Spring Mountain Adventures — Attraction in Upper Salford Township

My seven year old daughter and I are learning how to snowboard together. We made this trip with my eldest son and some family friends. Overall I would say we enjoyed our time at Spring Mountain, reasonably priced for beginners, lines were as expected, even at times non existent.

I wish that were the full experience. Unfortunately the Powder Pig Pub, put a slight damper on the adults experience.

After snowboarding for a few hours, collectively we decided to all meet up for lunch at the pub. Three of us headed in, and were seated by Chuck, who I later found out was the bartender. He sat us next to the window, which had a nice view of the hill. About 3-4 minutes passed when a young lady began to approach us, however she turned away from us and stood staring out the window. About two more minutes passed and two more from our group joined us. Without thinking, we turned to combine the two tables we were sitting at. At that time my friend asked if I had ordered any drinks yet, in which I replied "No, I guess this is self serve". As we got up to approach the bar, the man behind the bar, Jose (aka the Manager) yelled to the young lady staring out the window, Bridget, " They cant put the tables together like that by the window!" Now when I say he yelled, I mean he yelled across the restaurant, which was extremely inappropriate. At this juncture not only am I annoyed now that six servers were standing by the opening of the kitchen/bar and not one of them greeted us, in fact walked past us several times, now the Manager was causing a scene that was completely unnecessary.

When I got to the bar, I asked to speak with the manager, in which Jose replied he was. I began to ask him if this was a self serve establishment, in which he quickly cut me off, to ask me if I sat myself. Which I replied no. I started to ask him again if we would have a server and yet again, he cut me off, to ensure I understood that the tables could not be combined. At this point I cut him off and explained that I got that, when he yelled it across the establishment, the tables had already been turned back, my main concern at this point was finding out if we were getting a server, or have to order at the bar.

I walked away from Jose, it seemed as though he couldnt get over the fact of the tables being moved around. About 2-3 minutes later, Bridget and Melissa approached our table. Bridget did not introduce herself, or Melissa, just got right into "What can I get you to drink?" While Melissa stood on the opposite side of the table.

I asked Bridget what her name was, I also asked for Melissa's. I asked why we had two servers, as well asked if Melissa was training. Bridget stated that she was in fact training Melissa.

I ordered my beverage, as well as the five others at my table. When the two girls walked away, Chuck appeared at the entrance of the bar. At this point your entire waitstaff was staring and talking about my family. Chuck stood in the entrance way of the bar/kitchen, and just kept staring at me. With the most disgusted look on his face. I took the liberty of staring right back at him. I was under the impression he was trying to intimidate me and my family. We had three adults and four kids with us, c'mon really dude!

When Melissa came to drop off drinks, I asked who Chuck was, thinking maybe he was another manager, in which she replied he was the bartender. She explained that Jose was the manager, who was also cooking at the moment, and from what I saw bartending.

My family ate and we went back out to enjoy the remainder of our day.

Again, if it were not for the encounter at Powder Pig Pug, I would have given 5 stars. Again the mountain was perfect for us two beginners and the others enjoyed skiing/snowboarding for the reasonable price. I have already suggested to a few of my acquaintances to check out your facility, I did warn them not to go to the restaurant.

As a former server/bartender/Restaurant Manager, and my friend who is a Banquet Manager. The experience upstairs was completely...

