We are considering retiring in a few years to Smith Mountain Lake and the closest ski area is Wintergreen.

I've skied Whitetail a lot, spending most of the time on Experts Choice Quad. It's my goto place for a day of local skiing. According to the stats, Wintergreen has a little more verticle, the same number of skiable acres...

I'm curious to hear from folks who have skied them both. Are the comparable? Will I be done with Wintergreen after one day? Am I gaining great summers on the lake for lousy winters? On the other hand I will be retired and have more time for farther trips...

I've skied both areas frequently. My take is that Whitetail skis "bigger" meaning that you won't feel the crowds that you can have at Wintergreen. Also, unless you ski exclusively on weekdays, parking can be quite a hike unless you park near the highlands. Winterplace and the Homestead would also be an option although both are smaller.

First rule of thumb, never retire south if you like skiing or north if you like the beach.

That said, I think the Highlands and the K lift area at Whitetail are very comparable. A few differences are that the Highlands are probably not as steep or bumpy and are not open for night skiing. On the other hand, the runs at the Highlands are longer, with a little more vert. and they have a high speed lift. One other issue with the Highlands is that you have to "cross" the beginner area to get over to the "lodge" and the Acorn lift area, which has some decent runs. Because of the layout you are forced to ride up the Blue Ridge Express with typically terminal lines.

Like Kwill said, arrive early and park by the spa, then walk a short distance on the Highlands Leisure Trail and boot up by the upper lift station--eat and pee at Checkerberry Cabin and you'll avoid the masses.

Forget about The Homestead, if you are going to drive there you might as well keep going to Snowshoe.

What about Sugar and Beech? The Nut?

Yahoo Maps says SML is about 2hrs to WG, 2.5 to Winterplace, 3.5hrs to Snowshoe, and roughly 4 hrs to NC ski areas, so WG is clear choice for daytrips.
As long as you are retired and skiing mostly weekdays you should have Wintergreen all to yourself and it would be a good local hill to keep your ski legs in shape. It's pretty comparable to Whitetail skiing-wise (maybe just a touch less challenging), but has a lot more vacation homes, lodge and restaurant facilities, and other resort trappings. If you pick your dates carefully, you could show visitors a good time there on weekends (late season, last day of 3 day weekends, etc), but very busy on Holidays and peak weekends. They have three distinct trail pods, a fantastic snowmaking system, and a serious tubing hill. It's a well run place and you can rack up a lot of fun miles riding the high speed chair in the Highlands section on a quiet day.

A couple of old trip reports, hard to believe it's been five years since I've been there:
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=887&mode=headlines
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=892&mode=headlines

wg season pass is not good from friday nite thru sunday morning, so don't worry about parking, just stop at the tubing hill. wg can feel a little sterile, not a lot of good old ski area vibe, but you still meet some neat people. otherwisee it would be hard not to drive to snowshoe (really?) for just one hour more. good luck.

One of the biggest difference between Whitetail & Wintergreen is that Wintergreen doesn't close down when its snows.

That's IF you can get up the access road.

Hmm. Do they leave anything ungroomed?

Not in my experience - however, it has been a couple years since I have been to Wintergreen right after a snowfall.

Wintergreen had one run bumped up in the expert area when I was there in 2010. It was the furthermost trail to the left that went about half way down the mountain before merging with another trail.

One thing that Wintergreen has that Whitetail doesn't is a short glade trail. It's not in the expert only section, but over in the right hand section of the resort that has Intermediate and expert trails. That trail was open when I was there in 2010.

I don't think I have been to Wintergreen for 20 yrs. They pretty much lost my business yrs. ago when my kids were little. They would not allow you to park for a few minutes to unload gear at the base lodge. Instead I had to park about 1/2 mile down the mountain and haul up all gear for myself and the kids, like a pack mule. That was a shame because I could put the kids in a lesson and get a couple of hrs. on the Highlands with no lift lines because one had to pass a ski patrol administered test to go over there, thus eliminating crowds.

Now, if they would set aside one trail to be left ungroomed when it snows, all would be forgiven.

I can chime in on the groomed question .Here's some crappy video from Wintergreen I took from the lift on 3/02/09. The entire Highlands were left ungroomed and the report said 10 inches fell the previous night. The best I've ever caught it there.Bright blue skies too. There were only a handful of people there the first hour or so.The first pic in the video is after my first run down Outer limits.

http://vimeo.com/15733641

And a couple pics.



Officially tracked ..

Nice!