So I haven’t gotten to the slopes nearly as often as I’d prefer this season. And with the warm weather afoot, most resorts in the Mid Atlantic are throwing in the towel, getting rid of the more-or-less local options.
Not that I’ve made the extra effort to go skiing at any of the local haunts.
It’s all my own fault: I just wasn’t motivated to go to the nearby resorts of Liberty, Whitetail or Routdtop (all in Pennsylvania), nor to the reasonably close resort of Massanutten, Virginia. A lot of it had to do with the mental perception that no snowfall in DC meant sketchy conditions in south-central PA and western VA. While this may or may not have been true (and it’s hard to tell, even from trip reports on DC Ski), I fell into the same trap as a lot of city-dwelling skiers: no local snow must mean terrible skiing at the locals.
But something I always realize is that any skiing is better than none. So while I may bitch and moan about not getting out to ski, it’s my own damn fault.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to squeeze in a weekend trip to Utah before the end of their season (and it continues to snow out in the Rockies, resulting in some of the best conditions of the year at most resorts in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California, Wyoming and the Pacific Northwest), which would be a plus. But I realize that I thwarted my own ski season this year.
There’s still a chance to get to some of the local areas this weekend, so I might take a little road trip. And the following weekend I’ll get some turns under my belt in Vermont or New Hampshire.
Next year I hope to be a bit more forward in terms of getting out to the local areas – though I do hope that next winter is a bit more cold and snowy than the winter of ’05-’06 here in the DC area.
Glenn Gemelli
13 March 2006 — 22:02
My sympathies! Nearby Brundage Mountain has 12 feet, and this seemingly endless winter has rendered day after day of powder skiing lately. A few RHSM ‘juniors’ were here racing this past weekend. Rudi, check my comment on your Mar 5 musing.