Liberty at night. Liberty Mountain Resort has been making snow all day and all night. The resort plans to reopen this weekend. Photo provided by Liberty Mountain Resort.

This weekend should offer some great early-season skiing and boarding, after a week of ideal snowmaking temperatures. By Saturday, virtually all ski resorts in the region will have opened for the 2000-2001 winter season. Some resorts already have mid-season conditions.

In Maryland, Wisp Resort has 13 trails open with a 20-30 inch base depth. Conditions are packed powder. Through December 15, Wisp has “Best Buy” rates in effect: all lift tickets are $20.

Several Virginia resorts will start running lifts this weekend. Bryce will open for the season on Saturday, December 9, with special lift rates in effect until December 22. Massanutten will reopen on Saturday with 6 trails open and a base of 18-30 inches. Wintergreen has 6 trails open with a 45-55 inch base depth and packed powder conditions.

In Pennsylvania, Ski Roundtop has four trails open with an average base of 22 inches. Liberty Mountain Resort will reopen on Friday, December 8 with trails on both the front and back sides. Whitetail Resort will also reopen on Friday, with eight trails open, including intermediates Upper Angel Drop to Homerun.

“We will continue to make incredible amounts of snow at Whitetail with our new snowmaking system,” explained Eric Flynn, President of Whitetail and Liberty Mountain Resorts. “The 1-1/2 million dollar investment in snowmaking improvements is working better than we ever hoped,” he added, referring to snowmaking enhancements made over the summer at Whitetail.

Closer to Pittsburgh, Seven Springs Resort has mid-season conditions with 22 trails open already. Base depth is 18-30 inches and the resort has received several inches of natural snow in recent days. Beginning Friday, December 8, Seven Springs will be open for day, twilight, and night sessions; regular season rates will go into effect. The Tubing Park will also be open this weekend.

Hidden Valley Resort will open Friday evening, and will have 50% of its terrain open this weekend - the best opening conditions the resort has had in years. Hidden Valley also expects to open 5 kilometers of cross-country trails this weekend; snow tubing will also open on Saturday.

Blue Knob will reopen on Saturday, December 9 with around 10 trails.

Getting some air. Snowshoe’s all-snow halfpipe recently opened, and it didn’t take long for snowboarders long to discover this. Photo provided by Snowshoe Mountain Resort.

Laurel Mountain will open this weekend for skiing on Saturday and Sunday, and will open formally for the season on December 15. Lift tickets will be half price this weekend.

On the eastern side of Pennsylvania, Blue Mountain is open with 13 trails and a base depth of 24-36 inches.

In the Poconos, Jack Frost is open with 13 trails. The new Sno-Cross Track is also open at Jack Frost, with snowmobile and ATV rentals. Big Boulder is expected to open on December 16.

Camelback is open for day session through December 14; night skiing operations will begin on December 15. 14 trails are currently open at Camelback, with a base depth ranging from 24-60 inches.

In West Virginia, Canaan Valley Resort has 7 trails open with an 18-36 inch base depth and packed powder conditions. The Tube Park is also open.

Snowshoe Mountain Resort continues its great start to the season, and this weekend, advanced skiers and boarders will find Cupp Run open from top to bottom. This is the earliest Cupp Run has ever opened. 54 out of the resort’s 57 trails will be open beginning Saturday, thanks to aggressive snowmaking that has converted nearly 100 million gallons of water into snow in recent weeks.

“We have never had 95 percent of our terrain open less than a month into the season,” said Ed Galford, Snowshoe Mountain’s Vice President of Operations. “The temperatures have been almost perfect since early last month for snowmaking and we have taken advantage of the opportunity,” he added.

Looking forward, temperatures will remain cool for the next few days, although a warming trend is forecast for the next week. This rise in temperatures early next week might put some snowmaking operations on hold, giving snowmaking staff a much-needed break.