The Roundtop/Liberty/Whitetail voucher handed out at the Ski Expo last month expires Friday (for a free day) - does anyone have any thoughts on which area will have the best cover and open terrain on Christmas Eve? (yes, I know about the Thursday rain... with some luck looks like it will scoot through pretty quick).

If you are willing to make the extra trip and wish to avoid the crowds i would say roundtop they will have about 70% of their terrain open. But if you want some good skiing but more crowds with probably a good percent of their terrain open or almost open go to whitetail. Liberty is smaller and probably will have less open. I would say just keep checking the site or calling them (i have found that you get a more inside report when you call).
I used my voucher on saturday and it really feels nice paying nothing to ski! You will probably have great conditions (despite the rain) wherever you go.

I'm an instructor at Liberty and have been there for the last 3 days. Here's my skier's view of how Liberty has been.

Crowds have not been an issue the last 3 days (unless you plan on skiing the bunny slope). The snow had been hardpacked in the early morning but softened up nice in the afternoons. However, on Wednesday, upper Ultra had turned to mashed potatoes but the lower Ultra and Heavenly were not bad. These are the only 2 slopes open on the backside. To get back to the frontside, you have to take Dipsy Doodle from the top (or do the upper Heavenly to lower Dipsy if you're familiar with that cut through).

I think it's going to be a little chancy no matter where you go in our immediate area because of the rain on Thursday and the fact that it's not going to get below freezing until Saturday. However, for a free ticket, I don't believe you're going to have much to complain about (unless you're a powder snob). If you've never skied one of the three, go to that one.

Sking whitetail for free is unbeatable. They have an almost daily freeze thaw cycle so tomorrow after the rain shouldn't be any different than any other day. From their front page: "THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE RAIN IS FORECASTED TO TAPER OFF AROUND 4:00 PM, AND SNOWMAKING WILL RETURN TONIGHT AROUND 9:00 PM..."