Whitetail ski report 2/15
February 19, 2006
49 posts
13 users
10k+ views
Nice covereage on all slopes, but soft-ish packed powder in the AM gave way to even softer conditions throughout the day. Only the far RIGHT trail on the "blues" (facing towards limelight from the top, don't know the name 'stalker' maybe?) -- is not open. Everything else had pretty good to dang good coverage really, all things considered. But a few bare spots were starting to appear as the day wore on.
The side of limelight and in particular Exhibition under the lift is being eaten away to ground. They may lose those areas under the sun over the next two days.
Exhibition had nice but challenging moguls top to bottom -- swweet. As usual the sides are easier ... :-)
Word on the street is that snowing making will return this weekend when it gets COLD...
Overall -- Two-thumbs up!
(note: some "wet" snow wax might be appropriate although i don't think it will last long, bring a tube, share with friends!)
On Exhibition, the side under the lift was bare and all grass up to last week. The snow guns, on the right, as you go up had a hard time covering this side (under the lift).
I will defenitely avoid this side at all costs.
Can I presume that Whitetail will have to make lots of snow over the weekend and into early next week in order to stay open through the 1st weekend in March?
MM...I suspect you have never seen a glass "half full"!
I have been skiing this neck of the woods for 35 years and have seen the Snowtime resorts open until mid-or late March, as well as other MidAtlantic resorts. Why not help wish for cold and snow, vice putting down nearly everything MidAtlantic skiing has to offer?
One of my fondest memories is skiing at Wintergreen in late March/early April in either the first or second year it was open, skiing on a ton of snow on well covered, albeit slushy, trails.
Enjoy what we have, encourage the resorts to stay open, make snow, etc. Encourage skiiers on DCSki to support the areas that make snow and stay open late in the season.
The Colonel
I had a great time last year skiing in Whitetail up to the very end, sometime in March.
We also had a great time skiing in Blue Knob last year on Easter weekend. No waiting and light crowds.
The good thing, for us devoted skiers, is that when it is warm around here, people think that the snow base is gone overnight. The hills were not crowded last year and the snow was excellent.
I have an idea, if the crowds are not big enough to support all 3 of Snowtime resorts, why not close two of them (Liberty and Roundtop) and keep Whitetail open until the very end? Just a thought.
As always, YMMV. See you at Whitetail Thursday nights.
My opinion is they will last to mid-march and are intent on trying. Short of some exceptionally warm weather, they will do it. The word I heard is they struggled to stay open in Jan but just pulled it out by metering their resources on every cold enough night available to make snow. I believe they will do the same now, as long as they feel folks want to come up...
I'll be back up myself... at least one more time. Have to figure out how to play hookey again!
Kevin,
I agree. I was hoping to get up there with my daughter for 2 or 3 days before they close. Let's all think cold and snowy thoughts for the remainder of the season
-Warren-
If it continues to stay solidly cold and snowy they may make it but if it warms up the unwashed masses fall off and they almost have to close from revenue drop. I'm hoping it stays open another three or four weeks but I can't blame them for closing early if they do because January was punishing. When you get some natural, although it's not needed as long as it's cold enough, it results in a huge influx of crowds. Monday was evidence of that, the place looked packed. A good shot this weekend may revive everything. It looks like there is some natural in the forecast for Sunday which sets them up for an awesome Holiday Monday attendance wise.
I was sceptical in the late part of January, early Feb that they'd make it to March but that dump really resurrected everything. If I'm wrong and they stay open then I'll happilly take all the criticism anyone can throw but you'll have to throw hard because I'll be racing your butt to the bottom.
I think there's pent up demand -- but you know if next week or so, we start day-to-day hitting 50-60 degree highs ... well then not only is all the snow gonna melt, but the crowds will evaporate with it.
I am betting that actually it doesn't bump up that much and more or less follows our traditinal weather pattern through Feb, and into early March.
However I am already one down for Jan where I was sure we'd bounce into solid cold eventually before the month was out.
Heck though, even though thngs were soft, I had a real nice time yesterday. Course I'm a little sore today and I had to play hooky (hookey?) to beat the crowds...
