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Greetings from Northern Virginia

ForeverSki

Getting on the lift
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Aug 13, 2019
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Recently new lurker here. I started skiing again in 2017 after a 13-year hiatus and discovered anew how much I enjoy it. For now, I ski mellow intermediate groomers only, working to improve my technique and learning how to ski with a torn meniscus.

My home mountain is Liberty/Whitetail and I try to ski at least once a week. My vacation mountain, so to speak, since 2017 is Breck. All my weeklong trips so far have been to Breck and Keystone. I think I am ready to try some new mountains. I planned a solo trip to Taos to do their Ski Week for the first time. Then I found out, much to my delight, there will be a mini-gathering of pugs the same week. So here I am, eager to learn, to share, and to take some turns.
 

KingGrump

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Welcome. Good to hear you'll be at the Taos gathering. It will be fun.
 

dbostedo

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Welcome from a fellow northern Virginian! (And organizer of this Taos Gathering.)

I tend to ski on Fridays when I'm not travelling, and most often at Whitetail. Maybe we'll cross paths other than just Taos.
 

MarkP

Saturday, and Saturday, and Saturday...
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Greetings from another Whitetail/Liberty skier.
 
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ForeverSki

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Welcome from a fellow northern Virginian! (And organizer of this Taos Gathering.)

I tend to ski on Fridays when I'm not travelling, and most often at Whitetail. Maybe we'll cross paths other than just Taos.
Hi, Thanks for the welcome! I ski Mondays & Fridays, alternating between Liberty & Whitetail. I’m a fraidy cat at Whitetail though. Although I ski blues at Liberty, Breck, & Keystone, for some reason the blues at Whitetail are visually intimidating to me. Every time I said to myself I’m going up I chickened out. So I end up lapping Snowpark & Sidewinder all day. My progression over the last two years was greens at Liberty, then greens at Whitetail, then blues at Liberty. Next season my goal is to do the blues at Whitetail.

I’ll pop in to you Taos thread soon. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your party!
 

cantunamunch

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Hi, Thanks for the welcome! I ski Mondays & Fridays, alternating between Liberty & Whitetail. I’m a fraidy cat at Whitetail though. Although I ski blues at Liberty, Breck, & Keystone, for some reason the blues at Whitetail are visually intimidating to me. Every time I said to myself I’m going up I chickened out. So I end up lapping Snowpark & Sidewinder all day. My progression over the last two years was greens at Liberty, then greens at Whitetail, then blues at Liberty. Next season my goal is to do the blues at Whitetail.

Aside from the extra vertical, there's a couple of things to notice at Whitetail. First, the runs are cut wider - it was the early 90s and it was the fashion to make broad wide boulevards for cruising and fast cruising. Because the runs are cut wider, you also see more of the vertical. Also, most of the blues at Liberty have bent entries so you don't see much from the top - whereas at Whitetail it's commit-off-the-lift-and-go, with a definite lip.

Now if you've lapped Sidewinder, you already know something about Pennsylvania skiing - the steeps are always towards the bottom of the run. This is true of both Liberty and Whitetail, but - remember that extra vertical at WT? Because the runs are straight-ish and wide-cut at WT, the approach to the steep is along the steepest line available.

When you graduate to WT blacks, you'll start seeing more of the Liberty-type shallow-entry /transition /steep finish type run, especially on Far Side.
 
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rocdoc

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Greetings. There are a lot of us Liberty/WT skiers around here it seems (with the occasional dash to Roundtop for the Nastar course :) ) Hope to see you on the trails.
Excellent explanation from @cantunamunch above on why the blues feels scarier at WT. I'll show this to my wife, she's a blue skier with the same apprehension at WT, while being able to ski objectively tougher trails out West. Cheers
 

VickieH

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Welcome, @ForeverSki! My first time on skis, about 10 years ago, was at Whitetail. I quickly moved to Roundtop as it was friendlier for learning, then Liberty and Roundtop. I skied Whitetail off and on, but never really warmed up to it.

Wisp is friendly for learning. My favorite as a beginner/low-intermediate was Belleayre. When I skied there, both the mountain and the people were low-key, friendly.

I'm currently in Colorado. If you get back here, you might try Copper. It's pretty friendly for learning ... some nice greens, then some blue-greens so you can step up gradually.

Hope your new season gets off to a good start.
 

dbostedo

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Hi, Thanks for the welcome! I ski Mondays & Fridays, alternating between Liberty & Whitetail. I’m a fraidy cat at Whitetail though. Although I ski blues at Liberty, Breck, & Keystone, for some reason the blues at Whitetail are visually intimidating to me. Every time I said to myself I’m going up I chickened out. So I end up lapping Snowpark & Sidewinder all day. My progression over the last two years was greens at Liberty, then greens at Whitetail, then blues at Liberty. Next season my goal is to do the blues at Whitetail.

I’ll pop in to you Taos thread soon. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your party!

I'd be happy to ski down some Whitetail blues with you, as slow and easy as you like, if that would help. I enjoy Snowpark and Sidewinder too. :)
 
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ForeverSki

Getting on the lift
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Northern VA
Aside from the extra vertical, there's a couple of things to notice at Whitetail. First, the runs are cut wider - it was the early 90s and it was the fashion to make broad wide boulevards for cruising and fast cruising. Because the runs are cut wider, you also see more of the vertical. Also, most of the blues at Liberty have bent entries so you don't see much from the top - whereas at Whitetail it's commit-off-the-lift-and-go, with a definite lip.

Now if you've lapped Sidewinder, you already know something about Pennsylvania skiing - the steeps are always towards the bottom of the run. This is true of both Liberty and Whitetail, but - remember that extra vertical at WT? Because the runs are straight-ish and wide-cut at WT, the approach to the steep is along the steepest line available.

When you graduate to WT blacks, you'll start seeing more of the Liberty-type shallow-entry /transition /steep finish type run, especially on Far Side.
That makes so much sense. Riding up the lift to Snowpark/Sidewinder they look especially steep.
 
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ForeverSki

Getting on the lift
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Northern VA
I'm currently in Colorado. If you get back here, you might try Copper. It's pretty friendly for learning ... some nice greens, then some blue-greens so you can step up gradually.
Copper is definitely on my list, probably sooner rather than later. I have IKON for next season mainly for Taos but will try to round up some other resorts too.
 

MarkP

Saturday, and Saturday, and Saturday...
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Hi, Thanks for the welcome! I ski Mondays & Fridays, alternating between Liberty & Whitetail. I’m a fraidy cat at Whitetail though. Although I ski blues at Liberty, Breck, & Keystone, for some reason the blues at Whitetail are visually intimidating to me. Every time I said to myself I’m going up I chickened out. So I end up lapping Snowpark & Sidewinder all day. My progression over the last two years was greens at Liberty, then greens at Whitetail, then blues at Liberty. Next season my goal is to do the blues at Whitetail.

I’ll pop in to you Taos thread soon. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your party!

I'm usually a Friday skier with an occasional weekend day with one of my sons. I tend to alternate between all 3 hills. I think @cantunamunch 's comment about the extra width changing your perspective of the slope's steepness is a good one, then add in the extra length and you've kicked in the caution gene. Consider breaking the slope into a bunch of mini greens by cutting across; once you've made it down a few times, you will likely have convinced your brain it isn't so bad.
 

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