Wisp is opening Thanksgiving day....but only on their Belly Flop beginner area (for a $5 lift ticket). I am up in the SW PA area visiting family for Thanksgiving, so we cruised past Wisp on the way here this afternoon. The Face and Squirrel Cage have snow, but still have some bare spots as well. I'm hoping that by Saturday those will be open. Even if they don't I may take the kids on Sat.....and I'm so anxious for a few turns I may have to ride the Magic Carpet myself....:-))

Kudos to WISP for being the only resort in the area to attempt some kind of opening!

It shames resorts like LIBERTY that haven't even started making snow.

I'll likely zip out there this weekend and play around in the slush.

Wisp seriously tries to get open early to grab the glory. And they are lucky to have unlimited water supply from deepcreek. They usually have the whole mountain open by the time t-line is opening up their first slopes.

"It shames resorts like LIBERTY that haven't even started making snow."

Huh? Here in NOVA temps have been in the 40s and 50s (until today). How do you expect Liberty to make any snow?

Went to WISP last weekend, caught a snowstorm in CUMBERLAND on the drive out there.

Had a great time playing around on the bunny hill, and they even allowed some mini jumps to be made off to the side.

I was completely amazed at how much coverage they had.

I really wish WISP would develop more beginner terrain.

Goodtimes..

chuckie, be careful what you wish for. Roundtop developed tons of beginner terrain and seemed to have forgotten the intermidiate and advanced rider/skier.

Plans call for additional beginner terrain to be added to Wisp in the coming years. Wisp plans to add 50% more skiable terrain at the North Face by adding a beginner's area. Here is an excerpt from a story I wrote for Eastern Slopes magazine before the future of the magazine became unclear.

"Recreational opportunities in the Deep Creek Lake region will balloon over the next few years. Plans are underway to begin construction of a recirculating whitewater course in 2004, and Wisp Resort plans to add beginner terrain and a dedicated Terrain Park featuring its own slopes and trails with pipes and rails. A new mountaintop village at Wisp will bring additional lodging, stores, and restaurants."

Wisp was purchased by D.C. Development, LLC in 2001. (The former long-time owner, Helmuth Heise, is still involved with the resort as Executive Vice President.) D.C. Development has already begun to invest heavily in Wisp, and Wisp will see a lot of exciting changes over the next few years.

- Scott

There are a number of nice places to ski for beginers.

Wisp is pretty good for as far as a place to learn. The ski school is ok and they offer 2 long and really interesting green trials each with 600 feet vertical, which is somehting most other places can't say. I particualrly like wisp trail. Its got a consistant pitch so there si no poling or skating. And its jsut a really nice fun relaxing trail.

Liberty has soem good points. It has the nice 600' vert trail for beginers. And the way the lift works the trial is borken dow so that you don't have to ski ti all if you are uncomfortable with "goign to the top". That said, I don't really like liberty for beginers simply becase there are too many. If you are a beginer especially a never ever, don't go to a crowded place. Group lessons will be bigger, the beginer terrain will be more crowded and more icy. The fact that the trails are so narrow only increades this iceing effect. The fact that newbies aren't really seperated from other levels also has a negative effect.

Whitetail, have 2 bunny hills, each with a chair lifts, lift runs slow, great for beginers. The highlight is the big long green cruiser, snow park. It is long enough and steep enough to challenge any begining skier to move up to blue.

Take a look at the recent article on "Cruisers" for more info on various fun trails. Mambo Alley, at Blue knob is a good one. But ahrder than your average green.

From SCOTT's article:

"a re-circulating whitewater course" at WISP?!?!?!?

Oh, that's too much... As an advid kayaker I say "bring it on!"

After reading the CRUSIERS article, I was wondering though, which is easier at WISP, the "WISP TRAIL" or "POSSUM" for training a beginner?

Wisp website now reporting that Chair 3 will be open for business on Friday.

I e-mailed Wisp and received this response about trail openings this weekend:

"We're making snow on Grouse Way, Boulder Run, Muskrat, The Face, Squirrel Cage & the Snow Tubing Park but which and how many trails will be open on Friday are still TBA and we are opening Chair 3 on Friday at 9
am and Chairs 2 & 3 on Saturday at 9 am."

Wisp skis much bigger than it's 600 feet vertical would suggest. It also offers beautiful views of Deep Creek Lake. Some call it, the "Lake Tahoe of the Mid-Atlantic."

Do ya think they'll use the entire 600' of vertical for the whitewater course?

Anyway, Possum is a little more gentle than Wisp Trail. I had my daughters there last March, and at that point my 7 year old had only skied about 3 or 4 times. We did a few runs on Possum, then we moved over to Wisp Trail, and after 3 or 4 runs there she started skiing the Blue trails that feed into Wisp Trail. That section provides a good progression for newbies, and it's segregated from the Blues and Blacks so there is no mixing of speeds and talent levels.

Actually Wisp has a couple of pretty decent Green trails that run top to bottom - Possum, and Wisp Trail. Most novices should be able to navigate these two, and the views are pretty nice from the top. Both of these trails are fairly similar to Timber Trail at Canaan Valley - just an occasional section that is mildly steeper than the average bunny hill, but there is always a flatter section immediately following that lets the newbies regain control, if need be.

I genuinely like WISP and want to support them (hey they open early and support mountainboarding during the summer), but unfortunately I feel it's not the best place to try and train a new boarder (LIBERTY is ideal for a beginner).

WISP's bunny hill is at the base of a BLACKDIAMOND, and I can see how this could offer up some ugly potential collisions. WISP's two GREEN runs have a few twists and a couple of drops that make them a little more challenging than the usual EastCoast GREEN.

That being said I'll likely be back there the weekend after next as none of the other area resorts will be open.

SKIROUNDTOP... uuuuggg, all ice and no booze.

Here's a photo of me riding at WISP last weekend...

http://pages.prodigy.net/rudiekantfail/_uimages/pages.prodigy.net/rudiekantfail/cboard1.JPG

check out how much snow they had.

When Wisp opens back up are they going to have many trails open?? Next weekend (12/14), would it be worth the $7 and 1 1/2 hour drive to go up there?? (Considering trails open and amount of people there)

They updated their website to show that there are 6 trails they plan to open (they're listed there). Lifts 2 and 3 should be open by Saturday I think with the opening of those trails.