lets have the trip reports!

Just back from the Knob. very good snowed all day (27th). everything off the triple open (upper mtn). Excellent coverage. If they get some snow the natual areas are ready.

Drove by the Tail on the way home. Lots of folks lots of brown grass glad I went to the knob!!

Reports???

Scott may do a report on Whitetail in the next few days. I plan to head for Timberline and Canaan, and possibly Snowshoe again to report on the Western slopes. I'll file reports and photos as soon as I can.

If you submit a report on Blue Knob, Scott might publish it. Scott is a tough and discerning editor but it is always worth a shot. :-)

TRIP REPORT - SEVEN SPRINGS
I started dialing the slopes Friday evening and let out a whoop when I heard 7Springs was opening last Saturday morning. It is amazing how easy it is to get out of bed at 5:30 a.m. when you are properly focused. Three hours later I was at 7Springs for a look at their new 6 person high speed lift that promises to zoom us all up the mountain for many more runs. The snow was beautiful....Wagner provided a good tuneup for my wobbly legs and by the third run, I was right back to where I left off at Mammoth in CA. last March. And the end of my third run, I glided into line and looked up to see their new high speed lift grinding to a halt. We were greeted with massive lines at the other lift......BOOOO! In spite of 7springs opening day lift jitters, we had a wonderful time and everyone was deliciously exhausted for the long ride home.

My daughter and I went to snowshoe 12/23 they had a couple blues along with the greens open and the snow was good with no liftlines so by afternoon my legs were like rubberbands. We both had a great first day of the season

Got back today from Snowshoe. We skiied it on 12/30 and 12/31. Snow conditions were very good on the 2/3 of their trails that were open. Every open trail had great snow cover. They were making snow on most slopes- awesome snow gun power. It's not fun skiing under the guns but I'm not complaining -keep the guns running, guys as long as you need to. Cupp Run and Upper Shays were open. Lower Shays will likely open this week-awesome snowmaking was underway on it. Crowded on the New Years weekend but tolerable lines on the main mtn. and maybe a 1 minute wait on Cupps.
You won't be disappointed if you go. I recommend it.

Since I live within 15 minutes of Roundtop here's my report:

Conditions are in general very good. The new snow guns are putting out great drier snow and lots of it. Ramrod and the just-opened susquehanna are the best bets. Crowds have been light too, especially early in the day. On the downside, the halfpipe is terrible so don't buy the hype you hear (very small walls with no grooming). The slopes have been getting icy after about 2:00 as the snow gets scraped off. Lower ramrod is still good but bring goggles since they are blowing all day there. In a nutshell: very good for early season, but linda of boring with horrible pipe.

Also, you guys have in your resort profile that roundtop has a park....WRONG. You ought to change that as to not mislead people.

Hi finsoutoc,

I just corrected the Roundtop profile. I'm not sure if Roundtop had a park at one time, or (more likely) it was simply a copy and paste error on my part. My apologies for the mistake - thanks for catching it.

- Scott

they did have a park but somewhere along the line, they deemed them unsafe and closed it. we've been having alot of complaints from families who want to take the kids and kids wnat parks so i thought i'd save you some headaches. rode again last night..still great snow with abolutely no-one there.

went to whitetail last night. It was hurting looked like March 11 not feb 11!!! Brown brown every where. Although I did learn that boarders make nice trail groomers.

Also what is with that park on lower angel drop? Why did they move it there???

I thought I'd go to Liberty the afternoon of 2-14. Bad idea. The website said they made 8-10" of snow the night before. Didn't look like it. I left.

twin58 - To save myself the annoyance of a wasted trip, what I have been doing this year is looking at the Whitetail webcam. Usually, their conditions are just about the same as Liberty's.

If the cam that is located at the top of their never-ever slope shows any brown whatsoever, I don't go. If that slope is in bad shape, the steeper slopes are pretty much guaranteed to be worse because of skiers constantly scraping the snow off of them.

Tom / PM

hit roundtop. theyve got tons of snow. a word to the wise though. they are expecting major crowds this weekend.

I can second that Fins... Roundtop on Thursday 11am-3pm was absolutely beautiful. Great snow, although the top of Minutemen started to be icy from people scrapping it off around 2pm.

A guy on the lift told me that one of the Double-Black Diamonds (RamRod) wasn't groomed. Just a lot of snow in piles on both sides. Can't confirm that though.

Lines are almost non-existent. I had to wait a couple of times for less than a minute before boarding the chair lift. But most of the time it was ski on. I wonder what people are doing the weekday that they're not on the slopes, can't be good?!

Backside only the #6 Triple was open.

Had a blast.

minuteman always gets scraped at the top because its a beginner magnet. like i always say, morning is best. after about 4:00 the crowds start rolling in as the schools let out. when i left last night at 7:00 it was packed.

Finsoutoc, you said Roundtop's going to be packed this weekend. In general, which day do you think would be LESS crowded -- Saturday or Sunday, considering it's a holiday weekend?

I have found Bryce to be the least crowded local area in recent years. I may try it one day or evening this holiday weekend in the hope of seeing small lift lines (but it's a smallish mountain).

without a doubt, sunday morning will be best. saturdays will have tons of buses. get up early and drive up so you can get there at around 7:30. youll be ready to hit the lifts right at 8:00 and probably til 10:00 with uncrowded contions. if you get a 4 hour ticket, youre out of there at noon when everybody else is getting there. if you snowboard, stop in the pipe, i'll probably be in there all by myself with a red sweatshirt on.

