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TR: ChristMas...sanutten 12.30.09

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BaZinGa
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No Christmas trip to visit in inlaws in Virginia would be complete without a visit to one of the local mountains. And of course at least one of our trips must include a scenic route as suggested by some form of electronic navigation. This time completely my fault, should have double checked googles directions with a topographical map before we actually turned onto the road... btw VA 56 from 151 near Wintergreen to I-81 is NOT a route I recommend taking, especially if snow covered... the "no thru trucks" sign should have been a dead giveaway!



It wasn't that bad though and we did eventually make it up to Massanutten for the night session. We bypassed WTG since we'd never been to M'nut & because M'nut has more/better terrain open for the night session... i.e.) M'nut is 100% open for the night session which is AWESOME... I hate that WTG, Sugar & even teh Shoe close their black runs for the night session!



Conditions were pretty good for the east coast, although a few scraped spots were showing their ugly face as the evening progressed...



The crowd started off a little thick at the bottom of Lifts #3 & 4:





But thinned out nicely at the top (bottom of Lifts #5 & 6):







Looking up Southern Comfort:





Looking up Diamond Jim:





Looking down Diamond Jim:







A little farther down Diamond Jim:





A few VW sized moguls on MakAttack:







A few folks still hanging around at the bottom of Lift #3 ~ 8pm... not many on the upper trails:





Teh Lift Shot:





So Massanutten has been checked off of the list! Pros: 100% open for night skiing, including all blacks & blacks are served by a separate lift so not too many newbs falling off of the lift... Cons: A little to far from Raleigh for the size... I'm not sure if we'll make the trip back up anytime soon since Teh Shoe is only another hour and this place isn't all that much bigger than Sugar for the extra hour drive, but definitely a wonderful excursion from the inlaws...



Plans for WTG in the morning are up in the air since I ain't paying good holiday rates to ski in the rain when I can make another weekend excursion from the inlaws later in the season :D So just hanging out at the not tooo sketchy Motel 6 in Harrisonburg waiting to see what ma nature brings us in the morning... hopefully it'll be knee deep POW!!!! (but probably will be 1/4" sleet/rain/ice... boooo!) Massanutten still gets two thumbs up!
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swamphox
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Makattack looks nice.
Live slow, die whenever.....

Days on Snow 22-23
Cat 5
app 1
sugar 1
ober 1
winterplace 2
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ski26er
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I'm thinking about making a trip up to wtg or mant next week. My one concern with mant was it being about the same size as sugar but if they have a good lift system & Crowd control ,might be worth checking out. I've never been to wtg or mant so help me decide. I love snowshoe but I'm trying to do a daytrip and it would be cool to try something new sense I'll be at Snowshoe anyway for the skise summit in March.
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BaZinGa
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@ski26er 200351 wrote:I'm thinking about making a trip up to wtg or mant next week. My one concern with mant was it being about the same size as sugar but if they have a good lift system & Crowd control ,might be worth checking out. I've never been to wtg or mant so help me decide. I love snowshoe but I'm trying to do a daytrip and it would be cool to try something new sense I'll be at Snowshoe anyway for the skise summit in March.



Definitely WTG for more trails & closer. Mnut is worth checking out as it is bigger than Sugar with much better lifts, but WTG would be my choice.



Tough call for me right now is to go back to Mnut, go to WTG or head on back to the inlaws... ~1-2" of SNOW sitting on my truck in the parking lot at Harrisonburg!!! Started as sleet ~1am and still calling for a wintery mix/RAIN, so making it harder to justify holiday rates... would definitely pull the string if the 4hr ticket was in effect for the holiday period, but it isn't so full holiday pricing is kinda hard to cough up for meeeeh conditions!
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marzski
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@swamphox 200350 wrote:Makattack looks nice.



With all the cold and snow this winter, they will probably leave the bumps on MakAttack. It's been a few years since it was open all season. Not very long, but you do need to think about how to go down. Top is considered black and lower section is marked as blue.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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brookbarrel
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Glad to see mass having a good season. Wouldn't it be cool if they cut a trail or 2 off to the right at the top of chair 6 running parallel to the service road
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@NCSUsKING 200349 wrote:

A few folks still hanging around at the bottom of Lift #3 ~ 8pm... not many on the upper trails:





So Massanutten has been checked off of the list! Pros: 100% open for night skiing, including all blacks & blacks are served by a separate lift so not too many newbs falling off of the lift... Cons: A little to far from Raleigh for the size... I'm not sure if we'll make the trip back up anytime soon since Teh Shoe is only another hour and this place isn't all that much bigger than Sugar for the extra hour drive, but definitely a wonderful excursion from the inlaws...



