ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 30, 1996 TAG: 9612310003
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM GIBSON
Unlike many ski writers, Tom Gibson shows up on the slopes unannounced. He wants to see how things really are, not necessarily how resort PR people want them to be seen. Gibson reports his findings in the Ski Tripper, a newsletter published in Roanoke that he describes as being dedicated to ``discerning Southeastern skiers.'' We asked Gibson to provide his observations on some of the best and worst of the skiing scene.
Most improved resorts - Timberline, Hawksnest: Timberline went wild two years ago, adding six new trails, including glade runs through trees, and the resort has stolen thunder from nearby Canaan Valley. Meanwhile, Hawksnest has made noise with its new Top Gun trail, which boasts an average 38 percent grade - that's steep!
Cheapest ski weekend - Canaan Valley Area: Despite the upsurge of Timberline in recent years, the valley remains relatively undiscovered and somehow avoids massive crowds and high prices. Lets hope it stays that way.
Best ski town - Boone, N.C.: Four resorts - Sugar Mountain, Beech Mountain, Appalachian and Hawksnest - lie within a half-hour's drive of this college town. With a population of 13,000, Boone serves up a plethora of hotels, restaurants and ski shops. And if that's not enough, the quaint towns of Blowing Rock and Banner Elk await nearby. Hot tip: Try the Cottonwood Grille, a festive microbrewery that serves Southwestern cuisine.
Best places to take a never-ever skier - Silver Creek, The Homestead: Most visitors to Snowshoe seem bent on conquering the steep and narrow slopes at the main area. This turns the wide, gentle runs of Silver Creek into a playground for beginners. At The Homestead, which never sees a crowd, a wide expanse of easy terrain covers the lower half of the mountain, and novices can get off the chairlift at a halfway station.
Best lodging - Snowshoe, Wintergreen: Skiers love Stemwinder condos at Snowshoe for their slopeside ski-in-ski-out convenience. At Wintergreen, luxury condos abound along the resort's serpentine road layout, many with views of the slopes from above.
Worst lodging - Winterplace, Whitetail: Since opening in the early '80s, Winterplace slowly has added accommodations, including WinterHaven condos and the Appalachian Inn near the slopes and the Glade Springs Resort a few miles away, but the resort still lags. Whitetail has no lodging at all (to its credit, it has arranged package deals with hotels and inns in towns 20 miles away), but the upstart resort is building slopeside townhouses, some of which will become available as rentals.
Best off-slope accommodations - Deerfield Village, Elk River Touring Center: Groups skiing at Canaan Valley or Timberline can't beat the hospitality at Deerfield Village condos, a self-contained complex featuring outdoor hot tubs, a restaurant and lounge, and shuttles to both ski areas. As a bed-and-breakfast that doubles as a cross-country skiing center, Elk River offers a nearby respite from the hectic pace at Snowshoe. It features a renowned restaurant.
Best way to meet a member of the opposite sex while skiing: Forget the fake-cast routine. As a bachelor, I've found no better scenario for meeting ski bunnies than a chairlift ride. They are stuck with you for 10 minutes, unless they want to jump. If you get lucky, the lift breaks down, giving you more time to get to know each other.
Best resort food - Cooper's Vantage, Auntie Pasta's: You can pay dearly for a meal at the slopes, but you don't have to settle for a greaseburger and fries. Cooper's Vantage at Wintergreen offers a variety of sandwich-type entrees for lunch, along with friendly and efficient service and live music. Auntie Pasta's at Snowshoe serves up Italian, but get there early for dinner on weekends, or plan to relax in the restaurant's cozy lounge while you wait.
Most efficiently run resort - Whitetail: Just across the Maryland border in Pennsylvania, America's newest ski resort features the latest in lift technology and a computerized snow-making system that minimizes energy use. The resort draws huge crowds from the D.C. area, but the lifts make weekend skiing tolerable.
Friendliest resort - The Homestead: Former Austrian national team skier Sepp Kober opened the hotel's small hill in 1959 as the first legitimate ski resort in the South, and it still retains a European charm. With The Homestead's ambience comes amenities you won't find elsewhere, including an elevated sun deck with windbreaking Plexiglas walls and a musical serenade on chairlift rides.
Best night skiing - Hawksnest: Where else can you ski, then party to live bands in the lodge until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday?
Most crowded resorts - Sugar Mountain, Snowshoe: Both feature high verticals and terrain that draws skiers from as far away as Florida. Throw in the fact each has narrow trails that converge in many places, and you have maniacs flying at you from all directions. On a weekend trip to Snowshoe, I like to ski Silver Creek on Saturday, when the hordes overrun Snowshoe's main area, then ski the main area Sunday, a lighter day. Likewise in the Boone area, consider less-crowded Hawksnest on Saturday and save Sugar for Sunday or a weekday.