I'll do it again if I can swing it!
What's all this talk about snow melting and warm ups? Starting tomorrow afternoon temps are gonna drop below freezing at a lot of our resorts and won't rise above freezing for nearly a week. Next week will be sweet. (you hear that Roger
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U R right, Snowshoe is calling for lows the next 4 days of 16, 12, 17, 17 with a HIGH of 19 on Sunday !!! What warmup?
Can you really hear a temperature, Murph? Criminy, I thought you were the smart engineer in this town...
Whitetail open until mid-March? Maybe, but I don't think so. The cold snap that the weathermen/women keep talking about is NOT going to be nearly as cold as previously thought and is not going to push as far South or linger as long as had been forecasted just a day ago. I think that Whitetail (Wet-tail) is going to pack-it-in after the 1st weekend in March. So, you-all have heard it from me, here and now: One or MORE ski areas WILL close just after the 1st weekend in March, that's my prediction. Now, watch me be wrong, but I think that it's a pretty safe bet based on the following: the very latest weather trends, my gut feeling and what nature is telling me, there are already tons of robins in Central PA right now, something I haven't seen in mid-Feb. before.
If I remember correctly, Easter fell quite early last year. So, skiing on Easter wasn't a big deal. Not like skiing in April.
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Can you really hear a temperature, Murph? Criminy, I thought you were the smart engineer in this town...
The density of air is directly proportional to the temperature. Therefore as the temperature drops density gradients arise producing an impedance mismatch that reflects acoustic wave. Consequently.....errr no, no I guess you can't really here temperature. 
It's going to get pretty cold at the Shoe, but not quite that cold. This cold snap has been WAY over-rated. The weather people have BLOWN-IT again! Something they've been doing all Winter partly because most of their computer models haven't been calibrated to consider the current background effects of Global Warming.
Like anything, the desire to do something, and the ability to carry it out are not necessarily going to coincide. I personally think they will try and succeed in staying open till mid-mar. My guess is that tomorrow's weather will be just like today's, and I make the same prediction every day... dang I like being right a lot!
MM: Trying to be objective, so here are Whitetail's closing dates over the past 4 seasons (Pulled these from DC Ski trip reports and posts).
2002 - Closed 3/9
2003 - Closed 3/23
2004 - Closed 3/14
2005 - Closed 3/17
I'd say odds are good they can keep it going through mid-March (subjective).
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... there are already tons of robins in Central PA right now, something I haven't seen in mid-Feb. before.
When I was growing up, you never saw them in the winter in northern Virginia. Now, you see robins year 'round. They just don't go away for the winter anymore.
twin58, I also grew up in Northern VA and currently live there part time. I spent part of this Winter mountain biking and hiking in Northern VA (when the skiing wasn't too good). And, I agree with you, I saw robins all Winter long, although not as many robins as I might see in the Spring or Summer. From what I understand, robins tend to Winter in areas where there's plenty of worms. Now that the ground no longer freezes up that much in Northern VA, the robins can usually find food all Winter long. As long as the average daily temp is 37 deg or higher, robins are quite comfortable. And, should the ground freeze up for a few days, they can aways find some seeds to eat until the ground thaws. And, like I said, the robins are now arriving in Central PA by early-to-mid Feb. I saw 4 robins at my place in PA today.
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... there are already tons of robins in Central PA right now, something I haven't seen in mid-Feb. before.
When I was growing up, you never saw them in the winter in northern Virginia. Now, you see robins year 'round. They just don't go away for the winter anymore.
I also heard there are some snowy owls living at Dulles airport right now. That doesn't usually happen either.
Let's hope that Whitetail can stay open until mid-March with some quality skiing, but again, I don't think that it's going to happen this year. Also, some of those closure dates that you've listed can be kind of deceptive. That is, Whitetail was open in name only. Since I drive past Whitetail on I-70 often, I sometimes drive over to ski or see what the conditions look like. And, I have seen Whitetail on it's last weekend a couple of times and it wasn't very pretty, just some brown wet snow mixed with lot's of bare spots. Sure, the place was technically open, but it wasn't what I would call skiing. And, the almost non-existent crowd showed that most people agreed with me. Should Whitetail make it to the second weekend in March, it's going to be a scenario like I've just described.
