As there has been discussion regarding fly-in ski resorts here lately, I
thought I'd share our experience with Bryce resort
http://www.bryceresort.com/skiing.html and
http://www.airnav.com/airport/VG18 .

The weather in Virginia today was incredible, so Suzanne and I decided to
load our skis into one of the club 172s and head up to Bryce. It is a
quaint ski resort with a paved 2240' runway within easy walking distance to
the ski area. Fitting 195cm skis in a 172 required a little wriggling, but
we got them in.

Here is a video clip of our landing...
http://www.johnnyhouse.com/images/bryce_approach.mpg (17mb, most of which is
alternator whine

The approach is interesting for me as the landing strip is nestled in a
little valley, and when jagging around that chalet on the right we are lower
than their windows. The winds get a little squirrelly in there too (that's
my story and I'm sticking to it!)

There is an interesting little library slash pilot check-in building next to
the tiedown area. I think it's hours are 10-2; they have high speed
internet access which I used to check the weather and to adjust the plane
schedule since we were going to be there longer than I had originally
anticipated. Also there was a pilot sign-in book with envelopes requesting
a $5 landing fee which I gladly paid - they had plowed that whole runway and
tiedown area and we were the ONLY transient plane there that day. They also
have a neat used book selection; Suzanne was perusing and purchasing books
while I was on the computer.

As I fetched my skis from the plane, a helpful gentleman walked out to see
if he could be of assistance. He was the one who had done the plowing and
seemed almost grateful the runway was seeing use. I commented it was an
"interesting approach" and his reply surprised me; "It's no trouble for
students because their skills are fresh; it's the thousand plus hour pilots
used to flying into big fields who have difficulty". Interesting!

We opted to use the half day lift tickets ($35 / person as opposed to $43)
as the 60kt headwinds caused us to get there far later than we expected (but
we sure got home fast!). Before we skied, we ate lunch at the Ascent
restaurant. Our burnt burgers arrived 45 minutes after we ordered them, but
because we were pressed for time we hurriedly ate them anyway and headed for
the slopes.

Their 2 chair lifts must be circa 1950; they are quite slow compared to the
detached quads we've grown accustomed to at other resorts. We skied most of
their 8 slopes and had a great time. The conditions were good and they do
an excellent job of maintaining the slopes. It's not a black diamond
wonderland by any means but is a fun place to build skills.

Leaving ourselves with ample daylight, we hopped back into our little plane
and headed home. We had to make a climbing circle to gain sufficient
altitude to leave the valley, and the climb out was quite bumpy - but the
ride at altitude was like sitting in an easy chair.

We look forward to our next visits - there will definitely be many more!