Plans for WTG in the morning are up in the air since I ain't paying good holiday rates to ski in the rain when I can make another weekend excursion from the inlaws later in the season :D So just hanging out at the not tooo sketchy Motel 6 in Harrisonburg waiting to see what ma nature brings us in the morning... hopefully it'll be knee deep POW!!!! (but probably will be 1/4" sleet/rain/ice... boooo!) Massanutten still gets two thumbs up!



Glad you had a good time!



For Lift 3, with the conveyor that length of line is under 2 min wait to load. Now that Yee Ha is open, going up Lift 3 and Lift 5 is an alternative way to get to Lift 6 to the top if Lift 4 for Southern Comfort is crowded for some reason.



I agree that coming from Raleigh, WTG makes more sense in terms of black run skiing than Mnut. We go to Mnut when we stay overnight because Marz Jr. likes it better. This winter, not having to worry about snow on any mountain road on the way is a bonus. As timeshare owners, I've learned how we can stay on resort even for holiday weekends for relatively cheap. Also the season ticket is unlimited, unlike WTG.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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@ski26er 200351 wrote:I'm thinking about making a trip up to wtg or mant next week. My one concern with mant was it being about the same size as sugar but if they have a good lift system & Crowd control ,might be worth checking out. I've never been to wtg or mant so help me decide. I love snowshoe but I'm trying to do a daytrip and it would be cool to try something new sense I'll be at Snowshoe anyway for the skise summit in March.



Mnut is soooo much better than Sugar in terms of actual time skiing vs sitting on a lift. A bigger mountain over all does not mean more skiing for someone sticking to interesting blues and blacks. I only go to Sugar to demo at SugarFest. Did you see that there is a $17 night skiing deal for Monday nights starting Jan. 4?



http://www.massresort.com/v.php?pg=334



Several cheap motel options in Harrisonburg at US33 and I-81, 20 min from Mnut. I think I've seen $39.95 on signs for weekday. A definite difference compared to WTG.
2023-24: Wolf Creek in Dec, Massanutten in Jan, Feb; GT, Big Sky; Crested Butte; Alta/Snowbird in April.
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BaZinGa
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@marzski 200383 wrote:Mnut is soooo much better than Sugar in terms of actual time skiing vs sitting on a lift. A bigger mountain over all does not mean more skiing for someone sticking to interesting blues and blacks. I only go to Sugar to demo at SugarFest. Did you see that there is a $17 night skiing deal for Monday nights starting Jan. 4?



http://www.massresort.com/v.php?pg=334



Several cheap motel options in Harrisonburg at US33 and I-81, 20 min from Mnut. I think I've seen $39.95 on signs for weekday. A definite difference compared to WTG.



Tru dat! And I'll reiterate that Mnut imo has the best night skiing in the southeast! We crashed at the Motel 6 right at VA33 & I-81 in Harrisonburg. 10 miles from Mnut. Accomodations were decent & clean... 2 adults + $2.99 for wifi and the total came out to $54... 1 adult with no wifi might save ya $7-8... free wifi at Chick-fil-a across the street, but not accessible in the room... maybe the parking lot...



Woke up to ~ 2" of snow this morning, but it was heavy so no real desire to run back up to Mnut for an 8hr holiday rate... WTG's report wasn't stellar either, so enjoyed the nice warm bed for a few more hours :D







It started melting pretty good after an hour or so:





Would have done a morning session while the wife stayed in bed, but alas no half day rates at Mnut or WTG during the holiday period... booo! I'll save that $70 and hit WTG in another week or so...



I-81S to I-64E to VA250 to VA6 to VA6/VA151 to VA6 to US29S is definitely a better route than VA56! Funny that google switched routes when reversing the direction... why would it send you one way there & a different way back!?! Just another reason to double check electronic directions with some common sense :rolleyes:
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Bronco
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I see you learned how to operate the lock on the rack.;):p
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