I haven't been to Blue Knob since 1975 and I was thinking of heading over there on Saturday 2/21. Has anyone skied there lately? Are the conditions icey? Any insight would be appreciated.

I was at Blue Knob on 2/13. In some places there was a little ice and in others there were giant sheets of ice. All of the groomed runs were open and in decent shape, though. I had a good time and would say to give it a shot this weekend. Forget about skiing in the trees or on any of the bump runs unless some warm weather softens things up. They haven't updated their infrastructure too much since about 1975, so it should be just as you remembered.

Was there on 2/15. If you like skiing in the woods or moguls I would say skip blue knob until things soften up, which is the reason most people ski there. In the woods there is about 1.5 inches of solid ice from an ice storm over a week ago, once you break through this ice though there appears to be about 3 feet of powder. It will take a warm spell to melt that ice, after that the skiing should be great. Looks like a good chance for some great spring skiing there though.

Dont underestimate Blue Knob's groomed runs. Mambo Alley 2 miles, Expressway, Deer Run, Stemboggen, High Hopes, are all long trails with a good consistent pitch down 800+ vertical. No one other resort, especially Seven Springs and Wisp can say that right now outside of West Virginia.

As of Friday night, 02/20, it's raining at Blue Knob. How much damage it will do is uncertain; however, there were plenty of thin spots on the (all natural snow) ski slopes and glades today. It's going to get colder on Saturday, which might leave the mountain a sheet of ice!

Well DCSKI folks, I made up to Blue Knob (BK) on Saturday after not visiting there for 29 years (makes me sound old) and what I found was a ski resort frozen (and I do mean frozen) in time. First there was the parking lot...the only ski area parking lot where you need a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get through the mud and pot holes. Then there's the rustic lodge, unchanged since 1975 (last time I was there). I don't want to give a negative impression so here are my impressions:

POSITIVES
-Stunning scenery (when I could see it through the blizzard conditions). The best scenery of any Mid-Atlantic resort in my opinion. Has a wild, rugged feeling (including the access road)
-Varied terrrain. The Stemboggan trail is one of the more interesting trails in the Mid Atlantic. There are also very interesting narrow trails under the lifts which require lots of turns and skill to stay on the snow and off the ice. The gladed trails looked interesting but were so icey that I was too chicken to try them (actually most were closed)
- Nice vertical drop
-A real skier atmosphere. (No Bogner outfits here) As they say its "the skier's mountain". This is the way skiing used to before the "Snowshoeization" of the skiing industry where realestate and commercial development is the real money maker.

MEGATIVES
- Ice and I mean boiler plate ice. My run down the black diamond Stemboggan was literally terrifying. There are huge undulations in the terrain with bumps and ruts. I was going so fast that I felt completely out of control until I located some snow to get an edge. This trail could be great with good snow.
- The double chair lift from the bottom to the summit is SSLLL00OWWW
- Weather - the wind was incredible. It blew so hard that all of the snow was blown off the ice on top of the mountain. As soon as you got off the lift, you were literally blown sideways across the glare ice with snow pelting you in the face. I can't remember more extreme weather with exception of the summit of Arapahoe Basin (@13,000 feet). It did kind of give a sense of adventure and kinship with the other hardy souls that are there to ski no matter what.
- While the ski lodge gave you a nostalgic feeling for the old days of skiing, it could use some up grading. With the snow piled up around it and the wind howling, it kind of reminded me of the weather station hut on top of Mt. Washington.

On a good day with good snow conditions, this is the Mid-Atlantic place to ski if you want some challenge. Unfortunately, it was 51 degrees the day before with some rain and all that wet snow froze. So next time I go I will consider recent weather history more carefully.
I also skied Seven Springs for the first time on Friday and it was great. The north face feels like more that 750 vertical and it is wide open. I would never venture there on a weekend, however. The bus loads were arriving as I left that evening.