Just got back from a two day skiing trip to Wisp with my girlfriend, who had never skied before. In all, I'd have to rate Wisp as one of my favorite Mid-Atlantic ski resorts.
First day- two inches of new lake effect snow on top of a solid 1-1 1/2 feet of natural snow and, of course, mountains of manmade everywhere. Devil's Drop was absolutely delectable. Me and one other guy were carving it up all morning. Devil's Drop really is a classic east coast ski run- narrow, hidden entrance in the woods that opens up onto a relatively steep slope that has multiple fall lines and options for skiing. It's as good as advanced skiing gets in the Mid-Atlantic, maybe not the steepest run around but it has character, options, and is testy.
Next door, the glade trail was in great shape, too. I've nicknamed it "Devil's Sidekick." It's not officially on the map but the fact that there were "caution" signs and it was obviously cleared of underbrush says that Wisp acknowledges it as a trail.
Now, as far as the North Camp goes- I have to disagree with every post I've seen so far on this board and say that North Camp ROCKS. The two intermediate runs are solid, lower-middle intermediate runs with nice rolls in it and fill a desperate void at Wisp. Prior to the installation of these two runs, Wisp had NO fall line intermediate skiing. I was GSing those two runs on my new shaped skis and having an absolute blast. My biggest complaint is that they should be twice as long- but obviously they can't be, God just didn't make the mountain that large. The beginner and novice skiing back there turned out to be perfect for my girlfriend. It was her first good trip off the beginners slope and having over a mile to cruise gradually down the hill was just what she needed to get her confidence up. I think North Camp is an outstanding addition to Wisp and am looking forward to the next phase of their expansion as well.
The second day, The Face was by far the best skiing on the mountain. They had been blowing snow on it all night and skiing down it was "east coast freshies"
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: lots of very, very nice manmade powder that was easy to carve into. Obviously it wasn't the same as out west but boy was it soft and forgiving.
I also figured out how Devil's Drop and Devil's Sidekick manage to get open with so little natural snow (a foot or so isn't much, after all): a lot of snow blows right in from The Face. I knew that about the glade, but there was a few inches of new snowmaking on Devil's Drop too. So although the two runs don't technically have snowmaking, they obviously benefit from being right next door to Wisp's high powered snowguns (that's probably a decent idea for other ski resorts- MPC perhaps- to think about for establishing glades).
My chief complaint with Wisp is the lifts. They should really think about upgrading a couple lifts to high speed quads. It's not because it takes a while to get up the mountain, but rather because there's so many beginners using the lifts that they are constantly slowing down and stopping. If they had some detachable lifts in place, they could take care of almost all their slowdowns and stoppages and keep their lifts running more efficiently. Also, the most harrowing off-ramp on the whole mountain is the new novice quad chair on the North Camp. Who's idea was it to put the steepest off-ramp on the novice lift??? By comparison, the less used, more advanced chairs have virtually no off-ramp at all.
Also, I don't like all the sprawl around the Main Street lift, but these things happen I suppose. Hopefully they won't repeat that mistake on North Camp, but nothing in their master plan suggests they will.
All in all, I think Wisp is a great place. They have enough terrain now that you can make a solid weekend out of the place, and when they get their next phase completed I could imagine a three day trip there pretty easily. I like the North Camp area a lot, it has a great mix of terrain, and a lot of different sides to explore. Overall, it was a great trip!