I'm hoping to take a first crack at the Snowtime resorts this weekend (gotta get my picture taken for my night skiing and Advantage card), so I'm wondering where I should go to have that done.

Who will be in the best shape? Where will I wait in line the least? Liberty? Round Top? Whitetail?

They're all close enough (I live in Leesburg) that it doesn't make a huge difference either way, although I think Round Top is the least logical to drive to, since I'd have to drive past Liberty to get there.

Any thoughts on where I should head?


aaron

catskills or poconos

the southern resorts are going to get rained on pretty hard.

that's the way I'm reading it too.

What about Elk?

Whitetail is almost always the default winner among those 3.
More vert
newer snowmaking
better grooming
one high-speed chair

Last time I checked, none of the resorts in the Catskills or Poconos will issue a Snowtime NCC like Scootertig is going to pick up.

Looks like Liberty has some expert terrain open while Whitetail does not. Whitetail has their basic "one way down" the main mountain, but almost all of the beginner terrain open.

Both are having some sort of winter festival on saturday.

Take that as you will.

Maybe not, but, last time I checked, I81 and I84 are accessible by driving up I15, making a swing-by photo shot and card an easy side trip.

I'm going to one of them tomorrow-Saturday, possibly Roundtop because it seems to have a higher percent of terrain open at this point. Might be a little snow up that way in the PM. Sunday morning might offer 2-4" of fresh snow at all the Snowtime resorts.

Until Whitetail opens the Expert's Choice lift and its associated trails, I think that Liberty and Roundtop offer more variety of open terrain. I've skied all three this month, incl. Roundtop yesterday (Thursday). Although it has the least vertical of the 3 Snowtime resorts, RT is about 75% open, incl. Upper and Lower Ramrod and Barrett's. Liberty has several backside trails open, and some diamonds as well, despite the warm weather.

This isn't a knock on Whitetail; I enjoyed opening day there this season. Frankly, I hand it to *any* mid-Atlantic ski area that has kept their trails open.

Thinking snow,
Woody

They are all reporting frozen granular tonight with snowmaking conditions resuming tomorrow morning. I might wait another week before picking up my pass if I were you.

If you don't mind snow guns and icy pistes, Ultra/Heavenly/Blue Streak would be my #1 choice over #2 Ramrod/Exhibition/Minuteman or #3 Angel Drop/Home Run. On the other hand, Whitetail always has the least icy conditions of the three and the express quad will give you twice the vert/hr if that matters.

Hey, what shape is BK in and when we gonna start planning that weekend?

Damn fine question, especially since the sale for the 6-pack of Blue Knob tickets expires on the 24th. I need to figger out if I should buy it again this year. Real soon, obviously.

March, baaaaaad for me, February, gooood. Weekend of Feb 21-22? Weekend after Presidents' Weekend. IIRC, same as we did last year.

That sounds good. I wonder if we could get enough committed bodies to rent a house or apt on mambo or jack rabbit for the weekend? for example: http://www.sitesexpress.com/blueknobrental/

Blue knob might be worse than the CV areas when it comes to info.....They are closed today due to "inclement" weather. If that was because of SNOW which seems like a good bet up there...I would advertise that!..either way they are Lame with weather & skiing info..Unless they got a lot of Ice today I cannot see why they wouldn't have good skiing this weekend.

Jim,

I'd be up for staying on-site at BK this year. Telerod? Jimmy? Rob?

I heard they have midnight skiing on Extrovert....

Very cool digs, count me in. 'One block' (?) from midstation.

Just got back from Liberty. Not bad. They lost some base due to the recent rain, but started snowmaking again on much of the mtn about 1pm today. Took a group of six. My son got a terrific early season group lesson for $10. He was the only person in his advanced group and the instructor was top notch!!

PS: that sample place for BK is still open on the subject weekend. Let's discuss via PM if you think we should reserve. I've never stayed in that particular property so open to other ideas too.

I took one of those $10 privates too.

Almost sounds like you got cute instructress

No. I got what I paid for. An old male fixed-heeler, but he put together a pretty good lesson.

Rod - were you skiing the back side around noon-ish? I wonder if my girlfriend and I might have shared a chair with you... We had 2 free-heelers on our chair, and they seemed to be in an instructor-student sort of a dynamic. The particular topic at hand was the importance of controlling the center of gravity and fluidity through appropriate use of the hips. The instructor-type referenced dancing, although he did say he was "trying not to be too dirty," which I think was for the sake of my girlfriend...

Was that you by chance?


aaron

Not me. I was referring to my visit on 12/13. If you were there that day, you probably saw me, but I didn't ride the lift with another freeheeler that day.