Best resort to fly to for a day of skiing - Bryce: Easy choice here: Bryce is the only mid-Atlantic ski resort with a landing strip on its property. The 2,500-foot lighted runway sits so close to the slopes, you can easily walk to them.
Best place to take a nonskier on a ski trip - Canaan Valley Area: Canaan Valley features a vast array of cross-country skiing trails and ice skating in a state park. Scenic Blackwater Falls is nearby. For the less athletic, we could cite Seven Springs, whose monstrous nine-story lodge complex houses a bowling alley, racquetball courts, a swimming pool, a movie theater, 12 restaurants and six bars. Although the resort, near Pittsburgh, doesn't lie within easy driving distance of Roanoke, ski clubs from as far south as Raleigh, N.C., take busloads there just because of the apres-ski scene.
Best place to tear up your skis - Timberline: As part of its recent expansion, Timberline opened two barely discernible trails, Cherry Bowl Glades and Pearly Glades to become the first area ski resort to offer tree skiing. A nice concept - if enough natural snow falls to cover them. Without snow making, the trails don't open often, and when they do, you can expect to find rocks, leaves, roots and dirt aiming for your ski bottoms like heat-seeking missiles. Experts should try them, though; just bring a pair of old skis.
Coldest ski resorts - Snowshoe, Beech: An oddity in the ski world, Snowshoe is an upside-down resort with the lodge at the top of the mountain. This creates a Northern-like alpine experience complete with howling winds and freezing temperatures. A North Carolina resort sounds like an unlikely place to find harsh weather, but Beech has the highest summit - 5,505 feet - of any ski resort east of the Rockies. Both resorts require a long, arduous drive on a twisting mountain road, and foul weather can turn it into a nightmare.
Ski resort that tries the hardest - Appalachian: The smallest of North Carolina's High Country resorts, Appalachian tries to make up for its diminutive (365-foot vertical) stature by outmaneuvering the competition. It maintains snow cover when other resorts have bare spots, and a new beginner quad lift handles weekend crowds. But Appalachian's main attraction might be its renowned French-Swiss Ski School, which has taught the likes of Army Green Berets, Navy Seals and Secret Service agents.
Most accessible resorts - Winterplace, Massanutten, Whitetail: Winterplace sits so close to Interstate 77 in West Virginia you can hear its snowguns blow as you drive by. Massanutten lies an easy 15-minute drive from Interstate 81 near Harrisonburg. Why mention Whitetail when it appears to be so far from Roanoke? You can take 1-81 most of the way on a straight shot for a total drive time of only four hours.
Best nightlife - Snowshoe: Snowshoe boasts bars and restaurants of all descriptions, but the main attractions are the Yodeler's Pub for happy hour; the Connection, a headbanging rock-and-roll nightclub; and the Comedy Cellar, where comedians perform on weekends.
Worst nightlife - Winterplace, Whitetail: Because Winterplace focuses on day skiers, the resort has yet to add much infrastructure for night activities, although it does have a couple of lounges. That's more than Whitetail, which is located in a dry county.
Best moguls - Sugar, Massanutten: It's hard to find more than three bumps strung together at mid-Atlantic slopes, but Tom Terrific and Big Boulder at Sugar Mountain and Dixie Dare at Massanutten give experts a diversion from corduroy cruising runs. Massanutten shows some ingenuity by using snowcats to build mogul fields. This proves quicker than letting skiers form them and yields better bumps, too.
Longest lift line - Ballhooter Lift at Snowshoe: Lines can average 30 minutes here on a crowded Saturday afternoon. In all fairness, queues at Snowshoe's other lifts run much shorter; Ballhooter is just a bottleneck. You can avoid the lift, but it services prime terrain and accesses the resort's Widowmaker area.
Best resorts for discounts - Massanutten: Massanutten cuts lift-ticket prices by about half early and late season and offers its College Days specials on Wednesdays and Fridays during January and February.
Funkiest terrain - Canaan Valley: The black-diamond Gravity takes experts straight down the mountain while other trails meander through woods and fields, giving the area a backcountry flavor with myriad combinations of narrow chutes, open meadows, steeps and flats.
Least imaginative terrain - Whitetail, Timberline: Unlike older resorts such as Canaan Valley, newer areas like these cut trails parallel to each other, all starting and ending in the same place and having the same grade. They emphasize constant pitch, an admirable concept, but after awhile, every run seems the same.
Best scenery - Sugar: This doesn't mean spandex. Majestic Grandfather Mountain looms near Sugar, showcasing the rugged beauty of the mountains in this area.
Worst scenery at a ski resort - Sugar: Developers at Sugar blew a good thing by erecting Sugartop, a cold, stark, monolithic condo complex on the summit for all to see from miles around. Citizens passed a ridge law soon after, banning such blights on the landscape, but this horse already had left the barn.
Ski Tripper is published monthly November through March at an annual subscription rate of $18, P.O. Box 20305, Roanoke, 24018; (540) 772-2225.
LENGTH: Long : 198 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Stinson. color.by CNB