Tucked into Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the mountain has 500 feet of vertical and, until last winter, just eight primary trails.
But for more than 60 years, it has introduced Washington-area families to skiing, developed generations of ski racers, and anchored a year-round resort community in Basye, Virginia.
The resort traces its roots to the early 1900s, when William Brice opened Hillside Cottages and Mineral Baths in the area. The property eventually passed to his grandson, Pete Bryce, and Pete’s wife, Julie, who began operating the resort in the 1940s.
By the early 1960s, Pete and Julie were developing a four-season mountain community close enough to Washington, D.C. to make an easy weekend getaway. The ski area opened in 1965.
A year later, Pete Bryce added an airport, reflecting his enthusiasm for aviation. The original Sky Bryce runway was dirt. The airport remains alongside the resort today, an unusual neighbor for a Mid-Atlantic ski slope.
Brothers Horst and Manfred Locher came from southern Germany and began working at Bryce as ski instructors in 1965. They eventually spent decades managing the ski operation. Horst’s son Ryan grew up racing at Bryce and later became the resort’s general manager.
Bryce eventually became a member-owned resort, with shareholders electing its Board of Directors, while remaining open to the public.
Its compact layout has made Bryce particularly popular with families and beginning skiers. The base area is easy to navigate, and beginners can move from the learning area to top-to-bottom runs without having to navigate a sprawling mountain. Basye is also within roughly two hours of much of the Washington metropolitan area.
Ski racing has been a significant part of Bryce for decades. Bootlegger provides a sustained pitch for setting gates, and the Bryce Resort Racing Team now includes more than 80 racers. Young skiers can begin race training at age 7 1/2.
DCSki Columnist Jim Kenney once described Bryce as a “feeder-hill” — a small mountain where skiers could develop skills before moving on to larger terrain. The description has held up well over the years.
Expanding the Mountain
Bryce operated with essentially the same ski footprint for decades. In the spring of 2025, the resort’s member-owners voted to proceed with a major expansion, and construction began that May.
The project opened for the 2025-2026 season, adding four trails on the backside of the mountain: Speak Easy, a green; Prost and 80’s Proof, both blues; and Randy’s Remedy, a black diamond. The expansion increased Bryce’s skiable terrain by roughly 35 percent.
The four trails are served by Lift 3, a SkyTrac fixed-grip quad. The five-tower lift has 36 chairs, runs just over 1,000 feet, and climbs approximately 250 vertical feet.
Bryce had seen its customer base grow during the preceding five years, increasing pressure on the original trail network during busy periods. The expansion added more intermediate and advanced terrain and gave beginners a second green trail.
Snowmaking was included throughout the new terrain. Bryce crews graded the trails and welded approximately 15,000 feet of snowmaking pipe, while 100 HKD Impulse tower guns were installed along the four new runs.
Snowmaking is particularly important at Bryce. The summit elevation is about 1,750 feet, so the resort cannot rely on the colder temperatures and greater natural snowfall found at the highest West Virginia ski areas. Snowsports also account for approximately half of Bryce’s revenue, according to ski-industry publication SAM.
The resort extends well beyond the ski slopes. Bryce includes an 18-hole golf course, Lake Laura, restaurants, the Sky Bryce Airport, a mountain bike park, and homes surrounding the mountain. The community remains active throughout the year, with chairlifts carrying mountain bikers instead of skiers during the warmer months.
For some families, visits to Bryce span generations. Jim Kenney recalled one such moment during a DCSki visit in 2007. He was riding a chairlift alone at noon when bells from slopeside Our Lady of the Shenandoah began playing “Shenandoah.” It happened to be his late mother’s birthday.
His mother had taken him skiing at Bryce when he was young. During his 2007 visit, Jim was skiing there with his own children. He later included the experience among his favorite memories from his first 15 years writing for DCSki.
Much has changed since Bryce opened in 1965, including a significant expansion last winter. But for many Mid-Atlantic skiers, its appeal has remained remarkably consistent: a friendly, approachable mountain close to home, where one generation learns to ski and, years later, returns with the next.
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