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Mid-Atlantic/SE skiing (PA, NJ, DC, MD, VA, WV, NC) for 2020-21

marzNC

Angel Diva
Sounds like the Preview Weekend for Timberline went well. The official Opening Day is Fri, Dec. 18. Well worth getting on their elist if you are interested in keeping up with the news.

Timberline Mountain will be open for the season on Friday, December 18th!
After a wonderful preview weekend, Timberline Mountain will suspend operations from Monday, December 14th to Thursday, December 17th. While we still have several renovation projects to complete, we will reopen for the season on Friday, December 18th with limited terrain and limited amenities. We expect some great snowmaking weather in the upcoming week, with some natural snowfall as well.
The Timberline Mountain ticket office will be open Monday through Thursday for season pass pickup from 9 am to 5 pm.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
With the combination of natural snow in WV and NC, plus snowmaking temps this week, all the ski areas/resorts in the southeast expect to be open by the weekend of Dec. 19-20. Check out SkiSoutheast for video reports of how the slopes are looking.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Sounds like at least 5 inches at the VA and MD ski resorts, more in WV. Only a couple inches in NC but snowmaking temps are more important that this point.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The ski season is on in the Southeast (NC, TN, WV, VA)! With the snowstorm last week and cold temps, all the ski areas/resorts are open. Several are requiring lift access reservations and all are severely limiting tickets for those without a pass of some sort. Pays to start checking to get a feel for sold out days.

My impression is that Snowshoe is selling lift tickets for Silver Creek separately. Since that's where night skiing exists and it used to be a completely separate ski area, that makes sense. During the few weekends I took my daughter to Snowshoe we were go over to Silver Creek for lunch and enjoy the relatively empty slopes in the afternoons.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
In general, lift tickets are selling out in the southeast (NC, WV, VA) during the week of Dec. 28. That's not particularly surprising given that demand always outstrips supply based on the waiting times for lift lines during the Dec holiday weeks.

Some ski resorts don't have webcams that show lift lines. From what I've heard Snowshoe lines by mid-morning are still on the long side in the Basin. Massanutten is an exception in that the line lines for both base lifts are fully visible. Looks like a great holiday week for season passholders since they don't need reservations. Normally, I would guess that many simply avoid skiing during the day sessions during the holidays.

All the resorts from Timberline are very good. I forgot they installed RFID. Really is a completely different place than 4-5 years ago.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The former Snowtime resorts near DC have day tickets available in Jan and Feb, including for the holiday weekends. The FAQs about lift tickets are the same on all three websites. In general, the full integration of Liberty, Whitetail, and Roundtop into the Epic approach to season passes and lift tickets was completed for 2020-21. All three are using RFID hand scanners for Epic passes.

Epic passholders use the usual reservation system. Lift ticket purchasers don't have to also get a reservation. It's possible to get a refund for a lift ticket. Additional lift tickets are potentially released every Wednesday.

Screen Shot 2021-01-02 at 9.11.38 PM.png
 

HikenSki

Angel Diva
Unfortunately it looks like no Whitetail or Liberty trips for us for the near future. The PA travel restrictions continue so the day trips I was hoping to get in while son is in daycare are a no-go. Looks like our only trip this season will be our planned trip to Wisp in early February. We will be skipping Snowshoe this year for the first time. There was no lodging to be found for the dates we wanted. If heading over as a couple there's plenty of options. Same thing at Timberline. With the snow the available housing is getting picked off very quickly.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Massanutten resort has taken over the Mid-Mountain Grill. That's at the top of Southern Comfort (green) and at the base of Lift 6 (serves black trails only). The Grill will be open on Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon from 11:00-4:00. It's all outdoor seating. There is a fire pit.

The old porta-potties were replaced with a neat little trailer that has real restrooms, with heat and fans.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The NC mountains were the big winner for this week's snowstorm. App got six inches! The ski areas near Asheville got 3-4 inches.

I'm up in northern VA and it wasn't even cold enough to make any snow last night. <sigh> But since there was a window of 12+ hours for snowmaking earlier this week, the snow conditions at Massanutten have been pretty decent on the open trails. The other trails are still grass.

