of beginner slopes makes it difficult to learn the basics. I just wanted to make aware some of the concerns I had during my experience here and hope that things start heading in the right direction. I won’t be coming back...

New management is badly needed. I arrived as soon as they opened on a Sunday morning. I got there early to avoid long lines since I had a long drive back home. I was the 4th person in line, but the two first people in line had groups. The first person had a group of 74, and the second person had a group of 15. Since they had large groups they had discounts on their tickets that they had already reserved online. Unfortunately Paoli Peaks snow tubing only had one clerk working in a building with three windows. The clerk was nice but to be honest she was a complete idiot. She did not know how to process the two groups discounts. Finally, one of the parties from the group went to find the manager since it became ridiculous based on the amount of time we stood waiting. The manager finally came out and said to give the two groups their discount. He then went back in the building. After that we waited another 15 minutes and the clerk had still not figured out how to give the discount. The manager came back out and I asked him if he could open a new window since we had been waiting close to 30 minutes. He said he would take care of it but he never opened another window. We ended up standing in line at least another 15 to 20 minutes while the clerk called the main office trying to sort the confusion out. After standing in line nearly 50 minutes beyond their opening time a huge crowd had begin to form behind me. My extra effort to get there early had not done me any favors. As you can imagine once I finally got my tickets and got inside to begin to tube there was already a large crowd there and lines had already gotten long. I was also less than impressed with the staff that worked at the bottom of the hill. My first slide down I went completely through the first barrier and hit the second fence. The two females working at the bottom of the hill just stood there staring at me. They never check to see if I was okay and they obviously had not correctly calculated how fast the the slopes would be. We ended up only getting to tube about four times since the lines were so long. I visited here about 4 to 5 years ago and was thoroughly impressed. Unfortunately the services provided and staff there are on the decline. I have no intentions of returning even though we had planned to make it an annual...

For the geographical location, this place was decent for southern Indiana. Since it doesn't snow very often, they have to make the snow so it can be icy at times. I have skied for many years and I liked the variety of hills so I had no trouble skiing, but with all the icey snow, the level of the hill did not match what was listed. The black diamond was easier to ski than the blue because of the ice patches all over the place. I get that they can't help the ice, but signs should be posted and runs with ice and grass blocked to notify beginner skiers (more than 50% of the people there were beginners). Could maybe maintain the hills so the manmade snow is not in heaps and instead groomed across the hills.

Also this place would get more stars if the check-in process was better. I've been to over 20 ski resorts across the country and I have NEVER had to pick my own boots out. The boots are all located on hooks (see picture) and you have to grab them with no help whatsoever, which is crazy! It also seems like they do not clean the boots after use as people were just throwing them back on the hooks. DISGUSTING! Also no sign telling you to grab boots so people wait in line thinking they will get boots but the line is just for skis, so you are wasting time standing in line not knowing whats going on. I have small feet and they didn't even have the available size in adult shoes (which has never happened before) and the shoes were not labeled well so I had to wear boots a size too big. When asking for help the employees didn't even know how the strange children boots worked.

The poles were located in cardboard bins all thrown about. Most of the poles were broken and none of them had straps for your wrists. Took over 20 minutes to find poles that matched as they were all different sizes in the bins (see picture). Such a disorganized place.

Also the inside of the lodge was so dirty! The bathrooms smelled horrible. They were on the first floor, but you could smell urine all the way up the stairs. No hot water to wash hands in either. No restaurant and the food was overpriced cafeteria food.

If you can help it, go north. The slopes in Michigan are maintained and the lodges are nice with fires and better...