Mid-Atlantic Moving to Baltimore, MD- Which mountain within 5 hr drive or less has the best vertical and most expert terrain?

[hollyberry]

Hi!

My husband and I will be moving to Baltimore this Spring/Summer (depending on when the 'rona limits on apartment viewings by real estate agents are lifted.) What are the ski resorts within a five hour or less drive of Baltimore, MD with the most expert terrain and best vertical? We don't really care about bells & whistles or family-friendliness at a resort, (no kids,) just how interesting and steep the terrain is. Is there anything worth driving to at all in the area?


Thanks!

 

[tromano]

@JohnL Plattekill?

 

[scott43]

Or Bristol Mountain..

 

[hollyberry]

How does Snowshoe compare to either of those? I have never been to any of them. It looks like Snowshoe is a little under 5 hours away.

 

[scott43]

Snowshoe has I think 800' vertical. Bristol is 1200' and Plattekill something similar, 1100'? Plattekill is bigger than Bristol but Bristol may have some snow advantage.

 

[Philpug]

Hunter Mtn.

@dbostedo, what is the flight time from BWI to Denver?

 

[dbostedo]

Technically Snowshoe is 1500 feet... but that's only 2 runs, and the rest of it is fairly short.

@hollyberry - When you say "expert terrain", what is your frame of reference? Where have you usually skied?

I'm going to guess that there's nothing within 5 hours that has expert terrain of any significance depending on what you're used to (though I don't know some of the PA areas, or any of the NY areas that you could reach in 5 hours).

 

[dbostedo]

Hunter Mtn.

@dbostedo, what is the flight time from BWI to Denver?

A bit over 4 hours.

 

[crgildart]

Blue Knob's fun. Timberline if they get it open.

 

[MarkP]

Pre-welcome to the Baltimore area. Where are you coming from? What resorts do you like skiing?

Your best bet is to drive 30 minutes to BWI airport, let a pilot "drive" you 1.5 hrs to Manchester, NH, then drive 1-3 hrs to any number of NH and VT resorts. If you can deal with 6 hrs, go for Salt Lake City. . One nice benefit of being in the Baltimore area is BWI is a Southwest Airline hub. Denver means long drive from the airport AND dealing with Interstate 70.

3.5-4 hrs brings in Seven Springs (750 ft), Laurel, Camelback (800 ft), Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Montage and Elk (1000 ft) There's also Blue Knob (1000 ft) but from what I've seen and heard it hasn't been taken care of for some years. I'd choose Elk out of these.

5 hrs: Snowshoe (1500 ft, you'd have to start at 4am... damn DC beltway and "almost heaven" mountain twistbacks), decent terrain. There's not much in the way of inexpensive lodging nearby. For a good road trip that way I would combine with Timberline (1000 ft, new owner, hopefully gets it back in good shape) or Canaan Valley (800 ft).

5-ish hours also gets you to the Catskills. Belleayre (1500 ft, just a pleasant vibe), Hunter (1500 ft), Windham (1500 ft) and Plattekill (1100 ft, not much in the way of snowmaking, but a nice basic Ma/Pa kinda place). Plenty of lodging in the area. Hunter for more challenging terrain, Plattekill if there's a good dump of snow.

 

[hollyberry]

Technically Snowshoe is 1500 feet... but that's only 2 runs, and the rest of it is fairly short.

@hollyberry - When you say "expert terrain", what is your frame of reference? Where have you usually skied?

I'm going to guess that there's nothing within 5 hours that has expert terrain of any significance depending on what you're used to (though I don't know some of the PA areas, or any of the NY areas that you could reach in 5 hours).

Technically Snowshoe is 1500 feet... but that's only 2 runs, and the rest of it is fairly short.

@hollyberry - When you say "expert terrain", what is your frame of reference? Where have you usually skied?

I'm going to guess that there's nothing within 5 hours that has expert terrain of any significance depending on what you're used to (though I don't know some of the PA areas, or any of the NY areas that you could reach in 5 hours).

I used to live about 40 min away from Hunter and skied there once or twice a week on all the single and double diamond runs. On trips out West, I usually go right to the longest mogul run. I haven't been skiing that long, (about 5 years) but was lucky to get to ski a lot in the first three years and progressed fairly quickly. My favorite places to ski so far are Snowbird & Snowbasin in Utah, Telluride in CO and Jay (glades) in VT. I also like Mad River in VT and Mammoth in CA a lot. I like glades & moguls a lot! I don't expect anything near Baltimore to compare to those places, but I want to try to keep improving, especially because I got a really late start and didn't get to begin learning until I was in my mid 20's!

 

[hollyberry]

Pre-welcome to the Baltimore area. Where are you coming from? What resorts do you like skiing?

Your best bet is to drive 30 minutes to BWI airport, let a pilot "drive" you 1.5 hrs to Manchester, NH, then drive 1-3 hrs to any number of NH and VT resorts. If you can deal with 6 hrs, go for Salt Lake City. . One nice benefit of being in the Baltimore area is BWI is a Southwest Airline hub. Denver means long drive from the airport AND dealing with Interstate 70.

3.5-4 hrs brings in Seven Springs (750 ft), Laurel, Camelback (800 ft), Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Montage and Elk (1000 ft) There's also Blue Knob (1000 ft) but from what I've seen and heard it hasn't been taken care of for some years. I'd choose Elk out of these.