Met up briefly with @Ski Sine Fine . Also another friend who did a day trip from DC. We had lunch at the Mid-Mountain Grill. Was pretty good. Since the sun was out, seating outdoors on the newly expanded deck was nice.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The NC mountains were the big winner for this week's snowstorm. App got six inches! The ski areas near Asheville got 3-4 inches.
Since most of the NC mountains are not using any reservation systems, I get the impression that they were relatively crowded last weekend after the snowstorm.

Snowshoe was also busy.

The slopes were relatively uncrowded last Saturday at Massanutten. All types of lift tickets were sold out by Friday, if not sooner. The Special Value Pass is blacked out until 4pm on Saturdays. That's also when night skiing starts. So there was the usual increase in the number of people by 4:30pm.

Sunday morning was quite empty, even more so than usual. Even at lunch time the lift lines at the base were less than 5 min.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Found this old article looking for something else. It was written for PSIA ski instructors who spend a lot of time skiing at small hills, not big mountains. Some interesting ideas for intermediates or advanced skiers who have had enough lessons to understand the concepts mentioned. The one technique I have little reason to practice is a "hop turn." This article was written before ski design changed to make "shaped skis" the standard. Meaning in comparison to the "straight skis" that I learned on back in the 1960s.

I certainly have more fun skiing solo at Massanutten now compared to 5 years ago because I know far more ways to work on technique for all or part of a run.

1995, PSIA East
How to Make a Mountain Out of a Molehill
https://www.psia-e.org/download/ed/alpine-ed/Molehill.pdf
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Saw a couple of old geezers with AT gear at Massanutten last week. One man was lapping Diamond Jim in the morning. Wouldn't be surprised if he's over 70, definitely over 60. I stopped to ask ski patrol what the uphill policy is. The deal is that you have to have a pass or lift ticket, but otherwise if you want to go uphill on skis that's fine on any of the trails when the slopes are open.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Based on a video on Snowshoe's FB page of groomers getting to work spreading out snow, seems as if Lower Shays will be open for the holiday weekend. Should have more nights of snowmaking the rest of this week.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The NC ski areas are a real mix in terms of reservations and lift ticket purchases. I think season passholders don't need reservations.

Around Boone, App requires buying online with a 5-min reservation time slot to go into the lodge to pick up purchased tickets, Sugar is only selling tickets in person, Beech is only selling tickets online. Apparently on weekends, Sugar has been selling out by 10am.

Wolf Ridge is selling tickets online, and at the window if any are still available.

Planning on using Indy at Cataloochee some time in the next few weeks. Cat is only selling tickets online. They are sold out for Sat, Jan. 16.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Well, most regions in the U.S. are snow starved. But the southeast (NC, TN, WV, VA, MD) is actually doing better than usual. Natural snow expected this weekend. More importantly, snowmaking temps return.

 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
Well, most regions in the U.S. are snow starved. But the southeast (NC, TN, WV, VA, MD) is actually doing better than usual. Natural snow expected this weekend. More importantly, snowmaking temps return.
This is following the La Niña weather pattern that was predicted.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
This is following the La Niña weather pattern that was predicted.
Yes and no. At least according to SkiSoutheast, which is what I use for regional weather predictions.

Doesn’t It FEEL Like A Snowy Winter So Far?!?! That Depends On Where You Look!
". . .
So far within this crazy La Niña season, things have not gone quite as forecasted. Our own meteorologist, Brad Panovich did concur with dozens of weather gurus – before the season began – that things could be cold and stormier across the north, and warmer than average temps further south. That was supposed to bring less than usual snowfall. Of course, he was one of the few who did share that with some unique, arctic blocking we could see colder and snowier conditions than normal.

Seems thus far at the 41% mark on the season, we’ve had a bit of both. It’s been colder than expected so far, allowing resorts to make tons of snow in WV, TN and NC – with slightly more borderline temps in the Virginia mountains. However, even THEY have conditions awesome right now. In terms of natural snowfall, the West Virginia and Maryland mountains ARE DOWN anywhere from a foot to a foot-and-a-half on the season-to-date. The Virginia ski mountains are ALL down around 8″ or so.

However, Ober Gatlinburg in Tennessee and almost all of the North Carolina mountain resorts are OVER normal snowfall-to-date with Beech Mountain Resort 18″ above normal so far with 51″ on the season. Flurries continue to fall today and more snow is expected on Monday to the delight of all of the travelers for the MLK Weekend.
. . ."
 

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