I'm not too worried about this year, I'm worried about next year... and the year after that. I know what you are saying - the 'fight' over a closing date, is just code for something else. You might as well say it. I'd like to see WT stay open longer, but it won't worry me too much if they don't. But it will worry me next year a little more, and then the year after that even worse.
I totally agree with you. The long-term outlook is the important thing. It seems that Snowtime has done a good job of operating Whitetail. However, should the Winters get much warmer, it could get rather difficult for them to keep snow on that hill, given: it's location, low elevation and Southern exposure.
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Let's hope that Whitetail can stay open until mid-March with some quality skiing, but again, I don't think that it's going to happen this year. Also, some of those closure dates that you've listed can be kind of deceptive. That is, Whitetail was open in name only.
Now you are the one being subjective.... The question was when Whitetail would close - and these are the actual closing dates for the past 4 years. Using your own assessment of the quality of skiing is your opinion of when from your point of view it was no longer worth skiing at Whitetail, and therefore, the point that they were "effectively" closed - again your opinion. The fact that only a few skiers were there on those closing weekends is irrelevent. Heck, I've been to timberline 2 of the past 3 years on their closing weekend in April and found them close to 100% open with hardly any skiers. The general public in the Mid-Atlantic begins to rapidly forget about skiing soon after Presidents Day and ski trips drop off dramatically. That is why March is one of my favorite months to ski here (my opinion).
I hear there's a baby panda bear in Washington DC... talk about a fluke! I thought pandas only lived in tropical climates in China. Must be an ice-age coming on...
I think as a solution to global warming Whitetail should build a giant bubble around the ski resort and set the temp to 35 degrees in the day and 25 at night. It will only cost several billion dollars to build, and they can supercool it with a CFC-using gigantic cooling system. That way they'll contribute significantly to global warming and shut down their regional competition. Eventually they should have the higest skier visits of any resort in the world and can ski 12 months a year at will.
And that is the ski-o-con solution to global warming...
(these fights over weather forecasts are fun to stay out of, much more fun than being in them)
A true ski-o-con would covet the infrastructure of "Ski Dubai" and seek to democratize it. Why build at home when we can globalize, offshore, and add our ski dollars to the hissing sound of American gas dollars being sucked from our shores and into the coffers of some not-really-so-friendly-or-democratic middle eastern sheiks?
There Roger, I've seen your ice age and raised you one global war of terror. No we are not listening to your phone calls, but I cannot comment about opening your mail.
Oh no, we've done it again there goes another thread. What was this about anyway?
hey what happened to my stars?
Well, wherever they are, they're probably working better, faster, cheaper than I am right now. Can I file for some sort of tax credit over this?
Are you itemizing? You can only take it if amounts to more than the flying weight of an African swallow. Otherwise no.
I am apparently the grasshopper to the master apprentice of ski-o-cons, TGD.
That outsourcing discussion was hilarious. But, honestly, I don't see why we need to EITHER upgrade Whitetail to a state-of-the-art ski resort OR invade Dubai. A TRUE ski-o-con would support both, with the same budget, sent to Halliburton, and not accounted for.
I'll see your ski global war on terror and raise you a corporate logrolling kickback scheme. But first, I need 10,000 shares in Halliburton before we execute this strategy...
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Laden.
BIN Laden? har har
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BIN Laden? har har
Not lately, maybe this weekend.
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... there are already tons of robins in Central PA right now, something I haven't seen in mid-Feb. before.
When I was growing up, you never saw them in the winter in northern Virginia. Now, you see robins year 'round. They just don't go away for the winter anymore.
I also heard there are some snowy owls living at Dulles airport right now. That doesn't usually happen either.
Murphy if u wanna see birds in NoVA/MD area, you gotta go to Baltimore, Ravens, Orioles, live there pretty much all year now. Now that i think about it, there was a partridge in my pear tree, what? couldn't have been 7 weeks ago. Coldest month of the winter, i don't think it's global warming, the birds have discovered fleece and goretex!
