Depends what your definition of "reasonable distance" is.

If two hours, the answer is no resort, unless the weather is unusually warm or it is raining. Some of my most fun times at downhill areas were on rainy days (you need good goretex, though).

3 to 4 hours, try Canaan Resort in West Virginia. It is never too crowded. Wisp in Western Maryland is usually not that bad as far as crowds go.

Other strategies: Sundays are usually less crowded than Saturdays; get there when the lifts first open and you will be crowd free for at least two hours; ski black diamond trails; try cross country skiing.

blue knob pa is rarely super crowded in recent years. wisp md and seven springs pa could be busy, esp seven springs. all 3 about 3-3.5 hrs from dc. closer areas such as whitetail, liberty, roundtop (1.5-2 hrs, all pa) tend to be pretty busy during midwinter weekends, except don't forget little bryce va (2hrs) which is great if you are a lower intermediate and is never, ever crowded.

How non-busy are we taling about? I have been going to the Men's day at Blue Knob recently. I always ski right onto the lift with zero line all day long. In fact I would rarely see anyone on the way down either. And when I did they were like staring in awe at the sight of another human face. I don't know about weekends. But its in the middle of nowhere so how busy can it get?

Round Top is probably the least busy of the resorts under 100 miles from DC. Particularly on sundays. Until noon its only a few hardcore locals and you. Maybe a tour bus? But after church, when the school kids wake up it can get messy.

Wisp is also not very busy on nonholiday peak weekends.

I suspect the same is probabbly true for Canaan and T-Line but I have never been to either. Theyre on my to-do list.

Check out laurel mountain too my hunch is that they may also be very un-busy.

Rule of thumb get there before 9 AM (even on holidays like MLK and Prez. Day) and you will be fine for at least an hour or two. Most people aren't pressed to wake up at 6 or 7 AM to get to the resort by 8:30-9. You just have to want it more

Once the crowds roll in try to stick to the most advanced terrain at the resort. Avoid any lift serviced by green or easier blue cruisers and you will make it out ok. Never Ever leave the back side of Liberty. No matter how bad the crowds are on the back it will always take twice the time to get up on the front side. HTH.

[This message has been edited by TBONE (edited 01-30-2003).]

[This message has been edited by TBONE (edited 01-30-2003).]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a resort that is not too crowded on the weekends and that is a reasonable distance from DC for a day trip?

You might want to try Laurel Mountain. We were there on MLK Sunday and it was not busy. I imagine during non-holiday weekends it is probably considerably less crowded than most of the other local hills.
A plus: really reasonable lift tickets.