itdoesntmatter wrote:
Hard to believe that Whitetail has to close for the week mid January. Surprisingly Liberty is able to stay open, although with just a few slopes. Did liberty do a better job of making snow? Or maybe Vail Resorts says only one can stay open? Let's hope for a better late January and February. Heading to Vermont right now
Maybe Whitetail has a more southern exposure? good idea to head to Vermont! At Killington now where are you going?
"Maybe Whitetail has a more southern exposure? good idea to head to Vermont! At Killington now where are you going?"
>Slopes face to the southeast.
Liberty's front side faces West/Northwest while the back side faces East which definitely helps it keep snow better than Whitetail which faces East (beginner hill) / Southeast (int and expert hills).
It's a shame what an awful Winter it has been so far, but do hold out hope it can be salvaged starting this weekend with cold air moving in. Wintergreen is down to effectively two trails (Eagle Swoop and Upper/Lower Dobie) while Liberty has trails open, but the ones on the backside look to be about 5 feet wide at points near the bottom. Bryce amazingly has most of its terrain open.
mdr227 wrote:
It's a shame what an awful Winter it has been so far, but do hold out hope it can be salvaged starting this weekend with cold air moving in. Wintergreen is down to effectively two trails (Eagle Swoop and Upper/Lower Dobie) while Liberty has trails open, but the ones on the backside look to be about 5 feet wide at points near the bottom. Bryce amazingly has most of its terrain open.
Wintergreen chose not to start building a base in Nov. The difference between Wgreen and Mnut is pretty noticeable this season.
Learned a little about the weather patterns due to geography that has helped Bryce when Mnut has a big temperature inversion that means it's in the 20s in the valley but too warm to for snowmaking on the mountain. Apparently there are times when it's essentially 20 degrees colder at the base of Bryce compared to the summit of Massanutten.
It was absolutely the correct call for Whitetail to shut down ops for the week. Just a quick glance at the web cams shows that they have not lost nearly as much snow as they would have if they had been open and spreading the snow combined with skier/boarder traffic. Looking at the forecast Thursday - Saturday morning I would suspect they will be able to run the guns pretty much non-stop to at least get what they had open skiable again. Looking toward next weekend they should finally have some new terrain open since they will have a solid 3-4 day stretch of around the clock snowmaking.
Sorry to be Donnie downer, but if the mid-Altantic region receives more weather the likes of which are forecasted for this weekend, then Whitetail, Mnut, Hidden Valley and everyone else in lower Appalachia may just pull the plug on the season.
HVdad wrote:
Sorry to be Donnie downer, but if the mid-Altantic region receives more weather the likes of which are forecasted for this weekend, then Whitetail, Mnut, Hidden Valley and everyone else in lower Appalachia may just pull the plug on the season.
Haven't followed PA skiing that carefully, but this won't be the first time in the last 15 years that Mnut has had to build up beyond the core trails starting mid-Jan. There is always a Jan thaw that feels like a re-start. Last weekend was the weekend when grass reappeared all over the region.
What do you think is bad about the forecast this weekend, Jan. 18-19, 2020? For Mnut, highs are expected to be in the high 30s/low 40s with lows in the 20s overnight. I'm bringing my heavier jacket and gloves for the holiday weekend.
HVdad wrote:
Sorry to be Donnie downer, but if the mid-Altantic region receives more weather the likes of which are forecasted for this weekend, then Whitetail, Mnut, Hidden Valley and everyone else in lower Appalachia may just pull the plug on the season.
Hidden Valley? They seem to always out-snowmake the rest of the region, and they've done the same so far this season.
No way!!!
HVdad wrote:
Sorry to be Donnie downer, but if the mid-Altantic region receives more weather the likes of which are forecasted for this weekend, then Whitetail, Mnut, Hidden Valley and everyone else in lower Appalachia may just pull the plug on the season.
Why would the mid-Atlantic resorts pull the plug? Looking at the long range forecast they will be able to make snow for at least 72 hours straight starting Sunday. Resorts like Whitetail can have about the whole mountain open with that type of snowmaking window. It looks like our season this year will run Late Jan - Mid March...
powday wrote:
It was absolutely the correct call for Whitetail to shut down ops for the week. Just a quick glance at the web cams shows that they have not lost nearly as much snow as they would have if they had been open and spreading the snow combined with skier/boarder traffic. Looking at the forecast Thursday - Saturday morning I would suspect they will be able to run the guns pretty much non-stop to at least get what they had open skiable again. Looking toward next weekend they should finally have some new terrain open since they will have a solid 3-4 day stretch of around the clock snowmaking.