PhysicsMan sayeth:
"twin58 - To save myself the annoyance of a wasted trip, what I have been doing this year is looking at the Whitetail webcam. Usually, their conditions are just about the same as Liberty's."

Usually, they're worse. That's why, upbeat website comments assuring me, I headed to Liberty.

Both Whitetail webcams, including the beginner (and most-northward-facing) never-ever slope "You Me Double!" show brown now. Thanks for the tip.

Just got back from 7 Springs on Sunday. Conditions were fantastic. It dumped all day. The Front Face was busy but the North Face was non stop action. Powder everywhere, it wasn't that deep but it made the riding excellent. Some of the glades were in good enough condition to ride if you're not too fussy about getting your base scratched up a little, hey its nothing a grind and wax can't fix. Carved powder turns all day. The terrain park wasn't great though, not enough pitch to get air off the table top, lots of rails if you like that type of thing. Overall best day so far this season

even though NC can't compare, Beech got about two or three inches and it was total white out for about an hour or two. if you have been there before, the main road to the hill was closed for a while. even though i couldnt see five feet in front of me, the white out was nice because all the people who thought they could ski diamonds but really couldnt were inside and lift lines were very low; if at all.well its been a long days drive....lookin forward to Snowshoe in March. Power to the Powder Pigs!

I was jonesin' really bad to go to Pennsylvania (actually, anywhere) today, but on the advice of PhysicsMan, I checked the webcam at Whitetail first. No go.

Thanks, PhysicsMan.

re Whitetail ... Grim, isn't it?

I decided to head up to the Camel for some Sun skiing. The crowds will likely be pretty bad, but at least they will have snow.

Last weekend, Bristol up in NYS was in great shape (well, at least relatively speaking), but that's too far for me to go this weekend.

Have fun.

Tom / PM

I went to Timberline with my family this weekend (2/24) and the conditions were far superior to what we've seen in Virginia this season. They had 21 trails open and a very good base on all open trails - lift lines weren't even long. As far as we're concerned, it was definitely worth the drive... which was only 3 hours anyway.

>>PhysicsMan: re Whitetail ... Grim, isn't it? <<

I just looked at the webcam. I saw one person on the beginner slope. They shouldn't have bothered to open.

Went to Blue Knob this weekend. All blacks closed...probably 1/3rd of the trails. What was open was ice & rocks. Did more damage in 1 day there then 1 week in Morzine! The current conditions around are a boon to the ski repair shops. Time to hang them up (the skis) and look toward the beach!

CAMELBACK:

If you can possibly take a minor car trip up north, don't hang 'em up yet. I went up to Camelback & skied Sunday afternoon, evening, and Monday AM. Travel time from the northern DC 'burbs was 4.5 hrs each way (including a 1/2 hr lunch/pit stop).

This schedule allowed me to ski just after the NYC hordes headed for home: I never had a lift line of more than one or two minutes, altho apparently earlier in the weekend, it was an utter zoo.

Almost everything was covered & open. There were very few thin/bare spots, and those that did exist were all on steeper or very high traffic sections. The complaint from most people I talked to on the lifts seemed to be about the inconsistent spring-like surface, not coverage.

For example, the edges of catwalks and mogul troughs were piled up with wonderful corn / ball bearings whereas the center of the catwalks and downsides of the moguls were scraped down to the hard base (...so, what's new...).

The temp was always above freezing in the daytime, so there was never a problem getting an edge even where the hard base was exposed. At night, things hardened up quickly, so if you skid your turns, your fillings were in danger of being rattled loose. OTOH, there was so much surface texture, it was extremely easy to get an edge and silently carve.

Summary: I had a fine time & came back with zero body and base damage. It was definitely worth the drive (but do everything you can not to go there on the weekend).

Tom / PM

[This message has been edited by PhysicsMan (edited 02-26-2002).]

See following thread for discussion on Roundtop from 2/26/02

http://www.dcski.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000193.html

Guess I should have put it here. Sorry.

Just got back from Steamboat, Co. All that I can say is pow pow pow....I was boarding on thigh high snow in some areas. The best snowboarding I have ever done......Steamboat is a great resort with an endless amount of trails, I was there for a week and I still didn't get to ski every trail. The best resort in Colorado, I my opinion. Don't miss the Boat you will regret it....

I just sent Scott my trip report on Steamboat. Hopefully, it'll be out this week-end.

I just got back from Steamboat. We all should have gotten together for a beer at the bear!

I thought Steamboat was just ok. The pow pow was great (we did get a lot of that) but the mountain layout was too cumbersome. Skiing 3800 vertical is better when you don't have to traverse for 2000 of it.

I really feel sorry for poor Whitetail. It's the weekend, so it rains. I was told, while there yesterday, that WT intends to stay open until the 17th. I don't see how that will be possible. At least cold weather is predicted for Hagerstown all next week.

This URL should be all on one line:

http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USMD0195#

I was going to make a pilgrimage there on Friday (a flex day for me). According the the firsthand report recently posted, conditions were supposed to be pretty good, but I got bogged down in doing my taxes, and decided I would go today. Well, this rain is not very encouraging. Don't know what I'm going to do now....What a sad season.