Howdy--I have two driving questions I was hoping to get some feedback on:

1. How long is the drive from Tyson's to Liberty and/or Whitetail? This past weekend I was able to drop off my wife at the mall, go mountain biking for a few hours, and then pick her up on the way back to DC. I'm hoping I may be able to pull off somea similar win-win during ski season, with a quick 3-4 hour session at Liberty or Whitetail.

2. Any thought on the best way to get from Capitol Hill to 270? Through Virginia on the GW Parkway, or slog through DC?

Thanks!

Believe they are both about 80 mins from Tysons, of course, depending on decent traffic flow in Tysons and along 270. Not sure about route from Capitol Hill, but intuitively it seems better to stay in MD to avoid crossing Cabin John Bridge. Anywhere near Tysons is getting real fouled up now because of metro/beltway construction.

If I was on a fast turn around, I would hit Whitetail over Liberty. First, they have valet parking for 10 bucks, which Liberty does not have. Second, they have a high speed lift and even on weekends the fixed grip lift for the expert slopes stays pretty clear until mid day.

On weekends, both resorts are crowded. Liberty is a tad closer than Whitetail (about 15 minutes). The backside of Liberty (expert quads) typically have short wait times even on the busiest weekends.

From the Hill, you can try to head north to K street, down K street to the Whitehurst Freeway, turn left at the Freeway end and head to the Clara Barton Parkway to I-495 and then to I-270. The other option is to take I-395 to Virginia and hit GW Parkway. Either way, during rush hour, its a coin toss as to which is faster. I've tried both from the Penn and 12 Street area. The only real way to make up time is to take HOV (legally, of course!).

Driving solo, I like the Clara Barton route.

The biggest problem during rush hour is between Clara Barton pkwy exit and I270 @ Democracy blvd. If you are driving solo that's 20 minutes for 3 miles.

If you are not driving solo, it pays to be in the far-left lane over Legion bridge early, so my vote is for the GW Parkway route. If the Maryland exit off the parkway is backed up, use the Virginia lane and do a U turn at 193 to save time.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll have to go with a little trial and error, but this is a good start. Traffic is no fun, but I'm just happy to have access to a car again (I've been riding the bus and renting cars to get to the mountains the last three years, living in New York).

Since skiing is more fun to discuss than driving, how does the back side at Liberty compare to the Experts Choice lift at Whitetail? Sounds like there are some semi-respectable mogul options both places...any thoughts or preferences?

The lift stats will give you some idea.

Experts Choice
Length 2310
Vert 770

Liberty Backside
Old Lift
Length 1915
Vert 525

New Lift
Length 1809
Vert 520

At Liberty there are three headwall runs, and two start to bump up as early as possible, and they are steeper than anything WT IMHO, but very short.

Lower Eastwind gets bumps but not sure how early in the season, because I usually ski Liberty very late after WT's been crushed by the Spring sun.

Jim's right above, when both lifts are crankin, the uphill capacity on the back side can handle the crowds on all but the busiest weekend days.

Thanks for the info. If my geometry is right, that's an average pitch of 19.5 degrees for Whitetail's 770 vertical (average of ~16 degrees for Liberty). Not a bad little terrain pod, it would seem.

Old trip report with photo of Exhibition bump run at Whitetail:
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=979&mode=headlines

Old trip report with photo of Upper Eastwind bump run at Liberty:
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=880&mode=headlines

Believe it or not, Upper Eastwind is shorter, but steeper than Exhibition.

Those mushy bumps on Upper Eastwind look like fun. Impressive coverage given the surroundings.

From Alexandria, my morning ski drives to either are usually very good on GW (I always use it going out). However, sometimes coming back it can get slow and crowded and its a hit and miss with GW on the return trip.

People here might say I'm crazy and it is more mileage, but I might beat you with this route:

1. Choose your route to Tysons, maybe GW Parkway.
2. Dulles Toll Road to Greenway ($1.50 toll)
3. Dulles Greenway to Leesburg ($4.50 toll)
4. Rt 15 North to Frederick and on.

Or, if you want to get C R A Z Y go pratically by my house and do this:

1, 2, 3 the same.
4. Rt 7 west to Rt 9
5. Rt 9 North/west to Rt 287
6. Rt 287 to Rt17/Burkittsville Rd in Brunswick MD
7. Rt 17/Burkittsville Rd to Rt 340
8. Rt 340 North to Rt 15 Frederick


I can tell you that Libety is consistency 1 hour and 15 minutes door to door from Purcellville, VA using the second route. I can also tell you Tysons to Rt 9 is usually 45 minutes to rt9 with traffic (not crazy traffic, but normal non accident rush hour).

Seems crazy, but I had a friend that worked in Bethesda and would often spend 45 minutes just to cross the legion bridge in the afternoon and if you need to go to Tysons anyway...

Your not crazy Jeremy. I live in Loudoun. The reason is that RT-15 from Leesburg to Frederick sucks. There is one more variation, and that is stay on RT-9 to Harpers Ferry Road, cross the river at the Ferry and take MD-67 up to Boonsboro and then to 70 and on in.

I met a property owner/season pass type up there (Mercersburg) on the lift once who was from Wolf Trap area, and he said he had tried every variation from NOVA, and he thought the MD-67 approach was the best.

I live in Mclean.... think its faster to do beltway-270-70 than RT-15. From loudoun, i can definitely see 15 being the quicker route.

My problem is that on 15 its 1 lane which can be a pain in the a$$. on 70 you can easily keep it at 80 mph the entire way, hardly ever cops (except at the bottom of the 2 hills) and without traffic I'm there in just over an hour.

If you are trying to get there, ie CrackerA$$, in a powder storm you might as well drive to Blowshoe. ;-)

I'm thinking 7S will be the powstorm go-to again this year.

I also think it will be more of an ice-storm year than a powstorm year.

If you come to Liberty on Sat. or Sun. come to the ski school lineup at 2 pm and ask for Otto. I'll show you around if I don't have to teach.

I think Liberty is closer to Tyson's by a margin that wouldn't be made up by valet parking, but I am biased...

Not sure about what happens at Whitetail (haven't been there in-season since about 1992), but about mid-season, the lower bumps on Eastwind are machine made. Nice lines to practice in.

And as much as it pains me to say this (LOL), take a lesson from Otto, despite his Teutonic roots, he's actually a pretty good instructor.

Sounds good--thanks! (And I won't be valet parking. That just sounds wrong.)

A few more years and Rt 9 will be mostly highway from the state line to to I-81 in Martinsburg. When I used to work in Ashburn, commuter traffic in the evening s*cked from the end of the Toll Road up Rt7 and Rt9 until the light at 287. I wonder if, with the new Rt 9 in WV complete from Martinsburg to Charles Town, if there would be any gains going Rt7 -> US340 -> Rt9 -> I-81

There's an easy way to beat all the traffic - just leave at 4:30am! It's what I do to get to Liberty in time for my morning shift on weekends. No traffic at all (-;