I was at whitetail yesterday, and they really only had three blues open (and thats being generous). I was just wondering when Whitetail will have its black diamond side open, or how early they COULD have it open.

In terms of skiing next week (after christmas), in the DC area, where would you go? Because i refuse to pay $55 again for three runs at whitetail. Liberty seems to be a little better, so I am leaning on going there for a day trip this coming thursday. Anywhere else fairly close that has a lot of its difficult terrain open?

Thanks! : )

Nonstopski, you might want to check out the conditions at Wisp:
here's the link.

On the main face, they've had Squirrel Cage and The Face open for a couple of weeks. The backside has re-opened with Main Street, and North Camp has Over the Edge open. And they're making snow on other blacks as well! Even in the rain and fog, they do a great job grooming.

For early-season and crummy-weather skiing in the mid-Atlantic, Wisp and Snowshoe appear to be the places to aim for, although the others are catching up now. Glad to see Liberty opening Ultra, Massanutten opening a diamond from the top and Whitetail and Wintergreen moving snowmaking operations to their expert runs.

Thinking snow (and snowmaking weather),
Woody

well it would be nice if we had at least a week of steady snowmaking temps anywhere, instead of the roller coaster of temps so far, but heck, its only been officially 'winter' for 2 days now

interseting, thanks. They do have a lot more open, and bigger. A bit farther away than whitetail/liberty, an extra hour, but probably worth it.

i would not plan on whitetail opening the blacks for at least a week and a half. They need 4 solid days of snowmaking to open up exhibition and drop in. Also, they will not focus their snowmaking there until they have a solid base on limelight which is not the case a the moment. Overall, they need a solid cold week.. not this darn pattern we are in now with highs in the 40's and lows barely below 30.

was at WISP on saturday (wintergreen last week and whitetail last saturday before). World of difference. They had atleast a good half the mountain open and groomed. Squirrel Cage and The Face were great, probably the only time I've rallied them for a good 2 hours in a row at WISP because great snow on them, no crowds, and no lift line on the SLOW 2 triples WISP still depends on...

The Face has these awesome really, really, steep rollers to the left. If you had any speed at all it was difficult not to get air. If you let it rip you can get a good 10-15 horizontal feet (maybe 5-8 vt. ft) and jump from the top of one roller to a perfect downslope landing on the next. It was funny considering the terrain park is right below and you're airing it out way bigger than on any of their jumps.

Was at Liberty yesterday (12/24) and today (Christmas Day). Was great fun. They're doing everything they can under less than perfect circumstances. The grooming overnight (they apparently couldn't make snow on Christmas Eve) did a world of good. Some thin spots by late afternoon both days, but certainly skiable. Blue terrain on the back was in good shape. They tried to keep one black trai (Upper Ultra) open, but it was pretty thin, and I thought kinda treacherous. Not clear that this can go on much longer unless it gets cold enough to make some more snow. Sure hope it does. These were a couple of great days -- empty slopes, and lots of fun.

Whitetail does have snow on Exhibition, Drop In and Ridge Runner. Those runs held up well over the weekend rain and daytime sun the last couple days. Just from looking at the runs from the road, my guess is that we only need 2 more good nights of snowmaking to get skiing on Exhibition. The good news is that we have chances to make some more snow this week. The bad news is that it looks like we need to wait until after New Years for the really good snowmaking weather. Because we have fan guns (i.e. capacity that is fixed in place) on Exhibition, we will likely be making snow over there at every opportunity until it gets opened.

Whitetail still has snow on Exhibition, but we did lose Limelight today. We're back to 4+ nights of snowmaking in order to get the blacks open (in my estimation). The good news is that there is lots of snowmaking weather in the forecast.

Today's snow report announces that Exhibition will open on Saturday. It's amazing what 2 days of around the clock snowmaking can do.