I just spent an entire day at Liberty yesterday. Kinda sad that after living in this area for nearly 14 years, that was only my first time getting up there to Liberty.
It made for a nice change of scenery instead of the usual Massanutten where I normally ski (of course, guess where I'll be next weekend - yup - at the 'Nutt!)
The conditions at Liberty were excellent yesterday, although there were a few spots exhibiting that famous "East Coast Hard Pack" that made for some interesting skiing in places. Also, they only had the one short mogul run on Upper Strata, which was fun, but only 5 or 6 turns and you were pretty much done. Plus those troughs in those moguls were pretty deep. A few times I was worried I'd land in one wrong and end up "over the handle bars". From what I understand, Upper Eastwind also usually has moguls, but it was still flat yesterday.
That drop in to Upper Ultra (the first run I went down to start the day
) was really knarly. It was almost like a cornice drop! I thought that was par for the course until I was told it is usually not like that.
They started blowing snow on Heavenly and Witney's Way later in the evening. Some of that fresh man-made powder that was starting to accumlate actually made for some sweet skiing through there. Same thing on Blue Streak right at the end of the evening!
Also, the crowds there were friggan insane, but I actually expected that it would be. Thus, I pretty much stayed on the backside for most of the day, althugh I did take a couple runs done White Lightening and Blue Streak on the front side to check them out.
Also, major thumbs up to the Liberty Ski Patrol! You guys were awesome and really made me feel like "part of the team" while visiting there.
I'll need to go up there again, especially since it is really not that difficult for me to get up there. It take me around 2 1/2 hours to get there from Fredericksburg, but it is almost all interstate/expressway to get there (although dealing with the morons on I-95 and the Beltway can be frustrating at times, like that jackass in that black Mercades that kept riding my ass the whole way up I-95 until I finally lost him on the Beltway).
Overall, Liberty was fun place to ski. Would've been nice for more vertical, but I guess you gotta make do with what you got. Still, this is an excellent place to spend a day or two skiing. I certainly had a great time yesterday.
