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Mid-Atlantic/Southeast skiing (PA, NJ, DC, MD, VA, WV, NC, TN) for 2022-23

marzNC

Angel Diva
WHOA! Just catching up on the thread... dreaming of skiing!!! I really hope the new GM will make significant changes to the way the lines operated. It was a HOT MOB MESS last year! Sounds like this guy is super experienced though!
Last season there were factors at play in Nov-Dec that are different from the start of the 2022-23 season. The lack of consistent snowmaking weather is a major factor in the southeast and mid-Atlantic when combined with warm spells in Dec and Jan. Post-pandemic staffing has been an issue for many resorts in the region. That said, Vail Resorts has not yet been successful at finding GMs who had made folks happy who were spoiled by how Roundtop, Liberty, and Whitetail were operated by Snowtime. They had cheap season passes good at all three locations (under $500), relatively long seasons, and fewer people who knew about them. The transition to ownership by Peak Resorts wasn't complete before the sale to VR. Becoming part of the Epic pass strategy wasn't going that well and the pandemic didn't help.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Massanutten changed their early season snowmaking strategy for 2022-23. Instead of blowing DJ at the top of the mountain from the start, the focus was on the teaching area (Paul's Way), the long green (Southern Comfort) off the Creekside lift, and the easiest blue, Lower Showtime, off the mid-station of the Ridge Triple. There was snowmaking on the green off Easy Rider (Easy Street, formerly Geronimo) but that gets too much sun and it will take another cold snap before there is enough of a base to open.

There was plenty of snow on the tubing lanes too for folks to have fun on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend before the rain started.

Having any slopes open by Thanksgiving is unusual in northern Virginia in any case. Bryce opened as well. Wintergreen started snowmaking on Nov. 16. (Wintergreen is operated by PGRI, the company that also owns Wisp and recently bought Jay Peak.)
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Pretty quiet around northern VA this week. Massanutten and Bryce will re-open on Friday, Dec. 2. There will be a few cold nights towards the end of the week so they can re-build the base after the warm weather the last few days. There were clearly beginners and others who had a good time sliding on the greens after Thanksgiving Day.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The amount of upgrades happening at Massanutten are hard to keep up with. They are actually a little ahead of schedule in terms of new trails on the upper mountain. The blue connector from the top of the Peak lift over to the Ridge Triple side is already done. That wasn't initially scheduled until the 2023-24 season. After the high-speed lift is installed next summer, skiing up there will be amazing. Will all be lit for night skiing too.

https://www.massresort.com/play/snow-sports/50th-celebration/

NEW for the 2022-2023 Winter Season:


RFID Gates/Online Technology

  • Reloading your RFID pass will be available for this season. Making getting on the snow easier than ever! After your initial purchase, online or in person, you can now reload your RFID card for future visits. Skip the ticket window and go directly to the lift!
  • Gold Card holders should purchase through the owner’s portal @ owners.massresort.com or at the ticket window to receive their discount. MPOA Property Owners should purchase at the ticket window to receive their discount. Children under 5 and military personnel should make their initial purchase at the ticket window with a valid ID to receive their discount. Gold Card holders, military personnel, and children under 5 will be able to reload their RFID card at the appropriate discount for future visits.
  • New interactive trail map coming soon!
New Terrain
  • We are extremely excited about our first major terrain expansion in 30 years! This winter will see the opening of three new trails off the Peak Quad and change the way Massanutten skis for years to come.
  • Mueller’s Mile, a “Blue Square” or More Difficult trail will provide awesome views with twists and turns for intermediate skiers and rider’s delight.
  • Ridgecrest, another “Blue Square” trail will connect Paradice to Mass Transit improving connectivity between the Ridge Triple chair and Peak Quad trails and provide another route down from Peak Quad for intermediate skiers/riders.
  • Slot, a “Black Diamond” or Most Difficult trail will offer an alternative route for advanced skiers/riders off of the Diamond Jim trail and connect with Mueller’s Mile. All three new trails will be lit with LED lighting for night skiing and riding.
  • We’ve added 84 automated and semi-automated HKD, Tecno Alpin, and SMI snowmakers to cover the new and existing terrain. Mueller's Mile and Ridgecrest will primarily be covered with low energy HKD snowmakers, Upper and Lower Showtime will also see snowmaking love with the addition of Tecno Alpin fan snowmakers top to bottom to help us open and resurface terrain faster than ever before. Easy Street, Paul’s Way, and Meadow will also see new SMI Snowmakers.
  • We didn’t want to leave out the grooming team so we also added a new Piston Bulley groomer to the fleet for the coming season.
  • The new terrain and snowmaking improvements will be transformational to the skiing and riding experience at Massanutten. But, we’re not done yet! Next summer will see the installation of a new detachable high speed lift to replace the Peak Quad and the addition of another new Double Black Diamond, experts only trail, and a revitalized Bike Park.
 

