Mountains of Fun

With 10 to 15 feet of snow annually, Savage River Lodge offers access to as many as 25 miles of trails through the forest during the winter. "Cross-country ski people want to get outdoors and into nature, and not where there are hundreds of people zooming by," Dreisbach says.

Lessons are available at Savage River Lodge, along with equipment rental (but call ahead to reserve), and for day visitors, there's a lean-to with a bonfire burning, for a warm spot to enjoy a picnic lunch. The daily user's fee is a bargain at $5, and the trails are free to overnight guests at the lodge.

"Cross-country skiing is not hard, and it's a nice aerobic activity," Dreisbach says. "This is an easy sport to learn -- it's almost like walking."

But Wait, There's More

Your appetite for winter fun is not awakened yet, you say? Familiar fare, this skiing and snowboarding? In that case, how about a water park?

Yes, a water park. Sometime this winter, Massanutten will open a 42,000-square-foot indoor water park, with six tube slides, a lazy river, water cannons, an 800-gallon tipping bucket, a special section for children and a surf simulator -- all of it under a vast, glass-walled pyramid so you can watch the snow fall while you disport in your Speedo.

At Snowshoe, you can swim through from the indoors to an outdoor heated pool, the resort's Mosby says. Add indoor water slides, hot tubs, a sauna, and, frankly, why bother going outside at all?

Well, you might be tempted to put your coat back on for the horse-drawn sleigh rides at Snowshoe. Or the guided snowmobile tours. Snowshoe's big new attraction this year, however, will keep you both warm and dry; it's the Big Top "family fun center," overstimulation heaven for the younger-than-18 set, all beneath a giant, permanent tent, fully enclosed and heated. Inside there will be a dance floor, pool and ping-pong tables, video games, a climbing wall, food, movie screenings and, Mosby says, Eurobungy: Imagine jumping on a trampoline while attached to a slingshot and you get the general idea.

Slip-Sliding Away

Snow tubing, in which you ride a large inner tube down an individual lane, has become a standard feature at many winter resorts, all the fun of sledding without the usual thrills -- trees, thinly iced waterways and the inevitable collision -- of the neighborhood sledding hill.

Massanutten has gone from four to nine tubing lanes and added a carpet lift (you just step on and ride up the hill). Liberty Mountain introduced tubing in 2002; this year the resort will increase the number of tubing lanes from eight to 10 or 12, Liberty's Penvose says, and has added a carpet lift and doubled the size of the lodge that serves the tubing area exclusively. The Pebble Ridge Kiddie Tubing Hill has been relocated, too; it's longer now, and more exciting, Penvose says. "Tubing is so popular," she says. "It doesn't take any skills, it's fun for the whole family and it's less expensive than going skiing."

For the traditionalist, there's good old-fashioned sledding to be had on a quarter-mile hill at Blackwater Falls State Park. With a rope tow to take you back to the top and sled rentals available on site, this is classic sledding with convenience.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the extreme sports crowd turned their attention to sledding, too. After all, sledding has always lent itself to hair-raising excesses: the cross-stream jump, the underbrush obstacle course, the how-many-kids-can-we-fit-on-a-toboggan. This year, Canaan Valley will become only the sixth resort in the country to offer the Airboard, an inflatable sled with a grooved underside that makes sharp turns and quick stops possible in a new sport dubbed "snow-bodyboarding."

"This is like old-fashioned sledding going high-tech," explains Bryan Brown, spokesman for Canaan Valley. "The Airboard is about the same size as a body board you would use at the ocean, but several inches thicker. You lie on your stomach, and there are handholds on either side of the sled."

Because it takes about an hour to get the hang of riding an Airboard, Brown says, "this year, we are going to require a fun, one-hour lesson for everyone renting one." Then you'll be in for quite a ride. "We'll be the first resort in the country to offer Airboarding with terrain park," Brown says. A dedicated snow-bodyboarding area on the slopes, separated by snow fencing from skiers and snowboarders, will have terrain features that will allow you to take your Airboard airborne. Barrel rolls, anyone?

At the opposite end of the adrenaline spectrum, Canaan is one of several locations -- including Snowshoe, Wisp, White Grass, Savage River Lodge and Blackwater Falls State Park -- where you can rent snowshoes for a peaceful back-country trek. Snowshoes, like all outdoor gear, have come a long way in convenience and comfort, and no longer bear much resemblance to the oversize wooden tennis rackets of snow-lodge decor cliche. "If you can walk, you can snowshoe" is the motto of modern snowshoeing, and when field and forest are blanketed in white, "it's just you and the wind and the snow," Mosby says. At Canaan Valley, you can even rent a Global Positioning System device and go midwinter geocaching -- following clues and GPS coordinates found on the Internet (visit http://www.geocaching.com/ ) to hidden caches that may contain all sorts of little treasures and fun surprises. For those in search of true relaxation, what could better top off a day on ski, sled or snowshoe than, say, an ayurvedic herbal body rebalancer? The Wintergarden Spa at Wintergreen has been expanded with its own locker rooms and more than double the treatment rooms (now 13), so you can be wrapped, rubbed, sweated, soaked and polished to perfection. Wisp opened a spa last year as well. The granddaddy of regional spas, however, has to be the Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., where Thomas Jefferson once eased his aches in the mineral springs, and you can, too. The full range of winter frolics -- including downhill, terrain park, cross-country, tubing, snowshoeing and snowmobile tours -- are there for you to choose from at the Homestead, but if the weather outside is frightful, wouldn't a sea soak be so delightful?

One more familiar winter sport that's less commonly available at resorts -- ice skating -- is also offered at the Homestead, in an Olympic-size outdoor rink, as well as at Canaan Valley, in a covered outdoor rink with a fireplace for warming fingers and toes.

Get Fleeced

And on that topic, a few final words on staying warm. I'm sure I'm not the only one with painful memories of snow days that ended in a misery of cold, wet clothes and frozen hands and feet.

"We have a phrase here -- 'There is no such thing as bad weather, only poorly dressed people,' " says Sandy Cohan, general manager of Hudson Trail Outfitters, which has multiple retail locations in the Washington area. "Most people who are not big fans of winter, it's because they are not prepared for it."

The key -- stop me if you've heard this before -- is layers, Cohan says. "It's the best way to insulate your body and regulate your temperature."

But layers aren't the whole story. Examine your winter wardrobe. Anything cotton, terminate with extreme prejudice. "Cotton products . . . absorb moisture -- that's why a towel is made out of cotton. If your foot perspires even the littlest bit, then you have a wet sock trying to insulate a cold foot."

Cohan recommends wool, silk and synthetic fabrics such as fleece, with good wicking properties to draw moisture from the body. On the outside, choose a fabric such as Gore-Tex that isn't just water-repellant, but also waterproof. There's a difference, he says.

"Breathability is what you want at every layer. We sell a system for insulation and breathability that is four-season. If it's cold, add a layer."

You can learn the latest on dressing warm by reserving a spot at Hudson Trail's upcoming "How to Dress for Cold Weather" class Nov. 30 at the Rockville, Tenley Circle, Pentagon Row and Fairfax locations.

Then, laugh at the chill. There's a winter waiting for you.

Caroline Kettlewell is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Weekend whose favorite winter sport, besides cocoa drinking, is ice skating. You can find her online at www.carolinekettlewell.com.