Agreed, Powday.
The return of cold weather on Friday, and its expected run through next week, should get WT on its feet again ... and allow Liberty to build out those WRODs on the back side.
Thinking cold, thinking snow,
Woody
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Hard to believe that Whitetail has to close for the week mid January. Surprisingly Liberty is able to stay open, although with just a few slopes. Did liberty do a better job of making snow? Or maybe Vail Resorts says only one can stay open? Let's hope for a better late January and February. Heading to Vermont right now
Using Colorado as a guide, Vail's method of operation is to allow skiers an option to ski -- but not everywhere.
Keystone opens early - every year. The other Vail resorts could too, but don't. Vail resorts gives skiers one option.
Breckenridge stays open late season. That's it. At least Keystone could be open late season (arguably with better conditions as it is north facing while Breck isn't) . Vail resorts keeps one option open for skiers.
The same thing could be happening in the DC area. Three resorts, and Vail sees no reason to kil itself to keep all three open - as long as it keeps at least one option open for everybody.
Planning daytrip tomorrow with group of mixed abilities (first timer up through advanced) skiing tomorrow, either Whitetail or Liberty, trying to decide which one. If anyone has been to either today, how were conditions? Leaning toward Liberty because the kids are big fans of Dipsy Doodle to Lower Heavenly, but they've never been to Whitetail before, and when I've been there before, I neglected to scout the greens they'd want to ski. Both areas seem to be blowing alot of snow today and presumably will continue tonight.
Any thoughts on which area's conditions will be less bad tomorrow (Sunday)?
Gibou, please give us a brief report from wherever you go. We're doing the same thing on Monday, and considering the same resorts.
Not surprisingly, Liberty was swamped today. We didn't get in half the runs we'd normally get there because of the lines. Lift lines on the front side were ~20minutes. However, the conditions were respectable. I spent most of the time on the front side teaching my preschooler to ski, but I had a brief brake from parental duties and got in some runs on the backside in the middle of the afternoon, both lifts were running and the line was less than two minutes when I was there. Heavenly and the one next over (lower ultra maybe) were kind of...heavenly, even with a few marked thin spots, after the monotony of waiting twenty minutes on the front side for each short run. They had a few nice soft developing confidence boosting moguls. Upper Blue Streak was also in nice shape. Overall surprisingly good conditions. The only drawback were the horrible front side lines and skiing through the cold snowmaking mist. So do bring a face cover or balaclava. If your group trends beginner, they may be frustrated by the lines on the front side, but if you adjust your expectations accordingly or stick to the backside, you'll have fun.
Massanutten turned out to be unusually crowded between 2:00-4:30 today. Usually the Sun afternoon of a holiday weekend is not as busy as Sat afternoon. But the quick rain at lunch time on Sat discouraged a lot of people. My friends and I actually had a very good time all Sat afternoon with no lift lines and softened snow since temps staye in the upper 30s. But seems as if those who opted out on Sat than bought 8-hour lift tickets on Sun. Plus there is a group of locals who are blacked out until 4pm on Sun who showed up around then today.
We gave up and went back to our on-mountain condo. Went back around 6:00 and skied for a bit. It was empty and already quite cold. Temps in the mid 20s. Snow guns had been on since 5:00 or so on Upper Showtime since it's not open yet. In the evening there were a few guns on in the middle of Southern Comfort (green) and on Lower Showtime (blue). The fresh snow was much better than the sugar on top of frozen hard pack in the early afternoon.
All guns full on by 10pm.
Wish I could go to WT this weekend but parental obligations prevented this from happening. Checking the live streams for WT it seems they are laying down a tremendous amount of snow. It really is amazing how much snow they can put down in a short amount of time. The investment in the new snow guns and capacity are paying off. Hope to get there next Sunday if the rain stays away. We mid-Atlantic skiers can not be picky..............but I don't ski in the rain.
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