Flowergirl88

Certified Ski Diva
The amount of upgrades happening at Massanutten are hard to keep up with. They are actually a little ahead of schedule in terms of new trails on the upper mountain. The blue connector from the top of the Peak lift over to the Ridge Triple side is already done. That wasn't initially scheduled until the 2023-24 season. After the high-speed lift is installed next summer, skiing up there will be amazing. Will all be lit for night skiing too.

https://www.massresort.com/play/snow-sports/50th-celebration/

NEW for the 2022-2023 Winter Season:


RFID Gates/Online Technology
  • Reloading your RFID pass will be available for this season. Making getting on the snow easier than ever! After your initial purchase, online or in person, you can now reload your RFID card for future visits. Skip the ticket window and go directly to the lift!
  • Gold Card holders should purchase through the owner’s portal @ owners.massresort.com or at the ticket window to receive their discount. MPOA Property Owners should purchase at the ticket window to receive their discount. Children under 5 and military personnel should make their initial purchase at the ticket window with a valid ID to receive their discount. Gold Card holders, military personnel, and children under 5 will be able to reload their RFID card at the appropriate discount for future visits.
  • New interactive trail map coming soon!
New Terrain
  • We are extremely excited about our first major terrain expansion in 30 years! This winter will see the opening of three new trails off the Peak Quad and change the way Massanutten skis for years to come.
  • Mueller’s Mile, a “Blue Square” or More Difficult trail will provide awesome views with twists and turns for intermediate skiers and rider’s delight.
  • Ridgecrest, another “Blue Square” trail will connect Paradice to Mass Transit improving connectivity between the Ridge Triple chair and Peak Quad trails and provide another route down from Peak Quad for intermediate skiers/riders.
  • Slot, a “Black Diamond” or Most Difficult trail will offer an alternative route for advanced skiers/riders off of the Diamond Jim trail and connect with Mueller’s Mile. All three new trails will be lit with LED lighting for night skiing and riding.
  • We’ve added 84 automated and semi-automated HKD, Tecno Alpin, and SMI snowmakers to cover the new and existing terrain. Mueller's Mile and Ridgecrest will primarily be covered with low energy HKD snowmakers, Upper and Lower Showtime will also see snowmaking love with the addition of Tecno Alpin fan snowmakers top to bottom to help us open and resurface terrain faster than ever before. Easy Street, Paul’s Way, and Meadow will also see new SMI Snowmakers.
  • We didn’t want to leave out the grooming team so we also added a new Piston Bulley groomer to the fleet for the coming season.
  • The new terrain and snowmaking improvements will be transformational to the skiing and riding experience at Massanutten. But, we’re not done yet! Next summer will see the installation of a new detachable high speed lift to replace the Peak Quad and the addition of another new Double Black Diamond, experts only trail, and a revitalized Bike Park.
MLK weekend you say...? LOL! I will send you a note soon! THIS IS SOOOOOOO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Northern VA was too warm after Thanksgiving weekend. Melted a lot of snow and snowmaking couldn't start up again until last night. Massanutten won't have slopes open this weekend. Bryce gets slightly colder temps than Massanutten. Bryce is re-opening for the "regular season" on Dec. 2. Wintergreen has targeted Dec. 10 as Opening Day.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Timberline posted a calendar on their home page that shows lifts will be open Fri-Sun until Dec. 18 for sure. Won't be open Mon-Thu, Dec. 5-8 and perhaps the following Mon-Thu too. That will allow full-on snowmaking midweek whenever possible until mid-December.

