DCSki Forums

I've spent this past weekend skiing Massanutten. I was there for three days (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), and the conditions there are currently in excellent shape. They were blowing snow pretty much somewhere on the mountain all weekend. All day Saturday, they were blowing on Upper Dixie Dare (the bump run) as well as on Diamond Jim. On Sunday, they were blowing on Paradise.

For true beginners, Massanutten is actually a good hill for them to learn on. Wednesday will even be better as it is very likely you'll practically have the place to yourself, especially in this later part of the season (post President's Day). Southern Comfort is a nice long gree cruiser and should be a good slope for beginners to learn on.

For us advanced types, I was greated to a sweet surprise this weekend. They are letting the left side of Paradise bump up!!! There is now a friggan sweet little bump run nearly down that whole left side of Paradise! I hope it is still that way when I go back again in a couple weeks (I won't be there this weekend - most likely will be skiing elsewere - just don't know where yet. The Poconos is an idea. At the very least, I may go try out one of the nearby PA mountins, such as Whitetail or Ski Liberty.) Also, on Sunday night, friggan Diamond Jim was really living up to it's black designation! That trail was just getting insane. There were some huge bumps right at the start, and then it got friggan fast through the middle part, only to be greeted by more bumps coming off that little headwall near the bottom. Of course, that all got groomed out (drats!) come Monday morning, but the bumps on the left side of Paradise where still there (and wow, where they a lot of fun to ski)!

Well, according to the weather, it looks like the morning rain will turn to snow. If that is the case, the skiing there may actually be quite good on Wednesday.

Granted, this may come off as a little biased as I ski patrol at Massanutten, but I've found that this is a good mountain to even take first-time never-evers. It seems in letting some of the terrain bump up more, they are trying to cater to some of us advanced types as well.

Also to add: The crowds at Massanutten this past weekend was just friggan rediculous! I was told they had over 10,000 skier visits over the three-day holiday weekend! That is a lot of people to pack on about 80 acres of skiable terrain! It got to the point that I could not even link three turns together before I had to stop to help somebody that biffed it hard on Rebel Yell, for example. However, it is nice to see the people out skiing, though, and I am certain it helped with the mountain's bottom line quite nicely.