I must confess that until recently I had no idea you could ski in Maryland. A quick study of a map though reveals that Maryland isn’t just the Chesapeake Bay hugging state I had imagined. For all sorts of Mason-Dixon line reasons, the state protrudes as far west as western Pennsylvania. And in that western extreme, what seems like 100m over the PA state line, lies Wisp.
The Sunday before Xmas was probably not the best time for a first visit. After a sustained cold and snowy period when gun and natural pow was plentiful, a 36 hour, warm, wet front hit the area. Luckily the moisture stayed mostly north, sparing Wisp of the worst of the deluge. By 11am the rain had stopped and a brisk wind quickly blow-dried us in the 50F+ temperatures.
The upside of all this was we essentially had our own private ski hill for the day. With most runs open and well covered considering the drenching they’d had, we explored at will. Slopes trail off all sides of the ski hill that rises above the beautiful Deep Creek Lake, making it easy to link runs and move around the mountain. We found a surprising amount of variety – short steeps, snaking groomers – that bodes well for when conditions are a little less swamp-like. Slow lifts don’t bode well for busy days, but at only 90 minutes from home, I suspect we’ll sneak a few days in at Wisp this season. It looks a fun little ski hill. For Maryland, anyway.
5 days later we headed north to the more familiar climes of Holiday Valley, NY. The cold and snow had returned, creating some pretty decent conditions all over the resort. Groomers skied really well, especially early, and crowds never reached levels that caused any lift-line angst. As on our previous visits, the runs off the Chute chair provided the best skiing on mostly deserted slopes. With good conditions, there’s plenty of fun to be had at Holiday Valley.
I just hope this winter lasts a lot longer than the Steelers season did, and even greets the arrival of the Pirates season. That’d be nice.
It’s not been a stellar start to the season in the Pacific Northwest. Low-ish snow in the Cascades made us look further afield, where we discovered a 2/3rds open Schweitzer, tucked up in the Idaho Panhandle. And if you know Schweitzer, 2/3rds of that hill to ride is like 2/3rds of a Jeroboam of Penfold’s Grange to drink. Plenty for a weekend.
Saturday won the award for the foggiest day. Serious white-outs, which on steeps were as effective as Zaphod Beeblebrox’s peril sensitive sunglasses, Shrubbery was abundant on some runs too, providing excellent early season quick turn practice conditions 😉
There was some hellagood skiing to be had though. Groomers like Zip Down and Pend D’Oreille were like carving gelato, occasionally with a spruce tipped flavor. The steeps plunging off the ridge into north bowl – Australia, Shoot the Moon, Debbie Sue – had excellent coverage and the benefit of trees to provide definition in the fog. And despite the lack of visibility, K-Mac in the Lakeside Bowl was a fabulous plunge where your trust in the skills of the winchcat groomer guy had to be absolute.
It wasn’t a particularly photogenic weekend, but the video below gives a flavor of the fun we had.
The cold – and I mean cold – continued over the north east, making perfect conditions for the gun pows gods to deliver their targeted blizzard across the ski hills of the eastern USA. A brief but damp warmup made our first day at Mount Snow a little variable. The main run down off the wondrous Lech-like covered 6-pack chair was littered early with the frozen-off gonads of skiers past, making for a really rough, bally ride. We soon transitioned to the Carinthia zone, where gentle manicured blues, a terrain park and some ferocious snow guns gave us two fine runs to lap, and a lodge at the base to warm up in (it was -10/15C without wind chill).
The snow guns were eventually turned on to Exhibition, smothering the frozen gonads in creamy gun pow ejaculate. It wasn’t orgasmic, but it made for a pleasant end to a fun ski day. There’s lots of terrain here. What we saw seemed gentle, but I reckon it could be easily ridden for a day or two when fully open. Easily.
Not far north lies Stratton, our destination for the next two days. A $78 2 day lift ticket, progressively opening terrain, and somewhat frigid but magnificently sunny weather delivered two excellent days of skiing. The crew do an amazing job here, opening well pitched groomers that snake through the forest, providing variety and decent vertical, even with only a 1/4 of the mountain open. The ‘bear’ runs off the Ursa chair made for ripping early morning skiing on firm but highly carvable corduroy. Later, top-to-bottom runs on the excellent Upper Spruce and its various lower branches down to the village generated enough heat from burning leg muscles to stave off the cold. And with no lift lines, racking up the vert wasn’t difficult.
With luck the powder gods will soon come along and join the gun pow gods, blanketing the mountains of the east with both new and old school snow, making a season to remember. By all accounts, we’re due one. But in the meantime, gunpowmageddon will hopefully continue …
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