New to DC. I grew up in Tahoe. What is the most challenging terrain for a day trip out? What about a weekend? Any backcountry nearby?

everybody must be sking in the fresh snow figured you would have a reply by now.whitetail in pa is closest thats got any vert or challenging terrain.blue knob has some serious terrain when they get going. For real snow real mtns head for WV for weekends.va has some moisture starved but decent sized drops. blue mtn & camelback in the poconos are decent montage in pa i think have some steep terrain.This post ought to stir up sombody for more details-This aint no sierras but you can pretend after one of our coastal storms.

Skiing here is a lot different than tahoe my friend. If you're looking for telemarking or backcountry, the best you're gonna find is whitegrass in West Virginia. For serious challenge, look for Blue Knob to get some of its lower mountain open. You will learn a lot about how to ski in a variety of conditions around here because often times you just have to make do.

For backcountry, Whitegrass is definately the best in the area. They have a "snow farm". The staff collects snow in a giant field, and uses fences to aid in keeping the snow there. then they move it to where they need it. Whitegrass is located in part of the Dolly Sods, near Mount Porte Crayon. If you have been following DCSki lately, you will note that Mount Porte Crayon is a potential site for the highly-controversial development of a new ski resort-dubbed "Almost Heaven". If you are willing to make the four hour drive from DC to West Virginia, Timberline offers some great drops once the season gets underway.

It depends on what you consider a day trip... Whitetail is the best close by resort and is only 1.5 hours from most of the DC area. I'm not sure any of it could be considered 'challenging' for expert (or even good intermediate) skiers but it can be fun, has good lifts and certainly is convenient, if a bit small.

If you are willing to drive around 3 hours Blue Knob in PA has some pretty decent terrain... unfortunately they don't make much snow there (if any) so you really need to check their conditions closely.

Best weekend trip is probably Snowshoe, in West Virginia. It is fairly large and gets a decent amount of snow. Only a couple of trails are expert level and getting there can be a tough 4 hour+ trek but it has enough variety and good enough conditions to qualify as a good weekend destination.

If you want to find anything even approaching Tahoe standards however, you'll want to head for an airport... it just ain't happening in the mid-Atlantic region.

Almost Heaven would have better terrain than Snowshoe, if built. I was peeking at the proposed location for the resort, and its HUGE. We're talking like one or two big bowl-shaped hills. The place could be ginormous...

But overall, I'd say Snowshoe has the best reliable in-bounds terrain. Timberline comes in a close second, with Off-The-Wall offering up steeps close to those of Lower Shays, its just getting there when its got good snow. Of course, if you know where to go at Timberline, then Snowshoe's got nothing on them (other than good lifts, service, and food).