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Slow end of one season (best part and best skiing IMHO) and start of the next. Hope springs eternal.
Besides Ovie and the boys, another reason for excitement in DC sports.
Jesus Strasburg. The Real Deal? (Tom Boswell is one of the best baseball writers in the country. We're lucky to have him as our local columnist.)
Throw in March Madness and St. Patty's Day, and March rocks!
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Here is the gist of an email I received today. Lots of free skiing to be had in late season. Check out the Snowshoe website.
The Colonel 
March 9, 2010
Ski Free!
Experience the best conditions in our history and SKI FREE in the extended season when you stay 2 or more nights.
Click for more details...
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March Packages
Lift and Lodging packages start at just $138 per person per night!
Find out more...
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Kids Ski Free!
Your kids will ski FREE this month when you book a 3 or more night lift/lodging package.
More information
Kids Programs at Snowshoe
IN THE NEWS
Season Pass Savings
Snow Report
Vacation Tips
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Either yesterday or today there was a great article about a fellow in Md. making a living selling used ski equipment via the web...Anybody else catch it?
The Colonel
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http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=1248&mode=headlines
Just wanted to make sure all saw this great article/photos/video about the late Feb DCSki gathering at Blue Knob. Thanks to Vince Kenney, Jim K, and Rob Davis. What a great weekend - wonderful skiing and riding, wonderful folks. Near 24 participated, hope to get even more next year.
One thing that really helped folks connect with one another out on the slopes was the wearing of yellow plastic ribbons attached to our gloves or poles. Jimmy brought the ribbon and whenever you saw someone with "flowing yellow ribbons" you knew it was one of us!
The Colonel
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7S was awesome yesterday. Blue skies and great snow. 7S has terrain open for everyone. They had 5 terrain parks, 2 half pipes, and at least 8 bump runs open for your enjoyment. The trees was still had some untracked snow, but a majority of the woods had soft packed powder bumps in them. Even with the warm weather, I was amazed that a majority of the snow remained packed powder and never really turned to granular. For a Monday, I was surprised how many people were there (don't these people have jobs), there were no liftlines, but there were lots of people at the Foggy Goggle. 7S is in great condition, I highly recommend going there while the gettings still good.
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On March 6, "AJ" posted the following comments in the "Recent Comments" section under the "Community" chapter in DCSki. I wish to address the comments here, where more DCSkiers and Wintergreen managers might see them and provide their point-of-view.
The post follows:
"Comments on Wintergreen - Not so minty fresh... - posted by AJ
March 6 at 7:42 pm
Not so minty fresh... Unfortunately, I would have to rate Wintergreen as my most disappointing ski experience. The lift line management was unbelievably poor resulting in waiting in line for an hour to get the lift just prior to the 4pm closure of the black diamond skiing areas. There was almost a riot!
I will never go there again."
I could not ascertain what Wintergreen article is referenced, nor find "AJ" on the list of DCSki members. Nor was I at Wintergreen the 6th of March (when I assume he was), but I was there with my kids and my grandkids the previous weekend (Feb. 26-28) when the resort was "sold out" and quite crowded, possibly more crowded than the March 6th weekend. I too experienced large lift lines, especially at the Blue Ridge Express and Big Acorn quad chairs. The lift lines at the Highlands Express, serving the expert section were never real large. I thought Wintergreen did an admirable job of managing the lines for the Big Acorn and Blue Ridge Express, with a multitude of employees working the lines and moving them along fairly. However, at the Highland Express, on Feb. 27, I encountered an employee charged with managing the less than 5 minute line not paying full attention to the task at hand. Around 11:00, she was much more interested in taking photos and chatting with her Wintergreen "friends", ski patrollers, etc. at the skiers left upslope of the corral than keeping up with line management. On a number of occasions she had to quickly move folks from the outside (upslope) lines quickly to the chair loading area without going fairly from each of the 6-8 assembled lines. This caused some grumbling and muttering, and a couple of folks broke line when she continued to carry on her conversations and allow the upslope line to move to the loading area without calling for the down slope lines to do likewise, in logical order. Not a giant problem, but one that management should check and prevent a repeat, as some might not be as patient as I. If the lady mentioned above was working the huge line at the Blue Ridge Express (about 20+ minutes), I could see how a riot might gain momentum.
