Meathead East Coast Skiing Adventure Movies & Films

By: Geoff McDonald
Photos: Matt Stauble

When an opportunity presents itself, go for it.  That's basically what we learned from our so called "dirty south" urban trip to the Maryland/ Virginia area before Christmas. 

With a once-every-20-year storm hitting the central Appalachians, the Meat crew of Will, Andy, and Shea (skiing), Geoff and Ross (camera 1 & 2) and Matt Stauble (photos) headed into the unknown.  On December 18 the Weather Channel was making some epic predictions and our incredibly long drive down from VT took about 2 full days, dealing with busted tires, traffic, snow and crazy hillbillies.  Some areas received over 22" of snow (and this in spots where the average annual snowfall is just 2"!)

All the lug nuts fell off the wheel on the way down... almost died. Going to have to talk to the shop I brought it to the night before!!!

Loading up the Subie with the drop ramp

Shea and his new rims

Unfortunately, considering the long haul to get there, we only had about 2 days to shoot (everyone had to be back home by Christmas) and we definitely made the best of it we could.  Our first location was a banger and we had 4 different features getting set up when the campus cops came and rained on our parade.  Bummer!  We didn't even think they would know what skiing WAS down there and certaintly with the college closed for the semester, we didn't think we would be bothered.  Everyone began to think this trip might be trickier than we thought.

The Subaru headed through the heart of Appalachia

hiking up the drop ramp: Willy

Interview with a local trucker

Luckily at the end of our first day we found a pretty fun "kinky" rail that Will and Andy got some shots on.  Next stop was a spooky old insane asylum where in one of the towns that was absolutely inundated with snow (about 2 feet).  Set up the generator and got some night shots on a drop rail with a knob in the middle that you had to switch up around, plus Andy did some VERY wierd tricks off of it. See pictures.

Will hitting the first feature of the trip - a little fun kinky rail

WTF?

Shea is going Back To The Future

Next day was a bit of a crapshoot driving around the same town and finding not much, so we drove onward towards our original "final" destination of Lynchburg, VA.  Lynchburg is home to Liberty University that owns the year-round ski resort featured in Season 2 of the LINE Traveling Circus episodes.  The resort, having only been open for two years was experiencing it's first powder day ever!  The city is hilly, chock full of rails and had snow!  Perfect right?  Well kind of, lots of the rails we either not-doable or too small.  We did find a nice double rail line and built a fun late night butter pad right out in front of Liberty's museum.

The group in front of Liberty University's museum

Probably the biggest rail Shea has ever done. Actually this was part of a line...

Will makes friends with the police

Andy next to his ride of choice: The Meat Mobile

With time dwindling the next day, we banged out a few more sweet shots, filmed some epic local interviews and got the hell out of dodge just in time for Christmas.  The Dirty South tour was defintely an adventure and we'll be back just as soon as they get snow again in another 20 years!  Seriously though, hopefully not too long...

Shea saying stupid stuff to the camera

Shea, Will and Andy hiding inside an incredibly creepy section of the abandoned insane asylum