Are the local mid atlantic ski areas open for hiking in the summer or is the access controlled?
I was reading about the everest-ing and thinking it made something that I could do locally.
https://29029everesting.com/
Thanks, but to make it work it is best to hike right up the ski trails on the cat traxs.
I have done it at Killington and Stratton and no one cared.
just wondered it I could do it at Whitetail or Timberline.
As long as you stay out of the way of construction, hiking on the ski trails at Massanutten is fine. They have disc golf in the trees between a few trails so there are people on the lower mountain all the time.
There is a ridge top trail at Massanutten that goes all the way to the summit. End up right next to the ski patrol hut. There is a road that goes up to a parking lot. From there can start the ridge hike or a hike that goes on the other side. The resort owns all the land on the backside of the ridge. There are mountain bike trails on the back side, which are a cooperative effort between the resort and the local bike club.
You can hike anywhere at Snowshoe. If you want to Everest, I understand the best idea is to pick the steepest section you can stand to hike, otherwise you spend too much time going forward instead of up. Lower Cupp would be a good option, especially because you will see some bikers there to avoid monotony. If you want a little more seclusion and shade, you could do Bail Out, but it would be a little harder to get supplies or support way over on the other side of Shaver's Lake. It isn't as steep as Lower Cupp and you have more of a chance of turning an ankle on a root or rock but it is more pleasant IMHO.
You can hike Seven Springs, Laurel Mountain and Hidden Valley as well.
Seven Springs has a state park easement going right through the slopes for the Laurel Highlands Trail. Laurel Moutain is in the state park itself, and the lights are on but no one is around at Hidden Valley.
I've never had an issue hiking Snowshoe either, it's pretty dead in the summer.
Regarding HV - years ago they posted trail signs around the perimeter of the slopes on the front and north summit. I'm sure you can use these trails but I would also be careful about just hiking the slopes themselves. Even the security guard didn't know that Vail had acquired the property when I spoke to him last weekend, lol.
I had a buddy do a double everesting (58000') at the start of covid over 4 days and it was insane. One of those mostly impressive feats I have ever seen.
Do the math on how much ground you have to cover. He did it primarily on a 1.3 mile trail about 1400' of gain. Which is crazy steep. It was over 120 miles. But on crazy steep terrain.
I think there is some strategy to it. You want steep but honestly not too steep or you will just destroy your legs.
Just doing Lower Shay's at Snowshoe (the super steep part) is 0.44 miles and 690' of gain. So you could everest in "only" 37 miles. But you would destroy your legs imo.
The more gradual Cupp's run is 1450' in 1.2 miles so you could do it in 48 miles.
If you hiked up and took the ski lift down it becomes much easier- only 24 miles. But that is lame in my opinion. Same with doing it on a treadmill.
rusty wrote:
I had a buddy do a double everesting (58000') at the start of covid over 4 days and it was insane. One of those mostly impressive feats I have ever seen.
Do the math on how much ground you have to cover. He did it primarily on a 1.3 mile trail about 1400' of gain. Which is crazy steep. It was over 120 miles. But on crazy steep terrain.
I think there is some strategy to it. You want steep but honestly not too steep or you will just destroy your legs.
Just doing Lower Shay's at Snowshoe (the super steep part) is 0.44 miles and 690' of gain. So you could everest in "only" 37 miles. But you would destroy your legs imo.
The more gradual Cupp's run is 1450' in 1.2 miles so you could do it in 48 miles.
If you hiked up and took the ski lift down it becomes much easier- only 24 miles. But that is lame in my opinion. Same with doing it on a treadmill.
That's a lot of miles. You could do Cupp Run at Snowshoe, and cut out the last ~ 0.2 miles at the bottom which is probably only 50 ft of elevation. I'd probably still go for the steeper, the better and just take it slower on lower Shay's. I don't know why I find it so interesting trying to map out my imaginary Everesting strategy, lol.
