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Mid-Atlantic Massanutten, VA 12/15/17

dbostedo

Asst. Gathermeister
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Opening day for much of central PA, Virginia, and WV was today, December 15th. Nice and early for around here.... and I had the day off. :D

I made the drive out to Massanutten, to meet up with a friend, and had a great day skiing. So I figured I'd file a mini-trip report. Massanutten isn't a very large resort - less than a hundred acres. But is very uncrowded on weekdays - even opening day.

Waiting for first chair of the season
20171215_091246 ACR Conv.jpg

They only had one blue run (Showtime), and one black run open (Diamond Jim), but that was enough for a lot of fun early season. I did 21 runs and 12.5K - short day, but good for early season on a weekday!

View from the top of Diamond Jim
20171215_102622 ACR Conv.jpg

Guns ran all day, like here on Showtime
20171215_123253 ACR Conv.jpg

Massanutten got a little fresh snow earlier in the week, and have been blowing like crazy. Conditions were very good... actually they hadn't groomed very recently, and had left a lot of little whales and piles around. There were several inches over the groom most places.

It was sticky where the blown snow was fresh on the flats, but where it was steeper or skied a bit, it was terrific.

Poles sank all over the place...like here mid-run. Made it hard on the flats for the snowboarders
20171215_123300 ACR Conv.jpg


I also had a new sticker on my skis.... all in all, a great day to start the Mid-A season.
20171215_123306 ACR Conv.jpg
 

Bolder

Out on the slopes
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Dec 1, 2017
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Cool. I went to UVa many moons ago and skied there a few times. My favorite story: An acquaintance whose father owned a ski shop in Richmond (sporting good store might be more accurate) took me up there one day. Apparently you had to actually demonstrate that you were good enough to ski the black runs. Anyway, having skied a lot in NE by that point, was no problem for me. However, my confident friend didn't make the grade, despite telling me he had skied Massanutten "like hundreds of times."
 
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dbostedo

dbostedo

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I went to UVa many moons ago ...

:( :nono:

I'm a Hokie! :D

Weird about having to show you can ski the blacks... they aren't really very "black"... more like blues with maybe 100' vert of steeper stuff thrown in. The top of the blue runs can be tougher than the black runs actually.
 

Blue Streak

I like snow.
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Nov 12, 2015
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Edwards, Colorado
The old ad campaign said that, "Virginia is for Lovers."
Well, I fell in love with skiing when I was a kid growing up in the Commonwealth - not exactly the ideal place for a ski fanatic - but it was a start. So many of us fell in love with skiing at the most humble of hills.
I am so grateful for places like Bryce Mountain, The Homestead, Canaan Valley, Wintergreen, and Massanutten.
One of these days I am going back to ski some of those mountains, not to belittle their shortcomings, rather to celebrate their resilience in surviving and providing the most unlikely of opportunities: alpine skiing below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Here's to Massanutten and the rest of her southern brothers and sisters!
 

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