OK, this mild weather is nice, but I've got reservations for this weekend at Wintergreen. Will it be like skiing on a Slurpee?

Jimski

Good luck on that. We will be there on Sunday to take our chances with conditions and crowd. Weather forecast calls for snow making temps on Friday and Saturday Night with overall cooling. Might be okay. I think there is room for optimism but weather, grooming and snow making execution will need to hit just right. They should have a good base built so hopefully nothing will close between now and then.

GRK

Hopefully they can start making snow Thursday night. It will probably take 2-3 days for the conditions to recover depending on how much skier traffic there is.

Eagle's Swoop and Sunrise will be among the better trails to ski if the snow is slushy. Outer Limits will be the worst.

This weather is the worst. I think I hear Al Gore's voice again! It's time for a Vermont trip. It's toooooo warm down here on the Mason-Dixon.

Vermont is not in much better shape, perhaps worse in some cases.

Overall, the skiing at Wintergreen this past weekend was quite fine. The snow on Saturday was mushy. Sunday morning the snow was much better, and even by the afternoon was still better than Saturday. Sunday night about two inches of snow fell, and the slopes were excellent yesterday (Monday) morning.

Although we had planned for the whole family to go, my son had so much homework to do that he (on his own, believe it or not!) decided to stay home with my wife and get his work done. So it was just my 8-year-old daughter and me all weekend.

The green slopes alongside the Blue Ridge lift were incredibly crowded, with up to 15-minute waits in the lift line. So, after a couple runs we switched to the blue slopes, which had only half as many people per square foot. Some nice, although short, runs.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the blues, but the lift wasn't working, and the greens were just as crowded as Saturday. I thought I'd be consigned to the greens, but my daughter said she'd be willing to try a black slope. So, we skied down to the Highlands lift (via Lower Wild Turkey) to give it a try. Much thinner crowds, good snow, and great fun skiing. My daughter did fine; she was a little slower than me on the steeps, but kicked my tail on the moguls at Upper Wild Turkey.

I don't think the black slopes at WTG are quite as difficult as those at Whitetail, which are the only other blacks I've skied. By Sunday afternoon we were even skiing Upper and Lower Cliffhanger, which is designated a double black diamond.

On Monday morning, as I mentioned, we had some fresh snow, and even less people. We stayed at the Highlands lift and often there was no line at all. Sweet!

Now it's hard to get back to work...

Jimski, I was there all weekend as well. I agree on the slope difficulty, but I did enjoy the Highlands with the lighter crowds and high speed lifts. I would peer to the right as I sped past Checkerberry Cabin and see the mob and continue down to the Highlands lift. We were staying up top so I did not see any reason to leave. I did enjoy Cliffhanger, with its three small headwalls and oppurtunities to take a break--this is one of the better trails in the mid-atlantic.

Glad you moved your daughter on to the blacks, if she gets as bored as fast as my 8 year old daughter, she'll never want to ski greens again.

Keith, we probably shared a chair up the Highlands lift and didn't even know it! The slopes at Highlands were great -- we skied all of them. The Highland slopes, combined with decent restaurants (Copper Mine and the Edge) and other amenities at the top, make WTG worth a return trip for me. If only we could stop global warming so it stays cold there during ski season.

As to my daughter getting bored with greens, that's already happened. The only exception is where, like at WTG, there is a terrain park on a green slope. She even cajoled me into trying a few jumps on Upper Diamond. Truth be told, I'm happy she's done with the greens, since I am too.