Hello guys and dolls,

Sheena QOTS and I toured 2 resorts west of the appalachin fron this weekend.

Saturday was 7S. We left DC early at approximaatly 7AM. And were ate 7S by 11AM.

7S: the temps were 30 and calm at 11AM. Our first run of the day was down the little north face trail: very icy wiht spoty cover a death cookies all over. Every other run was well covered and in much better shpae. The early season conditiosn were good. By mid afrernoon the temps were into the hihg 30s and the snow softened considerably. The only sope with any rock on it at all was Avalanche. It was well covere din the mornig but by late afternoon there were some rocks turned up there.

On saturday crowds were minimal with perhpas a 2 minute wait the longes tof the day. The slopes were well covered. however the base was obviously thin in spots with a lot of brown snow brown spots trails. Most trails were in good condition throughout the day. There was some ice but less than I expected.

Wisp 12/19: We skied all 7S trials at least 3 times on saturday and decided to try somehting else. We headed south to Wisp to make for an easier trip home given the impending weather. From Pittsburg we arrived at Wisp by 11 AM. The temps were just at 32F with flurries. Conditions at wisp were good mostly PP. The tempertures fell into the teens and wind increased dramaticly within an hour after we arrived. I was glad that I dressed warmly. Approximatly 4 inches of fresh fell between noon and 3:30. This made the last few runs very memorable. The crowds were more noticable after lunch when one of the lifts was shut down. As temps dropped during the afternoon the lines cleared out. The longest lift line was approxiamtly 3 minrtes. The slopes seemed more crowded at Wisp however and on the lone blue trail open on the front side was scraped icy.

Approximatly 50% of their slopes were open. The slopes on the frontside off of the midstation were in great shape. They seemed to have more snow base depth and better conditions than 7S. This may have been due to the colder temps that day. However it seemed that the base was much thicker. Neither Squirrel Cage nor Face were icy at all. This only serves to reinfoce my opinion that Wisp has consistantly (over the last 3 years) better opening weekend / early season conditions than any other resort, even 7S. This may have been due to less acreage open than 7s and having snow making concentrated in a smaller area. For example Squirrel and Face are approximatly the same dimensions as Avalance and the Nastar course at 7S. Wisp had approximatly half the terrain open as compared to the ammount 7S did the day before.