ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 1, 1996 TAG: 9601020021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: DAVID BARUDIN
Bryce Resort is celebrating its 30th ski season, operating under what its general manager, Manfred Locher, considers a simple and successful philosophy: Keep the lift lines short and the slopes uncrowded.
``Bryce is a small, family-oriented operation,'' said Locher, who joined the resort in 1966, its second season. ``We don't have an aggressive advertising program and we don't take ski groups on weekends. So, lift lines are kept short and slopes stay uncrowded for our club members and guests.''
The resort is located off Interstate 81 in the Shenandoah Valley near Bayse.
The attraction Bryce holds for skiing families, especially those with young children, is obvious as soon as you slide off the chairlift atop 1,750-foot Bryce Mountain to sample the 30 acres of groomed trails.
From the gently curving ski trails, to the SKIwee program for kids 4 to 7, to the variety of competitive clinics and junior races, Bryce ranks among the best in the region for a family ski vacation.
My 9-year-old daughter and her two girlfriends wouldn't budge from Redeye Slope all day when I visited Bryce. The resort's other six trails were within their skiing ability as game novices. But as hard as I tried to pry them away, the girls wouldn't abandon Redeye, which they had become attached to like a lovable pony.
As I watched them disappear down the hill, with their colorful scarves trailing behind their wide grins, it struck me that for 30 years Bryce's remarkable success as a family ski area has hinged in large part on the charm Redeye holds for young skiers.
Redeye is among the best-designed ``easier'' runs in the Mid-Atlantic region. Its gently pitched and carpet-smooth long elbows and lower twists deposit youngsters out of the main traffic of the large, common bowl where all the trails converge.
After skiing down Redeye, kids go directly onto a double chairlift - one of two serving the mountain - that takes them back up for their next run. In the process, kids new to the sport get to experience the excitement of skiing off the top of the mountain. At Bryce, children know they can navigate Redeye in their gliding wedge. This builds their confidence, something all skiers need to tackle more challenging slopes.
Teen-agers, also, find plenty of variety squeezed into the 500-foot vertical drop of Bryce Mountain. The 3,000-foot trails require all the skills of a developing skier.
Despite its compactness, the ski area boasts a fun-to-ski variety of bends and angles and fall-line speed hills that will hold a teen-ager's interest.
Renowned slope designer Sepp Kober, ski director at the Homestead, laid out Bryce's popular runs, Bootlegger and Revenuer, 30 years ago with young skiers in mind. Since then, White Lightning, a sweeping swift descent, was added, along with a steep cross-trail called Hangover. Locher Bowl is the newest slope, coming on line last season. Bryce was Virginia's second ski resort, opening behind The Homestead.
Located 11 miles west of the Mount Jackson exit off I-81, 160 miles north of Roanoke, Bryce's 2,500 acres are pleasing and picturesque in their natural simplicity. You drive in alongside the golf course that shares a 1,250-foot alpine valley with a half-mile long airstrip.
Dotting the surrounding mountainsides are some of the resort's 750 single-family chalets and more than 200 condos and townhouses, which include 100 time-share units, all within one mile of the ski lifts.
Around one of the last curves of the access road you see the ski trails rising from the lodges and slope-side chalets and tennis courts.
The homes and lots are owned by Bryce's 450 family club members.
They govern the resort with a controlled-growth philosophy that helps maintain the natural setting and the uncrowded lift lines. Most of the members live in Northern Virginia, and several take advantage of the runway to fly in for ski weekends. Some three-quarters of the member families have young children.
For parents, the setting is idyllically self-contained, a place where no child will get lost or bored. Unlike many larger ski areas, it is easy for parents to watch kids ski from the wide sun decks outside the lodge and cafeteria or from the picture windows of the restaurant and lounge.
I kicked off my skis next to the sun decks and joined a mix of day and overnight skiers and Bryce club members who were hobnobbing in the afternoon sun, watching their children on the slopes. Several told me they learned to ski here as kids when their parents brought them on family vacations some 25 years ago.
David Barudin lives in Roanoke and frequently writes about one of his favorite sports, skiing.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Many parents bring their youngsters to the spotby CNBwhere they learned to sk more than 25 years ago. color