I've been skiing 2-3 times about 10 years ago, had good and bad experiences back then, but hadn't done it again till now, when I wanted to take my boyfriend to learn. We went on a Saturday morning, got there about a half hour after opening, and it was busy but not crowded. They had staff in the parking lot directing you to the next open parking space, which was nice. It was a warmish sunny day, so the only snow on the hill was manmade, maybe that's why it wasn't crowded. We signed up for the lesson package, which was a great value. My boyfriend has wide, flat feet size 13W and he couldn't even use the size 17 pro boots they brought out for him, so he decided to just sit it out and watch me. The staff was very nice, they suggested to try snowboarding since the boots fit different, but he just wasn't very enthusiastic about it, so they gave him a full refund for the lift ticket, rental, and lesson he'd paid for. They did not give him any attitude, they just tried to be helpful so he could have fun on the slopes, which is what you go to a ski place for in the first place. After refunding, they suggested that we try Buckman's ski shop or the local Campcraft store, where we might be able to find boots that will fit, and rent them from there for the season or however long we need. I didn't know that retail ski shops did that so that was very helpful! We will be going to look for boots soon, so I hope that we will be back at Spring Mountain again this weekend. As for myself, my boots fit fine, even though my feet are wide and my calves are chunky. The wait outside at the ski barn was a little long, but since it was close to the start-time of a lesson, and there was no line at the snowboard counter, a staff member came over and directed anybody who paid for a lesson to go over to that counter, I thought that was nice of them :) The instructor for my lesson, Rob, was awesome. Very thorough lesson, taught me the basics that I had never learned, and got me back to feeling comfortable and in-control to the point that after about an hour, I was ready to try the real hill on my own. I did 3 runs, and by then my ankles/legs were pretty tired, and my boyfriend was bored, so I called it a day. To the reviewer who complained about them not having enough poles, I have to say that my instructor, before we even put on our skis, had us all throw the poles we'd rented in a pile in behind us, and we did not use them for the rest of the lesson, the only time we used one was as to hold the pole out in front horizontally like a cafeteria tray, and try to keep it still, to help us gauge how "calm" we kept our upper body. If you learn at Spring Mountain, they really encourage you to not need the poles. Also, it may be that they have a matching amount of poles, and some get lost/bent/broken in the course of a week, and they haven't gotten around to replacing them yet. Overall I feel Spring Mountain is perfect for beginners. I might go back to Jack Frost once I feel I've mastered all the runs at Spring Mountain, but that probably won't be till next season. I love that this place is only a half hour from King of Prussia, the prices are reasonable, there is some type of discount for almost everybody on different weekdays, and most of all that it is aimed at beginners. I never understood why other places set up their runs so they have beginner's trails crisscrossing with black diamonds, so either a) beginners get clobbered by experts speeding down from above b) experts are frustrated at having to avoid newbies crossing in front of them, or worst, c) a beginner takes a wrong turn and ends up on a trail that they can't handle, and pose a danger to themselves and others. Just be sure, if you plan to go for tubing, to check the website's "full report" section, so far they have not opened tubing yet... if the tubing run is labeled "set up with 3 rails" that means it's set up for snowboarding, not tubing. the status of tubing is in the text above the...

This place would have received five stars had it not been for the $76 "lesson" I took for beginner snowboarding. First the pros: A great place for people who are just learning or want something a little more tame than the huge hills in the Poconos. The staff working in the lodge were friendly and seemed knowledgable. They have food trucks outside where we ate lunch at an outdoor seating area with a fire pit. It was a nice atmosphere.

The one huge con: Readers who are thinking about taking lessons here beware! A friend and I paid for snowboarding lessons; she had ridden once before and I had never been on a snowboard. She ended up with an instructor who had her skillfully riding down the mountain by the end of the hour (shorter girl with blonde hair I never got her name) but my friend said she learned a great deal from her instructor. My instructor on the other hand taught my group of 4 adults (3 by the end of the lesson because one woman realized how terrible he was 10 minutes in and left) LITERALLY NOTHING. I was so furious I missed getting his name at the end but he was 19(he stated this several times because he kept talking about how he couldn't wait to be 21) tall skinny pale skinned boy with brown hair and blue eyes. If you are assigned to him immediately ask for another instructor or a refund. Here is the entirety of our lesson. We walked a few feet up the slope. He put one of his feet in the board. Since he didn't tell us how to do this we had to just figure it out. Next he told us to walk around with one foot on the board and one foot off the board. Then, still with one foot on the board he slid down a few feet, did something with his foot or leg that he didn't explain, and told us to stop like that. That was the extent of his teaching. For the next 50 minutes of the lesson he sat on the ground and every time someone asked something or was obviously not getting it he just said you need to practice more. After I had fallen the 20th time (and going into the lesson knowing id fall a lot) I asked how he was stopping himself and he just said well not by doing that. You'll just fall and people will laugh at you. I was infuriated that I completely wasted $76 on that. In the last 5 minutes of the hour he took us where we could see the lift (the $76 is in part for an all day lift ticket) and then he made us watch other people get on the lift. And that was it. And then said "well we still have 5 minutes so let's just sit here for 5 minutes." It's really a shame that spring mountain allows instructors like this. I paid almost $80 to not even have two feet on the board at the end of an hour, have zero instruction on how to snowboard, and had to pay for a lift ticket that I had no idea how to use. This is insane. And as I watched the other instructors around us I saw that they were actually helping their clients, giving advice and tips and technique. Thank God I came with another friend who, after my "lesson" took time out of his day to actually teach me to begin to snowboard. This is a nice place and it's sad that its image and reputation is, in my eyes, tarnished because apparently it's such a crapshoot for instructors that it's not worth the $76 to see who...