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Murphy if u wanna see birds in NoVA/MD area, you gotta go to Baltimore, Ravens, Orioles, live there pretty much all year now.
Actually, don't tell MM but the presence of those birds is actually a sign of global warming. You see many of them are native to the Dominican Republican and in the past they were rarely seen north of Miami. Now they're common throughout the US. 
tgd, you're digressing here. We're NOT talking about the last weekend at Timberline. Trying to compare the ski conditions at Timberline on it's last weekend for the season with Whitetail's closing weekend is like comparing apples to oranges. Sure, the conditions are usually pretty good at Timberline on it's closing weekend. But, Whitetail is usually an entirely different story. The conditions are often MINIMAL on the last weekend. And, if it weren't for a few employees (who are still around because they're needed to shut things down anyway), Whitetail would have been closed on many of those (final day of skiing) dates that you've listed. Again, there's a BIG difference between a Technical Closure Date (TCD) and a normal ski area closure. Don't believe me? Then why don't you try to ski Whitetail on it's last day and then ski Timberline on it's final day and see for yourself if there's a BIG difference in the conditions. Many times TCDs are a way for ski areas to kind-of cheat and show a later closure date than would be considered reasonable, given the almost non-existent base and ski conditions.
digress
verb
1. To turn away from a prescribed course of action or conduct: depart, deviate, diverge, stray, swerve, veer.
MM - You know I sold my soul to the untopic(c) long ago. I live to digress. Sometimes its alcohol, sometimes excessive stimulation, other times questionable ability, but most of the time because it just feels good.
That's cool! As you can probably tell by some of my posts, I tend to be the same way.
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I hear there's a baby panda bear in Washington DC... talk about a fluke! I thought pandas only lived in tropical climates in China. Must be an ice-age coming on...
Oh, Roger Z, you've been reading MSM (mainstream media) again, haven't you? Actually, it's a ***fact*** that orchids are in full bloom in DC.
Here's the truth that "they" don't want you to see.
That's nothing. My girlfriend told me the other day that there is a POLAR BEAR in El Salvador. Truly, the end times are upon us.
Wait until an ice berg lops off Panama... then all y'all global warming moonbats are gonna be eating your words, I tell ya!
I myswell fess up....Those Damb robbins were eating all my fishing worms down here in the carolinas so i bagged a few hundred of them & released them up in the northern Va area.
They are making snow now -- conditions should be good to excellent the next few days. Talk all you want, or go ski instead. I'd prefer the latter myself.
Almost 17 below zero in Canaan Valley this morning. 8 Degrees F here in B-burg. Sure am glad this arctic air moderated before it reached the Mid-Atlantic, otherwise the lifts might have frozen solid.
It's nice to get the cold. Here it's sunny-blue skies but cold -- a "blue bird" day at the slopes perhaps! I just checked the whitetail cams, big crowds but the snow looks great. Exhibition looks fabulous! Even some ongoing snowmaking on select trails. I won't be able to go myself until later in the week, but I bet today/tomorrow are just great conditions overall, considering the up&down aspect of the season...
Nice to get it!
Five day forecast suggests we get into a more typical pattern for this time of year, above freezing by day, below freezing at night ... hopefully that will hold long enough to cruise into mid-march. We shall see.
BTW - I recall now the whole thing about the US-west being in a drought. My Dad just called from Arizona -- 120+ days without rain -- well 1/100th of inch. Longest dry spell in recorded history -- the cacti are starting to take a hit! I think Taos is suffering ...
Yes, AZ is suffering badly. I found this report this morning while drinking my first cup of coffee (I'm dysfunctional before at least two cups of coffee):
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/river/presentations/watersupply_feb_2006.pptThe west is basically a tale of two worlds this winter. There's "Waterworld" north of about the 37th parallel and "Dune" south of there. This report is pretty eye-opening about how drastic the differences really are.
Roger, you must be PANDERING to us Ice Age believers....Pandas live in the Mtns of China=Snow...but they do eat Bamboo?? Must be cold loving Bamboo....& with this latest cold snap them Orchards sure did screw up...Huh Twin58?
