As the 2026-2027 season approaches, DCSki examines the equipment trends reshaping skiing and snowboarding, including BOA ski boots, fast-entry snowboard bindings, narrower carving skis, hybrid touring bindings, more advanced helmets, and lower-impact outerwear. The story also considers which innovations solve real problems for Mid-Atlantic skiers and snowboarders, and which are simply optional upgrades.
By M. Scott Smith | September 12, 2026 Feature Story
Camelback Resort is adding three trails for the 2026-2027 winter season, marking its first terrain expansion in 30 years, while also introducing new mountainside food and beverage options. Nearby Blue Mountain Resort is installing 315 LED trail lights and upgrading portions of its snowmaking infrastructure.
By M. Scott Smith | September 9, 2026 What's New
What do skiers remember decades after their local ski hill disappears? Drawing on nearly 1,600 comments submitted to DCSki's Lost Ski Areas profiles, this story explores the experiences that stayed with generations of Mid-Atlantic skiers: learning to ski, working first jobs, riding rope tows, gathering in small lodges, and growing up alongside neighborhood ski hills that have long since vanished.
By M. Scott Smith | September 7, 2026 1 Feature Story
Wisp and Wintergreen are offering discounted passes, transferable lift tickets, and free beginner programs as part of their Mission Affordable initiative for the 2026-2027 ski season.
By M. Scott Smith | September 7, 2026 News
Masks, reservations, capacity limits, and parking-lot lunches made the 2020-2021 winter unlike any Mid-Atlantic ski season before it. Six years later, DCSki looks back at how resorts and skiers navigated the pandemic and how that period accelerated the shift toward advance ticket sales, mobile passes, online transactions, and other practices that remain with us today.
By M. Scott Smith | September 4, 2026 1 Feature Story
Skiers who buy season passes during the heat of summer receive lower prices and unlimited access once the lifts begin turning, but resorts begin benefiting months earlier. DCSki explores how advance sales help cover offseason expenses, reduce some of the uncertainty of a weather-dependent business, and secure customers’ commitments before winter arrives. Photo provided by Seven Springs Resort.
By M. Scott Smith | September 2, 2026 Feature Story
How much will it cost to get on the slopes this winter? The question has become surprisingly difficult to answer as date-specific ticket prices, advance-purchase discounts, passes, rentals, lessons, food, and travel send each skier’s total in a different direction. DCSki examines the prices Mid-Atlantic skiers are likely to encounter during the 2026-2027 season and offers some practical ways to keep the bill under control.
By M. Scott Smith | September 1, 2026 Feature Story
Fall brings a different kind of activity to Mid-Atlantic ski resorts, with Oktoberfests, foliage chairlift rides, mountain biking, live music, arts festivals, and even a celebration devoted to Bigfoot. DCSki rounds up some of the events worth checking out this fall as the mountains begin their gradual transition toward winter.
By M. Scott Smith | August 30, 2026 Feature Story
Buying a ski pass used to mean choosing a home mountain. And that was pretty much it. Today, Mid-Atlantic skiers must sort through national products, regional passes, reciprocal agreements, limited-day packages, blackout dates, and prices that change several times before winter. It can be overwhelming! DCSki tries to break through the confusion by examining the leading options for 2026-2027 and the skiers each one serves best.
By M. Scott Smith | August 29, 2026 Feature Story
Skiing has become expensive, but bargains have not disappeared. DCSki looks across the Mid-Atlantic for the season passes, night tickets, family programs, lodging packages, and other offers that can still put skiers on the snow without draining the winter budget.
By M. Scott Smith | August 29, 2026 Feature Story
One of the strongest El Niño events in the modern record is developing ahead of the 2026-2027 ski season, increasing the odds of an active, moisture-rich storm track across the East. DCSki looks at the latest forecasts, lessons from past El Niño winters, and the factors that could determine whether that moisture arrives at Mid-Atlantic ski areas as snow or rain.
By M. Scott Smith | August 27, 2026 Feature Story
In 1996, just after graduating from college and before beginning his career, DCSki’s Editor hiked to Timber Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. Nearly 30 years later, on the other side of that career, he returned to the same trail for a sentimental journey through a landscape both familiar and changed — and a chance to reflect on the decades in between.
By M. Scott Smith | August 25, 2026 Feature Story
Before webcams, navigation apps, digital lift passes, and group texts, Mid-Atlantic skiers relied on snow phones, paper trail maps, printed directions, and carefully chosen meeting places. This retrospective recalls the uncertainty and occasional adventure of skiing before the smartphone while considering how modern technology has made trips safer, easier, and better documented.
By M. Scott Smith | August 24, 2026 2 Feature Story
Every winter, Mid-Atlantic skiers scrutinize thermometers and webcams, wondering why the snowguns are silent at their favorite resorts. This feature story steps into the snowmaking control room to explore the weather, water, staffing, financial, and operational calculations behind those decisions -- and why resorts facing seemingly similar conditions sometimes make very different calls.
By M. Scott Smith | August 21, 2026 1 Feature Story
Mid-Atlantic ski resorts are preparing for the 2026-2027 winter season with new lifts, expanded snowmaking systems, improved skier facilities, and major lodging projects. DCSki takes a closer look at the enhancements and upgrades underway across the region at resorts such as Seven Springs, Wisp, Wintergreen, Snowshoe, and Massanutten.
