The storm is underway as I make this first post at 12:15pm from Wild and Wonderful Canaan Valley, WV. ROCK AND ROLL, BABY! Area is in for 20" for sure, possibly 30" over the next 36 hours. It started snowing about 10:45AM today 1/22/16. It's breezy and about 15 degrees on the slopes. I made about a dozen runs this morning. Tomorrow should be awesome powder, Sunday too.
The gorgeous remade Canaan Valley Lodge is going to be my home away from home for the next three days. Where better to ride out The Big One!
WV liftie geared up for a serious weather event:
Crowds are light, but the ski school is on the hill giving lessons.
The groomers are out in force. Mike Chaney, mtn manager says, "all slopes open tomorrow." And I believe it. A lot are close to being open now. For natural snow, they expect ~6" today, a foot tonight and a foot tomorrow.
Part of my gang on the hill. DCSki columnist Matthew Graham on right. This is after the snow started and visibility starting to decline.
I'll try to keep posting more in this thread as storm unfolds and internet stays connected. YOWSA YOWSA YOWSA!
JimK wrote:
The storm is underway...... the next three days. Where better to ride out The Big One!
The mark of a truly experienced local veteran skier
Nice move and I would be there too but for a previous commitment that has me here until late night. Sunday is fixed for Seven Springs but Monday might find me at T-line with my daughter.
Camp, I am shocked how many from DC and Balt have braved the storm and are flooding the valley still at 7PM. Powder frenzy at it's finest. There's still only about 6-7" new today, but it's howling out and snow picking up at 8PM.
Veteran Canaan Valley ski instructor Ray LaMora gave some in my group a lesson today. I had a heartwarming conversation with him at lunch in the slopeside Quencher's Pub. As we talked I realized Ray had given my son Vince and daughters Suzy & Colleen a lesson many years ago at Canaan Valley. It was actually 11 years ago! When I told him Vince had since progressed from an intermediate 14 year old skier to a PSIA Level III instructor at age 24 he beamed. I told Ray that he and a handful of other instructors Vince took lessons from as a youngster influenced him in a beautiful way to aspire to something higher, entering the skilled and selfless fraternity of ski instructors.
Ray LaMora:
CV Ski Shop rental personnel fixing me up with a pair of high quality demo skis for Saturday morning powder day. These are rockered Romp skis, 100mm underfoot, and 183cms in length. No excuses tomorrow if I don't do some pillaging!
4PM view of Canaan Valley Lodge, snow storm full on by this point
X-C skiing with my wife Kathy (pictured here) at nearby Canaan Valley State Park. I think I was about 21 years old the last time I did downhill and X-C on the same day :-o Gonna sleep good tonight.
Beech and Sugar only reported 3"-4" today with similar estimates for tomorrow. The footage precicted has fizzled out to inchage. Glad I didn't skip work today over that.. Bosses were actually quite needy today so I earned my keep and reminded them of my value to the company. Wasn't meant to be. That said, I'd still enjoy skiing inchage almost as much as footage. Hoping that bottle of Ullr sacrifice I saw John, Jimmy, and co partaking in via another post is not in vain.
Go Snow Miser!!
I set a personal record today. 49th consecutive ski season in the mid-Atlantic and this is the deepest snow I've ever skied East of the Mississippi; a legit 24". It got better as it got tracked out. I hit the hill for first tracks at 8AM. What a day to do that. Spent quite a bit of time skiing with patrollers. Here are a few quick mid-day photos before I go out for more snow play. Will try to post more later.
Patroler Mike, a great guy and fine veteran skier:
Random snowboarder who volunteered to show me how deep the snow was:
Patroler Paul, this kind of snow is so rare for the mid-Atlantic. You have to go for it while you can!
Awesome morning!!!
WEEE! Beech and Sugar were up around a foot give ro take this morning. Still coming down lighly here..
Congratulations Jim and Matthew - you are true skiers! Terrific article! Thanks for sharing the photos.
Most of us at home are really snowed in -our cars are literally buried. Sunday should be a good day to ski and sleigh ride in the neighborhood, but the ski areas will be great! Be careful driving home and take an extra snow day from work. Connie Lawn
Planning on getting to Timberline around 10:00 Sun AM. Any other DCSkiers going to be there? I'll have on my mostly bright red with white accents jacket.
The Colonel
Planning on getting to Timberline around 10:00 Sun AM. Any other DCSkiers going to be there? I'll have on my mostly bright red with white accents jacket.