5 hrs: Snowshoe (1500 ft, you'd have to start at 4am... damn DC beltway and "almost heaven" mountain twistbacks), decent terrain. There's not much in the way of inexpensive lodging nearby. For a good road trip that way I would combine with Timberline (1000 ft, new owner, hopefully gets it back in good shape) or Canaan Valley (800 ft).

5-ish hours also gets you to the Catskills. Belleayre (1500 ft, just a pleasant vibe), Hunter (1500 ft), Windham (1500 ft) and Plattekill (1100 ft, not much in the way of snowmaking, but a nice basic Ma/Pa kinda place). Plenty of lodging in the area. Hunter for more challenging terrain, Plattekill if there's a good dump of snow.

I used to live really close to Hunter when I was studying at Bard. It's a great place to ski as a regular- Monday mornings were my favorite ; ) I like your idea of letting the pilot "drive" me to SLC hahaha

 

[hollyberry]

Technically Snowshoe is 1500 feet... but that's only 2 runs, and the rest of it is fairly short.

@hollyberry - When you say "expert terrain", what is your frame of reference? Where have you usually skied?

I'm going to guess that there's nothing within 5 hours that has expert terrain of any significance depending on what you're used to (though I don't know some of the PA areas, or any of the NY areas that you could reach in 5 hours).

What would be the closest place that would perhaps be a small mountain but with some good, ungroomed terrain where I could practice moguls, etc?

 

[cantunamunch]

What would be the closest place that would perhaps be a small mountain but with some good, ungroomed terrain where I could practice moguls, etc?

First caveat: bumps are weather dependent. Meaning there has to be enough snow coverage to make them. This season, a lot of the close-in areas didn't have enough to make bumps , or had them bumped up for 2-3 weeks total.

That said, Whitetail has bumps on Exhibition, Roundtop has bumps on Ramrod and Upper Exhibition with Recruit often getting bumped up by the end of season., Liberty lets their back side bump up and quite often the return intermediate trails (White Lightning and Upper Blue Streak) have bump features. All of those are easy day or evening trips.

Further afield, Seven Springs used to have fairly reliable bumps on the front side: Goosebumps and the quadrant between Tyrol and Avalanche lifts. Again, weather dependent.

Others can speak to Blue Knob, Wintergreen and Timberline.

 

[johnnyvw]

Upper Tunkhanock at Elk almost always has good, consistent moguls. Everything else in the Poconos will be hit or miss. The one time I was at Whitetail was the day after a mogul comp, the bumps on Exhibition were great. Looking at their webcam this year, it didn't seem to be the case

 

[crgildart]

Others can speak to Blue Knob, Wintergreen and Timberline.

Wintergreen will let the skier's left side of Cliffhanger bump up when there is enough of highlands open to support traffic.

Extrovert at Blue Knob is as challenging as anything south of Stowe and east of the rockies. They never groom it and would probably need a winch cat to try. pPoblem is, it requires 100% natural coverage which is getting more and more rare around here.

Timberline has Off The Wall, another one I've never seen groomed, but also the last to open if it opens.

 

[Jully]

Someone mentioned Seven Springs regularly had bumps as of a few years ago. Has anyone been more recently/can confirm bumps?

I just moved to Cleveland, OH and am also in the market for long(ish) bump runs with a ~3 hour drive. I did not make it out this year, but it did not seem to have bumps whenever I looked at their snow report (probably 6-10x a month from December through early March).

 

[dbostedo]

Has anyone been more recently/can confirm bumps?

Paging @LaurelHillCraze

 

[4aprice]

What would be the closest place that would perhaps be a small mountain but with some good, ungroomed terrain where I could practice moguls, etc?

Getting south to north in the northeast is easy. Getting east to west is a more difficult. This becomes more so as you get up into the more mountainous terrain. You could probably make Albany, NY from Baltimore in 5 hours but getting over to the Greens is another question. But that's where the good skiing is (and snow) and I would say weekending in Southern Vermont at approx 6 hours is not that bad. For a more local option pick anyone that's a comfortable drive. I keep a pass at a local mountain here in the Pocono's. Great place to practice and as much as they struggled this past season with the weather they got some bumps up for some fun sessions.



.
That 2nd photo was my last day before the abrupt end.

 

[hollyberry]

Technically Snowshoe is 1500 feet... but that's only 2 runs, and the rest of it is fairly short.

@hollyberry - When you say "expert terrain", what is your frame of reference? Where have you usually skied?

I'm going to guess that there's nothing within 5 hours that has expert terrain of any significance depending on what you're used to (though I don't know some of the PA areas, or any of the NY areas that you could reach in 5 hours).

That looks pretty awesome! I'd definitely take ANY skiing over NO skiing, anyhow. I didn't get to ski a single day this season because I spent all my money applying for Ph.D. programs and traveling around to (many, many) interviews. I'm excited I got into a great program, but man, those application fees are killer. Wiped out me and my husband's 'ski savings' completely. I hope next year can be a great season to make up for this one that we sat out. Now there's a question: would any of you give up skiing for an entire year so your spouse could ______ (fill in the blank.) hahahahh That could be a marriage-ending question for some ; p