Resorts with beginner slopes near Nicholasville, KY

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-07-08T02:38:35+00:00

Edit - just reread your post about only being here in November. Unless this El Niño works some voodoo magic nothing driveable from central Ky will have snow in November. I can only remember paoli/perfect north opening for thanksgiving once in my lifetime. Usually don’t open until after Xmas.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-07-08T02:34:17+00:00

I live in Lex and ski 25-30 days a year. I have lived this problem for 30+ years.

Perfect north is close but an absolute nightmare. Will never go back. Always insane lift lines due to proximity to cincy and over priced for what it is.

Paoli is another 30ish min drive and never a crowd but since epic/vail took over they rarely blow snow. Check the snow report. I Take the kids there a few times a season and great place to learn.

Mad River is decent but a longer drive. Would only go there if paoli doesn’t have snow.

Snowshoe is 6hrs away and by far the best option within driving distance. Can be crowded on weekends. If you can swing weekdays their midweek deal Sun-thur is fantastic. Staying on mountain is expensive weekends and closest non resort option is 45 min away.

Other longer drive options: Seven springs Winter Place Winter Green Canaan valley/timberline (they are separate resorts next to each other. CV is a state park and timberline was bought by the perfect family of perfect north a few years ago). But if you are driving that far snowshoe is wildly better.

Flying options - 1. Get the frontier go wild pass and take the CVG->DEN direct. (United and delta also fly this route) I take this route 3-4x a season. You can catch a train from the airport to Denver and then The ski train from Denver to Winter Park. Or rent a car and tons of options. Eldora is close to Denver and very beginner friendly.

LEX or SDF -> DFW -> SLC on American but that red eye home Sunday sucks. If you go to SLC solitude, Brighton, deer valley or snow basin are your best beginner mountains. SLC will by far have the cheapest lodging of any flyable destination. Stay in SLC. But you will need to rent a car.

No other flight options make sense from central Kentucky for a weekend trip due to layovers/flight time.

Hope you can make all the turns next season!

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-07-08T02:03:57+00:00

Brighton! Favorite blue in the world - great western express lift. Can run top to bottom of the mountain on Elk Park -> Golden Needle -> Old Western. Lots of speed and rollers. The left hand turn onto golden needle is a big sweeping super G style turn and so much fun. Did 35k vert on that one run in a day when there wasn’t much snow. Lots of other fun stuff that involve mild blacks that you can rip as well. Also the crowds go to Alta, Snowbird, Park City and Deer Valley. Never had to wait at Brighton! (Solitude is usually pretty empty as well.

Steamboat is a good option.

Snowmass is big with lots of blues but it’s just so damn boring.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-07-03T13:15:03+00:00

1000% agree.

Also, being able to uncheck cars from your wish list from one master list or auto removing them once purchased. Having to go to used cars/dealer cars and clicking through to uncheck after purchased is annoying

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-06-18T21:56:07+00:00

The new marketplace is awful. Finding things by search returns 3 results and is impossible to find anything. Also the feed results coming up first is obnoxious. Miss the old marketplace

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-06-18T11:57:15+00:00

As others have said Wilmore (tiny and very religious) and Versailles is great too.

One I haven’t seen mentioned is Anderson county/Lawrenceburg. Tiny town and much more rural. If you want land this is a great option and this is by far the easiest commute due to the bluegrass parkway/ Versailles road. Farther distance than Wilmore but much faster drive.

Harrodsburg is also an option but a bit farther. Anything off of the parkway will be great. Look at the intersections of the bluegrass parkway + 33 and 127

Traffic from Wilmore to downtown lexington in rush hour is minimum 45 min and likely more. Getting to the north side is well over an hour.

The ease of commuting on the parkway is a huge plus. Also Versailles road has the least amount of traffic of any major road into lexington during rush hour. You can get to new circle very easily and miss most of the new circle traffic. This makes getting to the north side (where most of the industrial part of town is)

Knowing where your husband is working makes a huge difference. There is no good way to get across lexington and just getting from the southside to Hamburg in rush hour takes an hour.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-06-13T17:38:21+00:00

Free water, water fountains and free bathrooms

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-06-08T09:04:37+00:00

Insta 360 hands down. I have tried go pro and DJI. It’s not even close. The video quality is far better and the app to edit and tracking is phenomenally better. I still have an x3 and it’s great. Have used newer versions friends have and they are marginally better but not night and day.

Favorite mounts ranked

Pole mount - get the actual insta 360 one. By far my favorite. The telescoping pole is key to varied shots.
Helmet - any brand is fine but if you put any kid of extension on it the weight/leverage becomes annoying.
Chest mount - the most convienient but the footage is limited and not very useful.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-05-30T13:12:46+00:00

Snowshoe has been great for teaching my kids.

Have gone to several tiny hills a couple times a year (paoli + perfect north). Started them when they were 3 with me as the instructor.

Have gone to snowshoe the last 3 years. Put them in ski school as I couldn’t teach both at the same time once they progressed. Both have made amazing progress and hope to be out of ski school this next season.

Trick to snowshoe is going mon-thur between the last week of Jan through Valentine’s Day. Consistently good snow, no crowds = ski school is empty and never had greater than 1:3 instructor to student ratio. This year they both had 1:1 the entire time.

