So, what is the move this weekend?

Stay home? Ski early? Ski late? Night ski? Ski on Monday only? 

What are your crowd fighting plans?

I'm headed to 7Springs, it may end up my first lift-line wait this season!  Does it get packed on a holiday weekend?

 Hoping for "lighter" crowds at 7S Friday morning.  We will bail out early in the afternoon before the weekenders roll in. 

Sat / Sun fireplace and football

Not sure about Monday, MLK Day.  I assume it will be busy due to the holiday and many kids are off school.

oldensign wrote:

So, what is the move this weekend?

Stay home? Ski early? Ski late? Night ski? Ski on Monday only? 

What are your crowd fighting plans?

 Based on occupancy of the hotels/condos at 7S, I can say you should prepare yourself for a zoo.  They closed down Gunnar and a couple of other slopes, for what was either cost saving measures or most likely damaged terrain due to rain.  They didnt make snow on those areas until later and didnt blow it nearly as much as the front side, and the front side had some bare spots so I can only imagine the north face is pretty bad and they are barely able to keep what they have open ..open.  

During the xmas break, there were lines making their way back UP the hill.  After 1.5 hours someone posted they gave up and walked back.  

!!

So while I think/hope it wont be that bad this time around, and 7S is trying to prepare to have more food (they ran out during xmas) as well as possibly seating (people were sitting on the floors), I wouldnt doubt that the crowd levels will be at least an 8/10 if not greater. 

ShredDMV wrote:

I'm headed to 7Springs, it may end up my first lift-line wait this season!  Does it get packed on a holiday weekend?

 I appreciate the insight!  With the forecasted snow on top, it really could end up a zoo!  I doubt the limited snowfall allows them to open up new terrain as well.  Let us pray for a February turnaround

Grumpy dad wrote:

 Based on occupancy of the hotels/condos at 7S, I can say you should prepare yourself for a zoo.  They closed down Gunnar and a couple of other slopes, for what was either cost saving measures or most likely damaged terrain due to rain.  They didnt make snow on those areas until later and didnt blow it nearly as much as the front side, and the front side had some bare spots so I can only imagine the north face is pretty bad and they are barely able to keep what they have open ..open.  

During the xmas break, there were lines making their way back UP the hill.  After 1.5 hours someone posted they gave up and walked back.  

!!

So while I think/hope it wont be that bad this time around, and 7S is trying to prepare to have more food (they ran out during xmas) as well as possibly seating (people were sitting on the floors), I wouldnt doubt that the crowd levels will be at least an 8/10 if not greater. 

ShredDMV wrote:

I'm headed to 7Springs, it may end up my first lift-line wait this season!  Does it get packed on a holiday weekend?

I've been skiing at Massanutten over MLK weekend since 2005.  Always with kids in elementary or middle school, so there wasn't much choice.  When the kids weren't doing full-day ski school (no longer an option), we would ski 9:00-11:30 on Saturday, take a long lunch, and then ski from about 3:00 to dinner time, which got later as they got older.  On Sunday there were always fewer people in the afternoon compared to Saturday, but our schedule was about the same.  It helped that before RFID, a 2-day ticket included night skiing both days.  That's not true any more.  What hasn't changed is that Monday was relatively empty because most families who stay on resort have to check out and don't bother to ski before heading home.  They are more likely to get snow tubing tickets.  Gets busy after 5:00 because of Monday Night Madness when locals show up.

Before there were blue trails on the upper mountain, the lift to the top never had a line.  Not even during the busiest hours on a holiday weekend.  Hard to say what will happen this MLK weekend.  But I still don't expect much of a line in comparison to every other ski resort within a few hours drive of DC/NoVA.  My daughter could ski Paradice by age 6, thanks to the Massanutten ski school.

Night skiing starts at 4:00.  My daughter is driving up from NC on Saturday morning with her BF.  I got her a Night ticket for Saturday.  She'll probably get an 8-hour ticket for Sunday and start after 11am.  RFID makes it easy for the system to know when her ticket ends that evening.  He's going to do a beginner group lesson at 1pm with a 4-hour lift ticket.  Pushing the BF to get up early didn't seem like the best introduction to the idea of skiing on a holiday weekend.

