Hi there! We are 'experienced-beginner' boarders wanting to head out to Liberty or Whitetail this weekend. We are leaning toward Saturday, but just saw a post that said Sundays are generally less busy, so we might consider Sunday instead. We may only be able to go for a four hour flex (though we might be able to swing 8 hrs) - so here is my question...is there an optimum four hours to go for? First thing? Mid-day? End of day? Our concern is getting in as many runs without spending half of our time in lines. Any tips/thoughts would be great!

Thanks! K

Stay in bed or go to church, then start your flex ticket around 2pm Sunday for least crowds during daylight on a weekend, this is assuming there is no natural snow to modify normal attendance patterns.
Or go anytime to Bryce which is nice for beginners and low intermediates, rarely crowded, and only about 15mins further away from many parts of the DC area.

Safe to say, it will be very crowded at all ski areas this weekend. Most people have not skied much this year, the areas are near 100% open, we've finally had a stretch of cold weather to remind everyone this is wintertime, we've had dustings of snow to further remind people it's wintertime, the roads are clear, and the weather will be nice this weekend.

From experience, Sundays are generally less crowded than Saturdays at Whitetail. Saturday is predicted to be warm (which tends to attract people when the slopes have a good base), but there is prediction of snow showers Sunday AM (which tends to attract people.) For best snow conditions, be on the slopes when they open in the AM. Expect only 1-2 hours of relatively uncrowded conditions. Or do as JimK says and ski the late afternoon. I think the crowds will be in full force until at least 4PM. This one disadvantage about skiing later is that the slopes will be pretty scraped off due to the day's crowds.

Better yet, choose a less crowded area as JimK suggested.

I see from the webcams that there are a fair amount of people at both. Liberty is more crowded than WT.

I like going at night. That way, if I'm a total idiot, no one can see who I am. That's just me. The disadvantage is that the snow is scraped off and, if we've had our typical east coast freeze-thaw day, rutted.

Voilà, or mira:

http://www.skiliberty.com/webcams.htm

http://www.skiwhitetail.com/camera.htm

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I see from the webcams that there are a fair amount of people at both. Liberty is more crowded than WT.

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Since Fairfax County schools are off today (1/26), I'm surprised both areas are not more crowded. My boss's boss also remarked on how uncrowded Whitetail was earlier today; glad to know that I'm not the only one at my work site who *occasionally* checks out webcams during the day.