The Colonel
Connie Lawn wrote:
Congratulations Jim and Matthew - you are true skiers! Terrific article! Thanks for sharing the photos.
Most of us at home are really snowed in -our cars are literally buried. Sunday should be a good day to ski and sleigh ride in the neighborhood, but the ski areas will be great! Be careful driving home and take an extra snow day from work. Connie Lawn
WISH YOU WERE HERE CONNIE!
BEST, JIM AND MATTHEW
More photos from two foot powder day at Canaan Valley Ski Resort on 1/23/16
There are friends on a powder day...the Canaan Valley Ski Patrol!
Another fun shot of Patroler Paul
Yours truly on Gravity trail, second pass.
My friend Matthew Graham on one of CV's pretty wooded runs.
Matthew again.
My darling wife took me snowshoeing after the morning powder bashing. The CV Recreation Center behind rents these and X-C ski equipment.
Hope to go to Timberline on Sunday.
Check out these pics from Timberline, WV today, 1/24/16. Great snow and gorgeous sunshine. I'll do a proper post tomorrow recapping an amazing weekend. I'm now back home in NoVa and there's lots of snow to shovel:-(
Canaan Valley- Jonas Recap:
I had an extraordinarily excellent time based out of the Canaan Valley Resort Lodge, arriving Thursday afternoon and departing Sunday afternoon, 1/21-24, 2016. I enjoyed three great days of skiing, two at Canaan Valley Ski Area (five mins from CV Lodge) and one at Timberline Ski Area (15 mins from CV Lodge).
Officially the Valley got 28.5” of snow from Winter Storm Jonas. It snowed more or less continually from 1045AM on Friday to 8PM Saturday.
This was a challenging natural event. The CV Lodge staff kept a great attitude through it all. Many stayed in the lodge one or two nights to keep us guests happy rather than attempt to go home in the storm. The Lodge had pretty strong occupancy all things considered, but we could have stayed another night if need be. They had a senior rate going during our visit for $69 per night. They were offering a nice discount for all guests requesting to extend their existing reservations to stay an extra night during the storm. The Restaurant and Bar stayed open and served a varied and generous buffet each night for dinner, which was well attended.
Beautiful Canaan Valley Lodge lobby, product of a $34 million renovation:
The free shuttle bus from the lodge to CV ski area kept running continuously through the weekend. The roads were kept reasonably clear and I drove myself short distances all three days (Fri, Sat, Sun), but used the shuttle twice during the height of the storm on Saturday. It took me 3.5 hours to get home to Northern VA on Sunday afternoon. Not bad, only about 30 mins longer than normal.
It was a weekend of firsts for me, which is saying something since I’ve skied the mid-Atlantic for 49 consecutive seasons with probably more than 600 local ski days in the region. I had never been onsite to ski as much as 2+ feet of snow before at a mid-Atlantic ski area. The only time I have ever skied through a deeper snow event was about 30 inches in 30 hours during a ski-week in Aspen in 1991. There were no lift lines all weekend at CV and tolerable ones at T-Line on an absolutely primo Sunday.
Saturday I participated in a “First Tracks” program at Canaan Valley and got guided around the mtn from about 8AM to 930AM by several friendly members of the Ski Patrol. Never done that before. We got first tracks in 24” of snow on a beautiful section of black diamond Gravity trail. Very Utah-ish!! On Sunday I got the opportunity to observe an instructor clinic conducted by Timberline Ski School Technical Director Mike Cavalaro from approx 8-915AM. I have no instructor background and had never done a clinic like this before either. It was a very cool experience and gave me a little glimpse of the significant effort instructors make to become pros. I also got some good technique tips out of it:-) Mike C. is an exceptional teacher/communicator; clear, direct, persuasive and always on target with his analysis.
Instructor clinic with Mike Cavalaro on the Timberline summit, elevation 4268':
My wife, a “retired” downhill skier, had a great time too. We went X-C skiing on Friday afternoon and snowshoeing Sat and Sun afternoons, all in the beautiful Canaan Valley State Park. She came home really enthused about snowshoeing and wants to buy some so we can explore our temporarily wintry neighborhood.
Canaan Valley is gorgeous, especially when it’s buried in deep fresh snow. In addition to the Canaan Valley Ski area a visitor to the region can also enjoy the thrills and unique character of Timberline downhill ski area and White Grass Nordic Ski Center. All three are within about 15 minutes of each other. There is a synergy with these three adjacent winter recreational venues. They complement each other with a variety of snow-play options in an alpine-like environment that is hard to beat in the mid-Atlantic.