Snow conditions today were very good all over until mid-afternoon.  Still good after that higher up.  Hoping there will be another night or two of snowmaking before Saturday.

fatsalmon wrote:

I have an Indy pass so and want to get a day trip in this weekend (probably tomorrow). Is Canaan Valley worth an extra 1.5 hours from DC over Massanutten. The cams look a lot better at CV but those can be deceiving.

Small sample size - I went to both last year, in the second half of the season for half-days. My impression is Massanutten is the better run of the two. I get that feeling from the forum other the years as well. CV *should* have made more snow and opened more trails because it has a few thousand extra feet of elevation.

fatsalmon wrote:

I have an Indy pass so and want to get a day trip in this weekend (probably tomorrow). Is Canaan Valley worth an extra 1.5 hours from DC over Massanutten. The cams look a lot better at CV but those can be deceiving.

 While the snow might be better at CV based on what I experienced at Timberline a few days ago, skiing the upper mountain of Massanutten could be quite fun as well.  I've been having a good time at Mnut since Wednesday.  It's 30 degrees at 11pm and all the lights are on up there in preparation to start snowmaking.

Note that it pays to arrive at Mnut by 8:30 on a weekend.  Makes even more difference on a holiday weekend.

If you make it to Mnut, I'll be out skiing pretty much all day.  Blue jacket, red helmet.  I'm petite and will probably be with a tall man in a red or yellow jacket.

Marz, wish I could join you for some turns this weekend! Timberline was fun today, a couple inches of new snow combined with snowmaking made for a very nice surface.

fatsalmon wrote:

Thanks for the input. Didn’t make it out today but shooting for Massanutten tomorrow!

 I should be on the lift by 9:00.  Will head to the top and stay there for at least an hour or so.

All the lift lines at Massanutten were long from 11:30-3:00, mostly because they were stopping when beginners were messing up.  Definitely more common on Peak (former Lift 6) now that there are two blues on the upper mountain.  Even so, rarely had to wait more than 3-4 chairs in the middle of the day.

It was cold enough for daytime snowmaking all day on the upper mountain.  During the night session, a few snowguns were on even at the bottom.  The daytime snowmaking was with the snowguns pointed high.  Still, there were places where goggles got covered and needed to be wiped off.  Clearly the Mnut snowmaking team is making as much snow as possible during this cold spell.

wgo wrote:

Marz, wish I could join you for some turns this weekend! Timberline was fun today, a couple inches of new snow combined with snowmaking made for a very nice surface.

 Timberline probably had better snow.  But for a group from NC, Massanutten makes more sense for a long weekend.  I'm having a good time with three ways to lap the Peak lift.

At 7 Springs. They've had maybe 2 inches of natural and had the guns going. Visibility has been poor at times. And it's a mob scene. But good that they're getting some coverage down.

Saturday was like:

marzNC wrote:

I've been skiing at Massanutten over MLK weekend since 2005.  Always with kids in elementary or middle school, so there wasn't much choice.  When the kids weren't doing full-day ski school (no longer an option), we would ski 9:00-11:30 on Saturday, take a long lunch, and then ski from about 3:00 to dinner time, which got later as they got older.  On Sunday there were always fewer people in the afternoon compared to Saturday, but our schedule was about the same.  It helped that before RFID, a 2-day ticket included night skiing both days.  That's not true any more.  What hasn't changed is that Monday was relatively empty because most families who stay on resort have to check out and don't bother to ski before heading home.  They are more likely to get snow tubing tickets.  Gets busy after 5:00 because of Monday Night Madness when locals show up.

Before there were blue trails on the upper mountain, the lift to the top never had a line.  Not even during the busiest hours on a holiday weekend.  Hard to say what will happen this MLK weekend.  But I still don't expect much of a line in comparison to every other ski resort within a few hours drive of DC/NoVA.  My daughter could ski Paradice by age 6, thanks to the Massanutten ski school.

Night skiing starts at 4:00.  My daughter is driving up from NC on Saturday morning with her BF.  I got her a Night ticket for Saturday.  She'll probably get an 8-hour ticket for Sunday and start after 11am.  RFID makes it easy for the system to know when her ticket ends that evening.  He's going to do a beginner group lesson at 1pm with a 4-hour lift ticket.  Pushing the BF to get up early didn't seem like the best introduction to the idea of skiing on a holiday weekend.

Snow conditions today were very good all over until mid-afternoon.  Still good after that higher up.  Hoping there will be another night or two of snowmaking before Saturday.

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