Canaan Valley expects to open on Dec. 17. Snowmaking began recently. Improvements were made over the off-season to the snowmaking infrastructure. CV has a new GM who has worked within the WV State Parks system for a while. Hopefully CV operations will show improvements.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
For Dec. 9-12, there are specials available available at Timberline. Hard to say if they will apply the following weekend or not. Bronze passes are good for one day Mon-Fri per week during the regular season, plus any day during early and late season. Silver passes are good any day Mon-Fri during the regular season as well as weekends during early and late season.

Join us this weekend for skiing & snowboarding Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Lift Tickets are available for online and in-person purchase!

ALL SEASON PASSES VALID THIS WEEKEND
[Bronze & Silver Passholders - Please see the Ticket Office before you get out on the slopes to activate Weekend usage.]

GOLD PASSES BRING A FRIEND FOR 50% OFF
[Bring your Gold Pass and a friend to the ticket office to get 50% off a lift ticket for them! Limit 1 per person per day.]

HAPPY HOUR PRICING ALL WEEKEND @ THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
Cataloochee, NC: @SarahXC and I got in a nice of skiing on Friday, in-between rainy days. Although it rained on Wed, it was cold enough Wed and Thurs nites to blow snow, so we basically looped their quad-chair blue run for several hrs. Sun even peeked thru for awhile!
Unfortunately, after the rain last night and today they're probably going to have to start all over again with snowmaking. Sigh.IMG_2395 Large.jpeg
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Timberline is taking an unusual approach to the incoming storm that is expected around Christmas Day.

Email Update on Dec. 21, 2022:
Timberline Mountain will be closed December 23rd, December 24th, and December 25th.

The forecast shows extreme high winds and low temperatures that may create dangerous conditions. The potential for power outages, bad roads, and exposure risk will be high. For the safety of our guests and staff, and with consideration of our local emergency services, the mountain will not be open for skiing and snowboarding this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The extreme low temperatures create an opportunity for over 72 hours of continuous snowmaking. This will allow us to get nearly 100% of terrain ready for Monday’s reopening. The silver lining of this rare weather event is that Timberline Mountain will have tons of snow and incredible conditions when we welcome you back on December 26th!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
There will be plenty of snowmaking in the next week or so in Virginia and West Virginia. Including daytime snowmaking for a few days. By the time the holiday crowds show up after Christmas, Massanutten and Wintergreen will have quite a few trails open. The driving in WV will be tricky, but those who head to Snowshoe, Timberline, or Canaan Valley will be happy if they know how to avoid the busiest times on the slopes.

OpenSnow has Zach writing about the "Mid-Atlantic/Southeast" weather including NC, WV, VA, and PA, as well as parts of NY. Fair to say that wind gusts up to 60 mpg and night time lows below 0ºF are not common in the region. Glad I already finished driving back from Colorado. It was clear roads from Ohio through WV to NC yesterday.

" . . .
Precipitation will continue to spread north on Thursday and produce a few inches of snow ahead of warm air and rain. Snow will be heaviest in the PA, MD, and WV areas. Warm air will change snow and mixed precipitation to rain on Thursday within a few hours, and fall heavy at times. This area of precipitation will clear the region Thursday evening.

A dry slot will bring a rest Friday morning as we look to the west at a very strong cold front. The cold front is moving faster and will affect the western Mid-Atlantic at 4 - 8 am and continue the eastern Mid-Atlantic at 10 am - 12 pm on Friday. There will be some rain ahead of the cold front, but precipitation will change quickly to heavy bursts of snow with very strong winds.


  • Winds will be sustained at 20-30 mph with gusts over 60 mph
  • Temperatures will drop from the 30s/40s to the teens within a few hours
  • Snow will be brief but intense and drop 1-4 inches Friday in the higher terrain
  • Flash freezing of ponded water and ski slopes is likely Friday nigh
. . ."