On Sunday I went to Timberline ski area which has some great advanced ski terrain. With a little help from my friends I found the goods! (Another mid-Atlantic first: I had a couple wipeouts in bottomless powder type conditions this trip. One in particular in Timberline's Cherry Bowl Glade where the left side of my body was buried so deep in snow I could not free my left ski. I was still in my bindings in both skis. Fortunately my buddy Jimmy came along in a couple minutes and helped dig me out!)
Jimmy:
John:
David:
Matt:
One last view of The Valley just before heading home, 1/24/16:
Nice report. The Valley should be in good shape. We hope to be at T-line on Saturday.
Does the CV lodge provide transportation to the CV Ski Area, shuttle bus, or do you have to drive from the lodge to the ski resort?
crgildart wrote:
Does the CV lodge provide transportation to the CV Ski Area, shuttle bus, or do you have to drive from the lodge to the ski resort?
CV Lodge runs a bus continuously between the Lodge, the CV ski area, the cabins, and the recreation center (cc skiing, snowshoes) during times the CV Ski Area is open. The lodge features gift shop, cafe, lounge/bar, dining room, indoor pool/hot tub/sauna complex, game room, Internet, and ice skating. But more importantly, the lodge and all CV State Park facilities feature the most friendly and helpful employees you could ever hope to find! Be sure to ask for Vanessa to serve you breakfast in the dining room, she will put a smile on your face no matter what ails you! Tell her "Morgan" said to ask for her.
The Colonel
Thanks for the kind words. We have passed them along to Vanessa. We are fortunate that Vanessa has chosen to work at Canaan Valley Resort for many years, and many of our guests have told us how much they love her enthusiasm”¦and her terrific smile. As you can imagine, our entire staff was crazy busy during the Storm Jonas, and they worked hard to accommodate guests’ needs throughout the weekend. We are so proud of them. We heard many positive comments about their dedication and hospitality. We are delighted that you chose to ride out the storm with us, Colonel, and we look forward to welcoming you many more times. Until next time”¦happy skiing!
Piggybacking from Jim's report. I rode on Monday and had a blast. It was my first time at Canaan and really enjoyed it. Sun and temps near 40. I never had to wait more than 1 or 2 chairs to get on the lift. Here are some pictures from the day.
Amazing customer services at Timberline Sunday. Messaged on Facebook to ask why only one lift running and got a response in 5 minutes. Explained lines were long and it needed attention. After several back and forth messages, the customer service person said the owners were shifting people around to open the second lift... Great response to my messages!
Canaan Valley Resort wrote:
Thanks for the kind words. We have passed them along to Vanessa. We are fortunate that Vanessa has chosen to work at Canaan Valley Resort for many years, and many of our guests have told us how much they love her enthusiasm”¦and her terrific smile. As you can imagine, our entire staff was crazy busy during the Storm Jonas, and they worked hard to accommodate guests’ needs throughout the weekend. We are so proud of them. We heard many positive comments about their dedication and hospitality. We are delighted that you chose to ride out the storm with us, Colonel, and we look forward to welcoming you many more times. Until next time”¦happy skiing!
Canaan Valley Resort,
Great job with the terrain park. Due to the recent upgrades to the terrain park, my family and I have skied CVR more this season and last season than we have in the last 15yrs. Keep up the good work.
Jim I stuck a few clips with you in them together because you seem to always be the one with the camera. Nothing fancy, just some unedited helmet cam stuff.
*that's JohnL first on OTW
Hey Dr. Dave. Thanks!
Was at Snowbird today for a 15" powder day with Vince. You wouldn't believe the amazing number of hard chargers that show up for a powder day at Snowbird, esp a Saturday. Doing all kinds of hairy chutes. I felt like the geezer I am. They were blowing by me on all sides. The place is a mecca for strong skiers and boarder, no doubt.
Got to second that on the terrain park. A 15' rail, the 10' cannon, the 15' c-box, and 3 jumps all lift served. Re-shaped and groomed up on Wednesday for the weekend. Thanks Canaan Valley Resort!!!
Got an email today regarding Canaan Valley season passes for 2016-17 :
Individual skiers... enjoy the hill for the whole season for just $199... rate for everyone through April 15, 2016... is available online