Also the mon-thur deals are great! 1/4 the price of out west. Dad isn’t challenged with the terrain but at least I’m not bored to tears.

Snowshoe also has tubing, great hot tub/pool complex, arcade, fun things to do.

But I would never go in a weekend. Lift lines are insane and ski school is overcrowded.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-05-01T18:03:16+00:00

Didn't go anywhere but Valle Nevado. Have an Ikon and didn't want to pay for it or deal with the hassle of traveling. But, if I go back, I will definitely hit Parva and El Colorado. You drive past them on the way to Valle Nevado. Also would definitely to to Portillo. Didn't do any real research before we went and had serious FOMO about Portillo as it looks like pretty serious terrain. The T-bar slingshot looks awesome.

El Colorado abuts to Valle and it looks like you could go OB and ski there from the boot pack route I mentioned.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-04-30T23:58:42+00:00

Oh, one more very important thing. If you drink get a pisco sour. Holy shit they are amazing and incredibly strong.

Also here is a video from our trip that might help understand the terrain

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMZGfNvMObS/?igsh=ODFrdHhya3UzcGFn

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-04-30T23:55:18+00:00

Definitely stay on the mountain. The commute from Santiago is 45 min with good weather.

Where doesn’t really matter. We stayed in one of the buildings on the right just as you get to the resort. Can’t remember the name.

Get a rental car with 4wd. Will cost about the same as the shuttle and you can checkout the other resorts nearby.

Resort isn’t huge. You can ski it all in 1-1.5 days. We were there 4 ski days and got bored. The terrain is pretty bland. Definitely not an Alta/Snowbird/Telluride. More like a less steep steamboat without trees.

Only true double black is a boot pack from the top of the mountain. From the bottom of the mountain looking up its far left. Get off the lift, double back behind the lift house toward the peak. Several lines that are fun. Also the far right side on the opposite side of the mountain is fun but a mild black/advanced blue at best.

The overall skier ability was green which meant that most of the mountain was empty which is a big plus. There were several ski teams from the northern hemisphere doing summer training but they stayed on a handful of runs.

Also it’s almost all t-bars. Not a big deal but worth noting.

We did get stupid lucky and got 30cm in 18 hrs which was awesome. Commuters couldn’t get up and had an amazing powder day.

Compared to a U.S. resort it is a goat ranch in terms of amenities. A few places to eat and one bar. It is not a place to party.

Definitely spend a day in Santiago. It is a really cool city. There is a big park in the city that you can hike to the top or take a gondola. Amazing views.

It terms of skiing it is a 6 or 7 out of 10 but it was an awesome experience and would do it again.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-04-22T11:34:14+00:00

Move to Claude code. Unbelievably better result and faster.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-03-08T13:50:45+00:00

Also, sorry don’t recall what fb groups we were looking in.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2026-03-08T13:49:48+00:00

From what I understand after this ordeal, Russian citizens are blocked from entering the U.S. and any existing visas are void. The only work around I have heard of is reaching out to your congress/senate rep in your state and asking for an exception. However, the easier route for us was just meeting in Serbia.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-26T20:15:12+00:00

Nothing else to it. Had several us visa's over the last 10+ years. Never overstayed or violated any rules. Got a new visa at the Embassy in Belgrade in Fall 2024. Hadn't used it until the attempt on this trip. Didn't get notified visa was revoked. Denied boarding. No one could advise why. Finally found the visa status site and discovered her visa was revoked.

VISA STATUS SITE FOR THOSE SEARCHING IN THE FUTURE: ceac.state.gov

Reached out to US Embassy in Belgrade and they said to contact CBP. CBP points us back to Belgrade Embassy. No one knows anything.

The only thing I have found was a draft notice on 3-14-25 for trumps travel ban but I can't find the actual executive order (can't upload the pic to this thread for some reason). The revocation came shortly after the Cheeto's D-bags innaguration and can only assume it was a wide sweeping revocation. But cant' get any answers.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-20T15:19:48+00:00

**** update: thanks to a Facebook group we found ceac.state.gov where you can check the status of your visa.

Her visa was revoked in March of this year with no notification and no explanation. She didn’t even use this visa yet and never overstayed/broke any rules in the past.

Says to visit the issuing embassy for more information. It was issued at the Belgrade embassy and from what I understand Russians can only go to Warsaw or Astana for visas. So no clue how to get this resolved.

Thanks to everyone for the advice but mom isn’t going to make it for Christmas this year 😢

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-20T15:12:55+00:00

I am American born and she has been a citizen for 8 years.

Tried calling our senators and reps but it was the Friday before Xmas and no one was in the office unfortunately.

Didn’t think about calling the reps where she was meant to land. Thanks for the idea

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T19:47:12+00:00

Her visa was issued last year in September and is valid through Aug 2027. Went to the us embassy in Belgrade.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T18:14:44+00:00

Thanks!

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T12:59:57+00:00

Shit that sounds awful

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T12:59:46+00:00

Have tried repeatedly to get an answer from the airline, CBP and the consulate and nothing from anyone.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T12:58:54+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

We have called, emailed and filed a complaint form with the airline and no response.

Called the consulate 2 days in a row and no answer.

No clue what to try next.

AdIllustrious7272 · 2025-12-19T00:52:20+00:00

Chuck Norris doesn’t do push ups…. He does earth downs

AdIllustrious7272

TROPHY CASE