To the larger issue of having enough lifts at Wintergreen. Depends on the day, conditions, etc. Perhaps a high speed lift might help with the Big Acorn fixed quad crowd, but I am not sure whether this would cause overcrowding on the 5 runs off of this lift. Wintergreen is quite popular, and unlike CV, Timberline and Snowshoe, close to major population centers. With the great snow and conditions this winter, I suspect they might well set an attendance record, assuming the weekend snowfalls did not keep too many skiers/riders away due to road conditions. Should they limit ticket sales?, not many resorts really do this, especially hard to manage when the resort is an hour drive from several large cities.
Wintergreen is a great resort, with first class amenities and restaurants. The segregation of their "most difficult" slopes is unique in this area, and makes for only rare crowding on the Highlands slopes. Give it another chance before deciding never to return.
The Colonel
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How was the Utah trip? I kept up with conditions at Alta, and you obviously got a pretty good snowfall late last week.
The Colonel
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The Wounded Warrior Weekend at Snowshoe was a terrific success. President and COO of Snowshoe, Bill Rock, tells us there were 24 Service Members and their families. He said it was the most beautiful weekend of the year, and the entire staff did a magnificent job.
Conditions are great at Snowshoe, and should last a while longer.
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Sunday in the sun @ WTG -
It was hot. It was soft. But it was fun for a while! This past Sunday my son and I made the trek up to Wintergreen for what might be the last local runs of the season for me. Other than the 0630 stop at Subway for 5 dollar foot long ( nine year olds can eat!) the drive up was without a hitch. We were on the slopes by what I had hope to be an early 9 AM.
Unfortunately this was not early enough. The crystal clear blue sky was allowing the sun to beat directly on the slopes. There was no wind to speak of and temperatures were rising quickly. I knew we were in for a hot on when I was sweating just walking from the parking lot. I had to drop a layer before the day even started.
Once on the snow we quickly made our way to the Highlands area. The area was busy but the crowds were still thin. Those trails that were in the shade held up well, but those in the sun went from corn to hero snow to mush very fast. Outer Limits was nicely mogul up but it quickly became too soft for my taste! We played on these slope for a while skiing to the lift almost everytime.
Seeking something different we headed over to the Big Acorn lift. That proved to be a mistake as the crowds were large over there. We managed a few runs on Sunrise but got bored with the long lines.
It was then that my son spotted some other lines - The Zip. Wintergreen installed a couple of zip lines this year over the Plunge tubing park. For a mere $12 you can slide over the sliders below. The only draw back is you cant wear your ski boots (which there was not warning of until I purchased the ticket and I don’t really see why not?). Anyway as we had skied there, we were in a bit of a predicament. So we had to get our ski's back on. Ski down to the Big Acorn lift, stand in that long line then ride the lift so we could ski down over to the Blue Ridge Express then slide along the top to the parking lots. Once changed we jumped on a shuttle bus to get back down to the Plunge. A bit of the run around we barely made our assigned window. Once all set it was actually pretty cool. They set you up in a climbing harness, give you a quick breif, hook you in and away you go! My nine year old loved it also most as much as the indoor stock car racing we had been to the night before, but that is a different story.
Over all it was fun day but I am sure the snow was a mess in the afternoon. I am also sure night skiing about 7-8 pm would have been great!
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As most of you know, Timberline is scheduled to close at the end of March. I was told by a Timberline employee (that definitely would know) yesterday that Doc would consider keeping the mountain open passed the scheduled close date if he thought people would still come out and ski. This individual encourage me to contact Timberline and let Doc know that there are plenty of us that would like the season of snow to continue into may. So......., if anyone is interested either post here or send Doc a note.
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