Just thought I would drop a report here from Liberty yesterday. Purchased 2 day Epic passes (this report might come off a little pro vail, sorry, but I think it is a pretty good product and the trip backs that) for the family (wife and three kids 8, 11, 13) in the off season, season ski leases for the kids from profit in Leesburg, and wanted to go on Monday, but the high winds and iced up roads turned us off. We planned on this coming Saturday, but with threat of a big snow I was worried it wouldn't work out and I feel like the season is shorter than ever. Bottom line, we wound up having school cancelled yesterday and we went up to Liberty.
A side note, I purchased a lesson for the 8 year old online for Monday ($88 for two hours after 20% epic discount) and while I had to wait on the phone to vail in CO for 20 minutes, they were very nice and moved the lesson to Tuesday with no fees etc. I just made sure to be nice and understand they are short staffed and a lot of people have it rough right now.
So...
Rolled up to liberty after the Starbucks sands. We hoped the crowds would be down and were rewarded. I know on their recording they were sold out last weekend so I'm not sure if it was that everyone just got done skiing this week or a lot of schools weren't closed, but the top parking lot was only 1/2 full. Prety much everyone changing in the parking lot since the locker room is closed. I noticed they have added about 6 electric car chargers by the way. On our way into the courtyard the woman scanned our passes (so glad they finally have the RFID cards), my wife was in a rush to get the little one to the 10am class and the woman guided her through quickly, not that we had to wait. All of the lifts were walk on and running except for one on the backside, but it wasn't needed. All trails are now open and it looked like they were working hard installing all the boxes for the terrian park (didn't see the tow running there though). They were diligent about scanning passes every time, even on the backside lift. It was all just a very chill vibe. You need masks to go inside for the bathrooms etc, but everyone was courteous and used their buffs or a mask. Snow was great with packed powder, especially on the backside. The staff was friendly, seemed like the usual folks from the pre-vail days. All had new vail gear on. We ate lunch at the outdoor bbq place, was pretty good and while "ski resort expensive" it wasn't insulting. After the 20% epic pass discount hot sands/burgers and chips for the family of 5 was $68. The plan was to ski up until 3pm and leave.
<rant> While the wife was with the little one on the beginner, I took my son and daughter to the back side at their request as they liked skiing back there during a lesson last year. While coming down heavenly the first time the kids were doing ok with a little wedging and then a pretty good sized clump of skiers and snowboards came down. One snowboarder came down too fast for his skill level IMO, lost it, and slid into my daughter hitting her right in the heels and laying her out flat. She was ok, but got the wind knocked out of her which scared her. The guy (I think college age) was apologetic, said he didn't see her, and was trying to get her skis back on her as I truck it up the slope 20ft, but he didn't know how to reset the binding. I tried to keep my papa bear in check and didn't scream at him, but it is a rare sight that my 13 year old daughter with attitude cries so it was tough. I basically just said you should have seen her with the bright green helmet, he mentioned he is color blind. I said I had it and he could go and to learn from it at least. Someone had said something at the bottom lift of heavenly and a ski patroler showed up as we were moving again and asked her some concussion questions and asked me what happened. I was mad about it because of my daughter, but also because it made me feel old to be grumping about "those damn snowboarders" (I snowboard too, but not nearly as good as I ski). I told him I think that the guy was kind of out of control and while I have had incredible wipeouts, I have had that when not near people and unless you know you can loose it and not hit anyone, you need to tone it down. I think the lack of crowds was enabling the speeds and he agreed as the snow was good. He said they would put some more patrols up there, I was satisfied with the response. </rant>
We packed it in after that as it was approaching 3 after the 30 minutes of putting her back together, but she is ok and everyone had a blast. Very good conditions considering where we were a month ago. I know it isn't always that way, I have been in the thick crowds there before and we were probably lucky, but it was great. The app was good for seeing everything open, but the tracking didn't work, I use my watch anyway.
We have one more day left on our pass and a weekend trip to WISP planned next month, but I might add a day to the pass to go with some adult friends on a weekday. If anything, I almost feel like it had more a "small resort chill" vibe to the resort than it ever used too before vail, but probably just the lack of crowds. Didn't see any power hungry staff though running around, and did see a number of rescues going on some of the front runs, seemed to be beginners who maybe twisted something. Convinced my daughters helmet paid for itself with her collision.
Nice report. I went solo to Liberty today (Wednesday, January 19th) and had almost exactly the same experience you had on Tuesday. The drive up from Herndon, VA was easy. All the trails were open (a first for me at Liberty!). Snow conditions were Southern-East-Coast-Good. People and staff were all friendly and helpful. Epic pass being RFID was pretty sweet. Lift lines were effectively zero. Food was challenging, with only one place open and no feasible vegetarian options, so I ate the snacks I brought and left a bit hungry.
I did everything on the front side, then spent the rest of my day lapping the backside. I managed to ski every slope except Upper Eastwind. Apparently I'm now scared of steep moguls :-). I did Lower Eastwind but only once. The Eastwinds were the only mogul-ed terrain. I really enjoyed having Upper Strata and Upper Ultra open and groomed. Steep groomed double black diamonds with good snow are rare in my world! I kindda wish they would have picked the other lift on the backside, because it is faster and avoids the skating required to get to Sidewinder or Upper Strata #nitpick. The EpicMix app wasn't working for me either, and I forgot to bring my GPS watch, but I think I got in ~30 runs in 7 hours.
The lunatic teenage snowboarders who don't know their limits appeared at ~4:00PM. I saw two collisions, both minor, in my last hour.
Overall I was super happy to be outside skiing again. I've got 3 more days on my Epic Pass and I'm really looking forward to using them!
Yea, I don't even bother with the moguls anymore. I have had some incredible yard sales that usually start out... ok, ok, oops, oops!, aaaaahhhhh!
I logged 26 runs in 5 hours, with only 3700ft and 6 miles, but that's because I was with the kiddos all day on the beginner slopes mostly. It's ok, I was just happy to get out, good conditions, no crowds.
MarkRebuck wrote:
I managed to ski every slope except Upper Eastwind. Apparently I'm now scared of steep moguls :-). I did Lower Eastwind but only once. The Eastwinds were the only mogul-ed terrain. I really enjoyed having Upper Strata and Upper Ultra open and groomed. Steep groomed double black diamonds with good snow are rare in my world! I kindda wish they would have picked the other lift on the backside, because it is faster and avoids the skating required to get to Sidewinder or Upper Strata #nitpick. The EpicMix app wasn't working for me either, and I forgot to bring my GPS watch, but I think I got in ~30 runs in 7 hours.
