I've skied WISP, 7Springs, Liberty, Whitetail, and have been to Hidden Valley, Snowshoe, Bryce Canaan Valley, and Timberline once. Since most of my ski trips have been outside the commonwealth of Virginia, I was wondering how they compared (especially Wintergreen and Massanutten) to the resorts I've been to in terms of:

1. Weekend Crowds.

2. Difficulty of Terrain.

Thanks!

Darwin

Wintergreen has about 1000' vertical. It has about as much terrain as Wisp and is as tall as Whitetail. Nothing is super steep, but there are some steeper trails about equivalent to Whitetail. It can be very crowded on prime weekends. Good size ski area.
Massanutten has ~1100' vertical, but only two trails (diamond jim and paradice) have that full vertical. Those two trails are designated "experts only" even if they are only hard blues. Those two trails have their own chair and it's usually not crowded even on the busiest days. The rest of the slopes and lodge at Mass can get almost as busy as Wintergreen on prime weekends. It has less terrain than Wintergreen, but enough for a fun day when conditions are good. There is one other fairly steep run they often let grow bumps (Dixie Dare).
From DC Wintergreen is ~2:45 hrs, Mass is ~2:15hrs.

Thanks!

I really like WISP and its layout. I have read TRs of Wintergreen and based on what I've read, would it be fair to say that the separation of the intermediates/advance trails from the beginning trails at Wisp (front vs. North Camp) and Liberty (front vs. backside) is similar to Wintergreen's layout? Would this help dissipate the crowd somewhat?

In terms of crowds, does Wintergreen get even busier than Whitetail on the weekends?

Massanutten sounds nice as well. In all honesty, I could barely handle all the terrain at WISP so I'm sure Diamond Jim and Paradice would give me a great challenge.

If you can ski on the Highlands at Wintergreen, you can mostly avoid the crowds. Only rarely is there a lift line over there. There are three different sets of runs that all use the full vertical drop - right now, two are open. Just skied there today and conditions were good, just skied straight on to the lift.

There are some intermediate runs off the Big Acorn lift which add some variety, but the lines tend to get longer over there.

I skied last year at Massanutten, and had a great time on the expert slopes. The main problem is that they don't really use the full vertical, and the 4-person lift isn't super fast.

Still, if you haven't skied either Massanutten or Wintergreen, you'd probably have fun trying both this year. Conditions are quite good right now!

Ski

My 2 cents for WTG to avoid crowds and get best conditions:

Eagle first off or start in Highlands but spend the balance of your day in Highlands. I usually bail on the Highlands around 3:30 because of the light, and eat then. After I eat, the line at Eagle quad has died down and the snow over there tends to hold up well for night skiing. (except for near the bottom of sunrise where it develops some ice usually).

Get to WTG early or you will be taking a long shuttle bus ride to the Village if its crowded. However, since WTG is top down once you get on the snow you can ski right down to the least crowded lift. I have been to Whitetail on a Holiday weekend and while the parking situation was better the wait on those quads at the bottom was awful...nice terrain though.

As for the Nut, only been there twice but it was nice enough. I do prefer Wintergreen though.

Skiobsessed, I think you'll enjoy both Wintergreen and Massanutten based on what you've said. I enjoy them both for the terrain and the views, but overall prefer Wintergreen.

I completely agree with all the suggestions offered by k_alice and GRK about timing, terrain, etc. Sound advice! Massanutten's parking accommodations are far superior to WGN's, but I do find Massanutten's slow lifts annoying. Wintergreen has two high-speed six-pack lifts, which make a difference on busy days.

Get to WGN early, warm up on Dobie, move to Eagle's Swoop and Tyro at the Big Acorn lift, and then give the Highlands area a try.

Enjoy,
Woody

Since you're comparing WTG and Mass I have a question. I have skied Diamond Jim and Paradice and was wondering how they compare to the terrain in the Highlands.

My 2 cents:

1. Length of runs is about the same.
2. Highlands are a tad steeper, particularly Cliffhanger.
3. Views on both are real nice.
4. Highlands obviously has the better lift.
5. Because of the layout of the Highlands there are many options to combine different parts of different runs so more variety less boredom.
6. Highlands closes at night.

I think the best parking at Wintergreen is adjacent to Eagle Swoop, which is actually the parking for the tubing hill. If you get there early, you can park right next to the slope, and buy lift tickets at the tubing hill ticket booth. Then you can avoid Blue Ridge Express lift completely if you want - or you can take the cross trail over if you want to warm up on Dobie. I agree that the Big Acorn trails are good at night.

Are ParaDice and Diamond Jim really the same length as the Highlands? Looking at the Massanutten trail map, I don't see how that could be - it doesn't look like they use the full vertical drop of Massanutten, unless you finish up on Southern Comfort.

Even though I'm obviously biased towards WTG, I still think it's worth giving Massanutten a try.

From google earth's measuring tool, it looks like Cliffhanger is about 3750 and Wild Turkey is about 3600. Paradice is about 3500 and DJ is about 3000 feet long.

Per lifts.org

Highlands lift is 3612 in length and 991 in vertical and the Nut's is 2953 length and 800 of vertical.(not including the Southern Comfort) So these are all comparable to me.

Cool! I didn't know you could use Google Earth for that purpose.

Alice, that is not true! Do not tell anyone else about this! Jeesh.

re: WTG and Mnut, neither are large enough to hold your interest so you need to have both. If you can ski mnut on saturday both day and night and wtg on sunday, it works out pretty good.

Thanks Alice for the inside information. I will be sure to keep it between you, me, and Pagamony when I get the privilege of visiting Wintergreen this year and post a trip report as well.

Meanwhile, I'm going to continue to scour the internet for "poor teacher discount" on the slopes for this season...

Darwin

And the rest of world connected to the Internet.

This came from the DCSki Bargain Tracker, you might want to contact Massanutten to confirm: If school is closed due to inclement weather, Massanutten invites students and their parents, faculty, and staff to the slopes with discounted rates. On snow days, 8-hour lift tickets will be $25, and rentals will be $20. (Added November 7, 2010).

I took advantage of this offer two years ago on a day when DC area schools were closed due to a couple inches of snow. Photo of the nice view/conditions at Massanutten from that day: http://www.snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=galimg28182

Thanks JimK! That's exactly the type of deal that would make a poor teacher happy. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of that and now have even more reasons to wish for snow days.

As my kids would say, "good looking out!"

Darwin