For more than 60 years, Bryce Resort has introduced Washington-area families to skiing, developed generations of racers, and anchored a year-round community in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. DCSki looks at the resort’s history, family-friendly layout, distinctive Sky Bryce Airport, and 2025-2026 expansion, which increased its skiable terrain by roughly 35 percent.
From Dick Barron’s snow reports at Seven Springs to Buddy Hauk’s welcoming presence at Whitetail, DCSki looks back at the resort leaders, instructors, patrollers, retailers, and other personalities who helped give Mid-Atlantic skiing its character. The feature also recalls the wider influence of figures including Herman Dupré, Sepp Kober, Ralph “Doc” DesRoches, and Ski Chalet founder Wilbur McBay.
Night skiing has long been a defining part of the Mid-Atlantic ski experience, allowing school groups, working adults, and budget-minded skiers to hit the slopes after dark. DCSki looks at why available night-skiing hours have gradually decreased in recent years, and why skiing under the lights remains an important regional tradition.
In this DCSki Interview Series installment, Woody Bousquet discusses his family’s role in founding and operating Bousquet Ski Area in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, his own lifelong connection to skiing, and the inventions and stories that shaped the area. He also shares how his collection of vintage patches, maps, brochures, and other memorabilia helps preserve the history of Bousquet and other lost ski areas.
From his first turns on Blue Knob’s ice in 1967 to retirement winters in Utah, Jim Kenney has built a skiing life around family, friends, and a willingness to adapt. Drawing on more than 25 years of his DCSki stories, this retrospective follows his travels, revisits memorable days, and explores how he has kept enjoying the slopes into his seventies.
Masks, reservations, capacity limits, and parking-lot lunches made the 2020-2021 winter unlike any Mid-Atlantic ski season before it. Six years later, DCSki looks back at how resorts and skiers navigated the pandemic and how that period accelerated the shift toward advance ticket sales, mobile passes, online transactions, and other practices that remain with us today.
Positioned as an alternative to the mega passes, the Indy Pass — good at small and mid-sized independent resorts — is now back on sale, but only for a limited time. The Indy Pass now provides two lift tickets each at 271 resorts across 4 continents, including numerous areas in the Mid-Atlantic region.
An arctic air mass has brought ideal snowmaking conditions to the Mid-Atlantic, enabling resorts across the region to prepare for their winter season openings, with many planning to open in early December. Resorts like Seven Springs, Wisp, Snowshoe, and Timberline Mountain are leading the charge, while others are building their bases for upcoming announcements. Photo by Heidi Lews / Hidden Valley Resort.
The Indy Pass is back on sale with over 230 independent ski resorts across three continents, adding 30 new locations, including Bear Creek Resort in Pennsylvania. Offering skiers an alternative to larger corporate passes, the Indy Pass emphasizes smaller, local destinations and is expected to sell out quickly for the 2024-2025 winter season.
In this story, we take a look at six barriers of entry for new skiers and snowboarders. If you’re trying to convince a friend to try skiing for the first time, understanding — and being empathetic to — these reservations will go a long way towards easing their concerns.
The recent stretch of cold temperatures has enabled robust snowmaking across the Mid-Atlantic region, and as a result, a handful of ski resorts across Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia plan to open in the coming days. In North Carolina, two ski areas have already opened for the season. In this story, we provide a look at official opening day plans shared by resorts as of November 29, 2023.
Below average temperatures in November have enabled a variety of ski areas across the entire Mid-Atlantic region to open for the season, giving skiers one extra thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
