Whitetail Resort is located just over the Mason-Dixon Line in Pennsylvania. But sitting at just 1.3 miles over the border, Maryland skiers flock there. This in-depth analysis is meant to analyze each trail so everyone, beginner to professional, will know what to expect when skiing Whitetail.
Unlike Wisp, there are no official nicknames for sections of the mountains. However, skiers have invented their own that can be helpful. Launching Pad, Northern Lights, Almost Home, and Velvet are referred to as “bunny slopes” while Sidewinder, Snowpark, Ledgewood, and Stalker make up “the greens.” Angel Drop, Fanciful, Snow Dancer, Home Run, and Limelight make up “the blues” and Farside, Exhibition, and Bold Decision make up “the backside” or just “the black diamonds.” Whitetail is great at opening runs quickly, so they generally open around the same time. In person, most of the trails look steeper than they are. I remember being terrified to try the blues as a novice skier, but after I tried them once, they became my favorite runs.
Green Circle. Beginner Level
Blue Square. Intermediate Level
Black Diamond. Advanced Level
Launching Pad: Serviced by a moving carpet and used in ski school.
Ledgewood: A big loop that lengthens a run down Snowpark. The top curve is closer to a blue than a green in steepness, but below the curve is very flat. There is a cut-through to Velvet not shown on the map.
Northern Lights: The flattest trail. Serviced by a slow quad chair for people unfamiliar with chair lifts. Great for first-timers.
Sidewinder: Sidewinder and Snowpark are considered a step up from the other greens. Sidewinder is flatter than Snowpark and it also has natural snow for experienced skiers on the skier’s left of the trail. All of the blues funnel into it, so it gets crowded. At least among people I know, their flagship green.
Snowpark: Some resorts might consider it an easy blue. It’s long and wide, so it’s great for practicing turns.
Almost Home: A bunny slope that sometimes has flat boxes for young kids to ski over, like in a terrain park.
Velvet: Another bunny slope serviced by its own slow chair. Perfect for beginners.
Stalker: One of the last trails to open. It cuts a turn off of Snowpark by skiing down a slightly steeper face.
Angel Drop-Lower: The terrain park. I’m not a huge terrain park junky, but the few times I’ve been in there it’s very impressive. They have something for everyone.
Angel Drop-Upper: An access trail to get to the black diamonds, the terrain park, and Home Run. Usually becomes ungroomed and bumpy at the end of the day because of higher traffic. Usually one of the first blues to open.
Bob Small’s Traverse: A short way out of the terrain park that I assume was made to honor some guy named Bob Small.
Drop Out: I don’t think most people know this trail exists. A little chute through the woods. The only trail I know of that can feasibly be skied in both directions.
Fallmount: It would be a green if it didn’t take a challenging black diamond to get to it. The bottom is very flat, almost cross-country skiing. It connects the bottom of the black diamonds with the lodge. It closes at night because it isn't lit. The boulders and creeks on the side are very pretty.
Fanciful and Snow Dancer: These two are very similar and the bread-and-butter trails at Whitetail. They are very long and wide, and are on the upper-end in terms of steepness on blues. They are kept groomed.
Home Run: Upper Angel Drop forks right into the terrain park and left into this run. It’s the easiest of the blues in the center of the map and offers a route down Upper Angel Drop without entering the Terrain Park.
Limelight: This trail is also similar to Snow Dancer and Fanciful, but it has an ungroomed natural snow section with short brush and trees to the left of the chairlift that can be fantastic with enough snow. Forms a natural funnel into the middle that can get icy.
Ridge Runner: A short cut-through that dumps onto Upper Angel Drop from the top of the black diamonds. The skier’s right has some of the most accessible woods skiing at Whitetail.
Bold Decision: Whitetail’s steepest trail. It gets icy quickly and is sometimes put as a double black diamond on trail maps. It is regularly groomed. It slopes really heavily to the skier’s right where there is a ditch, so stick to the left.
Drop In: This trail is underrated. It’s longer than the map portrays and the bottom is probably the second-steepest terrain on the mountain. It can also get bumpy quicker, but because it faces away from the sun for most of the day, the powder stays fresh.
Exhibition: Whitetail’s signature black diamond. When it’s groomed it is more similar to Limelight or Snow Dancer, but it always has large moguls. There isn’t much room for non-mogul skiers.
Farside: Usually the last trail to open. A groomed version of Exhibition. There are also some accessible tree lines along the skier’s left. Good for skiers looking to move off the blues but haven't quite mastered black diamonds.
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