Nothing says "I went to Methodist Youth Group in Maryland in the 80's" like the words "Youth ski trip". In Maryland we were right on the southern boarder of skiing. Now that I live in the "Deep south" of North Carolina, nobody goes skiing, and nobody went on a ski trip with their church youth group. It's particularly odd, since the Wintergreen Ski resort is only 4.0 hours from Raleigh, but skiing just isn't on peoples minds down here in the south.
Memories
- The tow rope. Nothing says hi-tech like being literally dragged up the mountain side by holding on to a rope. Wisp is the only place I ever saw this. Reading the history of the resort, This was the first lift and the lower face was the first run of the resort back in 1955. The tow rope was not removed until 2003.
- The Poma Lift. Another type of lift that I have never seen anywhere else. This thing never really felt secure. I have seen the same spring mechanism on the J-Bar at Breckenridge but as a general rule most resorts have removed all of their surface lifts except of the bunny slopes. Breckenridge has only kept theirs due to the high winds on the upper part of the mountain which would routinely close a chair lift.
- Getting stalled on the Possum ski run and then having to use your poles to push yourself down. I wonder if they ever re-graded that run to make it less flat.
- The first and only time I ever got my Dad on the ski slopes.
- Butterfly Clamps. One year and only one year, these were a royal pain. (Begin Old Man voice) "Kids these days have no idea how good they have it, in my day...."(End Old Man voice).
- Upgrading to Step In Bindings. This was so nice.
- The Face. I only skied it once. I'm pretty sure I went down it a couple times, but I would not call those skiing. Falling maybe, but not skiing.
- The one trip to Camel Back Ski Resort and the sign "No rental skis beyond this point".
Wisp Ski Resort
- Wisp Ski Resort
- Deep Creek Lake
- McHenry, MD 21541
- Wisp Resort
- Mt Stats
- 611' Vertical Drop
- 23 Slopes
- Longest Slope is the Possum at 1.5 miles
A History of the Resort
History
Camel Back
Resort Home Page
Images
Sorry for the small pictures, but strangely I had zero pictures from all of our trips to Wisp and had to get all of these online. The first picture is how the hotel looked before the exterior renovation by Trisco Systems, and the second picture of the hotel with the orange x's is the new look. There are virtually no pictures of the hotel online so I would assume this was done a while ago and maybe during the 2003 renovation.
The resort has had some major expansions since the 80's as you can see from the photos. I could not find any images of what the slopes looked like before the expansions, nor any images of the infamous tow rope or poma lift.
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