Wisp Is More Than Downhill Skiing!
Mad Men Lake House is a bona fide 4-season resort destination, so in addition to everything that Deep Creek Lake has to offer, just two miles down the road you’ll find recreation options that can keep you and your family busy for your entire stay! Wisp Resort has been the premier downhill skiing site in the tri-state region (MD, PA and WV) for over 65 years, but today it’s much more than that! But before we see what it is now, let’s first take a trip down memory lane to see how Wisp Resort all began!
History
The era of Mad Men is the same era Wisp first opened up! It was a midcentury winter in 1955-56 to be exact! Wisp Resort was founded by Mr.Helmuth M.G. Heise, a business man with a dream to turn Deep Creek Lake and the Marsh Mountain into a 4-season resort town! It took about ten years to bring snowmaking machines to the resort which extended ski season. The ski season of 1966-67 the new snow machines made for the best ski season yet. The 1970’s brought 16 more slopes, more lights and snowmakers. This was also the decade they put their first hotel at the bottom of Marsh Mountain. In 2001, Deep Creek Development purchased Wisp Resort and the Bear Claw Snow Tubing Park was added in 2001. Since then over $30 million in renovations and capital investment added to the Resort making it what it is today.
Winter Sports
Boasting 34 groomed trails and slopes for downhill skiing and snowboarding ranging from beginner to expert, Wisp also has slopes for snowtubing and trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Located on Marsh Mountain, Wisp enjoys over 100 inches of natural snow each winter. This is of course supplemented by their own snowmaking equipment, which improves the base and lengthens the ski season from early December through mid-March. Onthesnow.com shows total snowfall, maximum base depth, largest snowfall, total snowfall days, and average base depth at Wisp resort; the website includes a calendar view to show daily snowfall data for the current ski season. Wisp Resort has a total of 34 slopes and trails. The Front Side Trails include five trails marked “easy”, ten trails marked “more difficult”, and five trails marked “most difficult.” East Ridge Trails include one “more difficult” trail and five “most difficult” trails. North Camp Trails include five “easy” trails, three “more difficult” trails, and one “most difficult” trail. Wisp offers lessons for beginning skiers and snowboarders, and night skiing is available on 90% of the terrain Tuesdays thru Saturdays. Wisp was voted runner-up in the category “Best Year-Round Resort in the Mid-Atlantic” in a recent survey by DCSki.com.
Non-Winter Activities
With 172 acres of recreation space, Wisp also offers fun-packed adventures for the other three seasons of the year. Activities include their own white-water rafting course, two challenging 18-hole golf courses, three zip lines, kayaking, paddle boarding, mountain biking, Segway tours, archery, disc golf, scenic chair lift rides and orienteering. Whew! The resort also includes a Mountain coaster which is a hybrid of an alpine slide and a roller coaster. Coaster cars go 3,500 feet downhill over 350 vertical feet on the eastern side of Marsh Mountain.
Weddings
Interested in a mountain top wedding? Wisp offers several picturesque ceremony sites as well as space for the reception. For information, check here: https://wispresort.com/ceremonies/
For maps of the resort, for both the ski season and the non-ski season, check this link: https://wispresort.com/Brochures/
