For all who are interested: it was crazy busy at the destination resort for all southerners who head north on I-77 from North/South Car. Georgia, and Florida

Winterplace TR 12/29/08

Travis,
A great, albeit sad report. Best of all you had the pictures to back up your complaints.
Would be interesting to hear Winterplace's response to this report.
The Colonel

At least they have lots of snow that endured the 68F weather last week/weekend

From what you've seen in the past, would a weekend in late Feb be tolerable? Is Sun any better than Sat, especially after lunch? I'm thinking of going with friends. I've only been on a Friday, which was great although we had to deal with a little rain.

Marz in Raleigh

This is an invaluable trip report, although it's too bad you did not have a good time. I hope it doesn't put you off from taking your son out again.

The reason I say that the report is invaluable is that it seems like that in 90%+ of the trip reports everything was wonderful and if it wasn't wonderful it was fixed immediately. I understand that we are a bunch of "fanatical" skiers here and we can put up with just about anything for powder, but actually hearing that Winterplace has a mile long lift line that they could fix but won't is just as valuable information to me as the quality of the runs (you can't ski them if you can't get to them).

Thanks again Travis.

I work infrequently at WP. I wasnt there that day. I have not know the quad lift you mention in your report to have moved at all this year, and I would be willing to be that it may not be working. the lifts at WP have a history that a book could be written about. I believe that quad was bought used from another area resort, as were some of the other lifts at WP.

The excuse about having too many on snow is used, but I dnot think is a legit excuse, because as you point out, Cascade was empty and really the population of skiers/boarders at the mtn from the pics you show wasnt enough to use that excuse. For some reason it takes quite the crowd at WP to get the second lifts running.

I do recall when I was there a few days ago a liftie mentioning how many other lifties walked out(quit) after getting their first paychecks. Staffing may have been the reason. Just another possible scenario.

There is a train of thought about keeping the skiers "in the air" rather than on the snow. Meaning let the lifts run slow. I've never worked lifts there so I dont know the protocol. I know the lifts tend to run slow to allow crowds at the top of lifts to clear and allow all the beginners to clear out of the way. WP is definitely a beginners mtn.

I suggest that any guest at any resort keep a calm attitude and go to customer service to file your complaint. I wish that was done more often. Silence can too often be taken as approval. Complain in the right manner and your voice will be heard.

& then Bill Bright (the owner of Winterplace) got tired of the little crowded hill & began to search for a mountain that he could build into a 1st class skiers mecca....Mount Porte Crayon came along & then also an owner that wanted to hunt on the MTN & the rest is history.....Life Sucks!..& then you ski down mole hills....

In my experiences, most definitely. After Presidents day, the crowds are noticeably less, and the snow often better. Saturday night and Sunday is a tolerable combination.

Regarding any possible Winterplace response? I suspect "terrific" since all those holiday people are paying the money that keeps the place open on weekdays.

Thanks. We won't make a decision about where to do go for a while. Our friends like tubing, aren't ready for black runs yet, and the kid gets car sick on mountain roads. So Winterplace seems like a better bet than Snowshoe. Plus we can get a cheap cabin at Pipestem State Park.