I considered skiing this past Thursday.
But the day was frigid, under bleak gray skies. I pictured the tips of my fingers, toes, and nose growing uncomfortably cold, and the snow morphing into a murky gray slush under the flat light.
Instead, I gave in to the comforting pull of my cozy electric blanket and slept in.
The next day, however, brought a more inviting forecast: sunshine breaking through the clouds and temperatures climbing above freezing. So I loaded up the car and pointed it towards Pennsylvania’s Liberty Mountain Resort on January 17, 2025, hoping to still find relatively light midweek crowds despite being the Friday before a holiday weekend.
I wasn’t disappointed. Although I didn’t arrive until noon, I was happy to see short lines at the lifts and beautiful packed powder covering the slopes.
I clomped through the parking lot and base area in my ski boots, causing my Apple Watch to cheerfully announce that I had just closed my Exercise ring. Walking on solid ground in ski boots while hauling skis is truly a worthy aerobic workout.
After clicking skis into bindings, I skated over to the Alpine Quad and road up, where I began the first of many wonderful runs on Liberty’s backside.
Did I mention the snow? It was perfection. January has been kind to Mid-Atlantic resorts, blanketing trails with a mix of manmade and cloudmade snow (with even more natural snow on the way on Sunday). And temperatures have generally stayed below freezing, preventing the thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze cycles that commonly result in ice.
I didn’t see any ice at Liberty on Thursday. Just wonderful, nicely groomed snow - perfect for making hero turns.
My first run of the day was intermediate Upper Heavenly, crossing over to Lower Heavenly before arriving at the base of Strata Quad. Once back to the top, I dipped over the precipice of double black diamond Upper Eastwind.
The double blacks at Liberty - Upper Strata, Upper Eastwind, and Upper Ultra - are quite steep at the top but not particularly long, so you’re past the worst (or best) of it after a few carefully placed turns.
I could imagine those steep portions could get icy in the right (or wrong) conditions, but there were no slick patches on Friday. I enjoyed carving through them over and over again before they mellowed out into intermediate cruisers for the scenic ride back to the chair.
And speaking of scenery - I’ve mentioned this in past trip reports, but Liberty has incredible rural views. In the distance you see rolling snow-speckled farmland. It’s a great backdrop to a great day of skiing.
Every trail at Liberty was open on Friday except for one: Lower Strata. It had a huge amount of snow built up on it, and it appeared that snowcats had begun the process of tilling it. I predicted that it would open the next day; and, indeed, it did, bringing Liberty to 100% open terrain for the MLK holiday weekend.
After my first ride up the backside Strata Quad, Liberty decided to stop running Strata and instead start running the Eastwind Quad lift right next to it. I’m not sure why they switched, but only one lift was needed on the backside to meet demand.
I never waited more than a minute in a lift line - one of the best aspects of skiing midweek. It was enjoyable chatting with other guests on the lift rides. One man had snuck to Liberty for a couple hours of skiing but said he had to get back home to split some firewood. Another man was about to head to Denver to ski with his two sons at Breckenridge, and was thinking of going on to ski in Japan shortly after that. “There are some Japanese resorts on the Epic Pass now,” he said.
After a couple hours of skiing, I was ready to call it a day, having sampled all of the terrain at Liberty.
If February remains as nice as January has been, this will be a (Mid-Atlantic) ski season for the record books.
M. Scott Smith is the founder and Editor of DCSki. Scott loves outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, kayaking, skiing, and mountain biking. He is an avid photographer and writer.
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