By M. Scott Smith | August 19, 2026 3 What's New
After purchasing Snowshoe in 1995, Intrawest invested heavily in new lifts, terrain, snowmaking, lodging, and a mountaintop village. Featuring newly scanned photographs of the Western Express installation, this retrospective revisits the excitement surrounding Snowshoe’s transformation and the real-estate-driven strategy behind it.
By M. Scott Smith | August 16, 2026 1 Feature Story
Since DCSki’s earliest years, regular columnists and occasional guest authors have shared firsthand reports, practical advice, distant adventures, and deeply personal reflections. This retrospective celebrates the writers who broadened DCSki’s perspective while creating a collective record of mountains, friendships, changing lives, and more than three decades on snow.
By M. Scott Smith | July 29, 2026 2 Feature Story
Once scattered across the Mid-Atlantic, hundreds of community ski hills, residential resorts, and ambitious mountain developments introduced generations to snowsports. Drawing on DCSk's Lost Ski Areas archive and readers' memories, this feature story traces their rise and decline, the forces that reshaped the regional ski industry, and the advantages that helped today's resorts endure.
By M. Scott Smith | July 23, 2026 2 Feature Story
The powerful 1997-1998 El Niño brought warmth, rain, abbreviated operations, and lasting financial consequences to Mid-Atlantic ski areas. DCSki looks back at that difficult season, explores the financial risks of betting a year-round business on a few winter months, and considers whether the developing 2026-2027 El Niño might deliver rain, snow, or something in between.
By M. Scott Smith | July 18, 2026 2 Feature Story
Once the snow melts and the lifts stop spinning, many Mid-Atlantic ski areas become remarkably quiet. DCSki takes a behind-the-scenes look at the lift maintenance, snowmaking repairs, trail work, construction projects, and advance planning that prepare the mountain for another all-too-brief winter season.
By M. Scott Smith | July 17, 2026 Feature Story
After a long ski season, DCSki's Editor Scott traded snow for sun on a rare 14-night Southern Caribbean cruise featuring seven ports in seven days. It was a unique itinerary that offered a very different kind of off-season escape, and Scott captures the adventure in a cinematic video.
By M. Scott Smith | April 9, 2026 2 Feature Story
Vail Resorts has launched sales of its 2026/27 Epic Pass lineup, adding a new 20% discount on Epic and Epic Local Passes for skiers and riders ages 13–30. Early buyers will again receive up to 10 Epic Friend Tickets and eligible lift-ticket guests from this past season may receive additional savings toward next year’s pass.
By M. Scott Smith | March 12, 2026 News
Looking to double his ski days this winter (from one to two), DCSki’s Editor spent a peaceful midweek day at Whitetail Resort, where light crowds and smooth lift rides made for an unhurried outing. The visit offered a chance to revisit favorite trails, reflect on early skiing memories, and enjoy late-season conditions without the usual weekend bustle.
By M. Scott Smith | February 27, 2026 2 Firsthand Report
Indy Pass has added 16 new partner resorts for the 2026/27 season and lowered the price of its no-blackout Indy+ Pass to $399. Renewals for existing passholders opened February 25, with passes historically selling out quickly before moving to waitlist and public sales.
By M. Scott Smith | February 26, 2026 News
After a delayed start to the season, DCSki's Editor finally got back on snow with a quiet midweek visit to Liberty Mountain, finding the resort’s easygoing “vibe” fully intact. Liberty heads into the second half of February with great snow and 100% open terrain.
By M. Scott Smith | February 13, 2026 2 Firsthand Report
Pennsylvania's Seven Springs Mountain Resort was named the winner of Ski Area Management Magazine’s 2026 I AM a Snowmaker contest after public voting. The win is notable for Mid-Atlantic skiing and also reflects the resort’s long-standing ties to snowmaking history through Herman K. Dupré and the origins of HKD Snowmakers.
By M. Scott Smith | February 8, 2026 News
Pennsylvania's Camelback Resort has announced that it will run daily skiing and riding through April 12, 2026, then shift to weekend operations into the first weekend of May if conditions allow. The resort says the schedule would be its longest season on record, surpassing its previous latest closing date of April 9, 2009.
By M. Scott Smith | February 7, 2026 2 News
DCSki Columnist Robbie Allen continues his Going Further Afield series with a look at Bear Valley Mountain Resort, one of the most under-the-radar members of the Cali Pass, arguing that its high-elevation snow and low crowds make it a compelling alternative to Tahoe’s busier hills. Drawing on the resort’s terrain pods, lift network, steeps (including Grizzly Bowl and the village-facing lines), and its boom-and-bust village history, Allen explains why Bear Valley “skis bigger” than expected and stands out as a quiet value play—especially with Powder Alliance access.
By Robbie Allen | February 3, 2026 1 Further Afield
DCSki Columnist Robbie Allen continues his Going Further Afield series with a look at California's Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort, part of the Cali Pass, arguing that smaller alliances can offer compelling alternatives to Epic and Ikon. Drawing on the resort’s history, terrain layout, snow conditions, and lift infrastructure, Allen highlights both what makes Dodge Ridge appealing and where it still shows its age. Photo provided by Dodge Ridge.
By Robbie Allen | January 24, 2026 Further Afield
Seven Springs has been named a finalist in Ski Area Management Magazine’s 11th annual I AM a Snowmaker contest, which recognizes snowmaking teams and is decided by public voting. The nomination also highlights Seven Springs’ deep ties to snowmaking history, from its first system installed in 1960 to innovations led by Herman K. Dupré that helped lay the groundwork for what became HKD Snowmakers. Voting is open through February 2, with the winner announced February 3.
By M. Scott Smith | January 22, 2026 Feature Story
