Woooooohoooooo! Whitetail just announced they are droppin' the ropes this Saturday. No trail count yet! Blowin' snow on Upper and Lower Angel. I would guess that's where you'll get your mojo on for first tracks around here.

I'll be the guy in free fall trying to crack open another helmet like an eggshell this year!

Say HI if you see someone on stainless steel Volants.

Michael from Frederick

Oh god... haha jk, those are the most ridiculous skis

Perfect for opening day crud! ROFL

That's great news, MichaelB! I'll try to get there Saturday morning for a few runs to open the season. Finally.

Woody

I'll most likely be there.
on teles, with my 7-yr old on twin-tips,
looking for fun in the park

Am also considering a trip to WG/Tline/CV instead...

Virtually indestructible.

Re Volants...
I still have the pair I bought in the early 90s, actually the best all around ski I have ever owned. Wish they were still made in US by original company. Last I heard the Volant brand is now owned by Atomic and made in Europe.
The Colonel

I'll be there tomorrow morning with (eventually) four other dads and six under-10 y.o. girls. We planned this weekend two months ago. I understand that mostly greens will be open, with maybe 1-2 blues. But, hey, it's white and it's on a hill.....

Whitetail followup!

Arrived at rope drop for an 8:30 am blastoff. Very cold and unbelievably crowded. Nice to see so many out for the opening. Good coverage on upper and lower angel. A little pebbly but found a good line. Traffic didn't kick in until around 10 or so and then the snow got snarky....lots of ruts and bumps from high volume of crazed teenage boarders : )

Had a blast in the terrain park. Great features for opening day. Way to go Whitetail! Everyone was real nice and the staff was great. Lots of smiles and hellos all around!

More followup. More than good coverage = NO ROCKS!

My opinion is that this was the best quality first day snow ever for Whitetail. Those little pebbles are a natural result of trying to get a base down quickly out of fresh made snow. There were some bigger chunks too, but far fewer than normal. There was a lot of soft dry snow out there from snow that was made at 13 degree temps. What a lot of folks may have missed was full width coverage.

The guns were going full blast on Saturday morning. Most importantly, snow was being made on both Limelight, Snow Dancer and Exhibition. The new pumping capacity added over the last two seasons is making a huge difference!

Sunday's freezing rain lasted until about 2. The slopes held up great for all of us who passed the winter driving test to get to the mountain. There were many wrecks on I-70 and Blair's Valley road was virtually impassable for a couple hours. Kudos to PA for getting their portion sanded well before the MD crews. For a while Blair's Valley road was so slick a stopped car could slide off a banked portion of the road.

It looks like tubing should open next weekend. The new half pipe looks great, but does not have any real snow in it yet. There's a chance for additional slopes open next weekend, but that's more likely XMAS week.

We were on the slopes by 9:12 AM Saturday. The liftie let us ride up that first lift closest to the condos so we could go downhill over to the lift ticket window. It was a beautiful day and the slopes that were open had great snow cover. Angel Drop was the only blue open, and the terrain park was still a work in progress -- but still fun. I think snow-boarders outnumbered skiers. It was a friendly, buoyant crowd, everybody happy to be there for opening day. About every fourth or fifth run, my group would switch to Sidewinder just for some variety -- you can ski up and down the mountain side on the left side of Sidewinder to add a little spice.

Sunday, as others have noted, it rained. We skied anyway, until about 1:30. By the time we packed and hit the road (about 3:15), there were no problems on either 70 or 270.

It was a nice kick-off to the season.

Man made freshies today! The guns were going all day.

Home Run opens Friday. Exhibition, Drop In and Ridge Runner open Saturday.