Screen Shot 2022-12-22.jpg

Screen Shot 2022-12-22 at 10AM.jpg
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
:brr: Wow! Daytime temps in single digits are pretty rare in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Good for snowmaking but it's so cold that lifts won't be running that much in the next 48-72 hours because of the cold.

For instance, Massanutten won't have night skiing tonight. I saw a few hardy souls out on the slopes at Massanutten just before the lifts closed at 5pm. The temperature was 3 degrees. Snowmaking was going on all over.

Massanutten Conditions - UPDATED 08:17am 12/23/2022

High Wind Advisory is in affect until 6:00pm. Rapid freezing and high winds may affect operations today. We'll be open from 9:00a - 5:00p for skiing and snow tubing conditions permitting. Temperatures are forecasted to fall rapidly this morning to around 10 degrees by noon. Night Skiing will not be offered tonight. Snowmaking will resume as tempertaures allow. Grab an extra layer or two before heading out today!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The light magenta are NEGATIVE temperatures as of 5pm on Dec. 23. Not sure I remember seeing that since I started looking at Wundermap 10 years ago. Could also see frigid temps in the NC mountains farther south. Temps fell into the 20s after noon around Raleigh. Could get to single digits overnight. Supposed to be in the 60s in a week.

Screen Shot 2022-12-23 temps.jpg
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
As reported this morning on SkiSoutheast, the arctic blast of frigid air that's called "bomb cyclone" or bombogenesis, means that a few ski resorts are closed over the Christmas weekend. The Gov. of NC set up a State of Emergency a few days ago in preparation for daytime highs in single digits in many parts of the state. The resorts that are open cut back on the usual holiday weekend hours, such as not opening for night skiing or opening a bit later in the morning.

Note that hours are usually shorter on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the southeast to allow staff to enjoy the holiday. Of course, snowmaking continues as long as Mother Nature provides good snowmaking weather.

SkiSoutheast, Dec. 24, 2022
Screen Shot 2022-12-24 at 11.53.00 AM.pngScreen Shot 2022-12-24 at 11.53.24 AM.png
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The new blue trails on the upper mountain at Massanutten opened for the first time today. Muller's Mile is a long blue that leads to the base of the Peak quad. Ridgecrest goes over towards the top of the Ridge triple and feeds into Mass Transit. Paradice and Diamond Jim have been split into Upper and Lower sections on the trail map because of the new trails.

Massanutten Conditions - UPDATED 08:25am 12/25/2022

Santa (and our snowkaming team) have delivered in a big way! Muller's Mile, Upper Paradice, Ridgecrest, Pacesetter and Easy Street all open today. New terrain, sunshine,and a balmy 25 degrees make for a perfect Christmas! Hours today are 12:00pm - 8:00pm. Upper Paradice, Ridgecrest and Muellers Mile will close around 5:00pm.
Merry Christmas!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
All the ski areas/resorts in NC, TN, VA, MD, and WV are open as of Dec. 27. Omni Homestead in VA was the last to open this month. The frigid temps in the last week made a huge difference for the holiday week in terms of how many trails have more than enough coverage. The New Year's long weekend will be very nice with more normal temps and plenty of base to last through the warm spell.
 

kmb5662

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Just as an FYI since demos in PA are hard to come by The Ski Shack during the Carve 4 Cancer event on Feb 4th at Montage Mountain will have free demos available.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Just as an FYI since demos in PA are hard to come by The Ski Shack during the Carve 4 Cancer event on Feb 4th at Montage Mountain will have free demos available.
Do you happen to know what they might have available? I'd recently reached out to them and the only skis they mentioned in response as far as demos to rent were two different widths of the Black Pearl. I'm waiting to get clarification if that's all they have available or just what they thought was a good fit for me???
 

kmb5662

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Do you happen to know what they might have available? I'd recently reached out to them and the only skis they mentioned in response as far as demos to rent were two different widths of the Black Pearl. I'm waiting to get clarification if that's all they have available or just what they thought was a good fit for me???
I have no idea unfortunately :( Hopefully it's more than just the BP!
 

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