Timberline or Canaan Valley?
February 22, 2005
20 posts
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My wife and I are planning a long weekend skiing trip and are looking for advice on a place to go. Specifically, we are very attracted to the Canaan Valley/Timberline area due to its high elevation and long trails. However, this is our first skiing season in the area so we don't know much about the local resorts. We have visited Whitetail and Ski Liberty and enjoyed these, despite the crowds!
Can anyone offer advice as to which of these resorts would be better for advanced intermediate skiers. We are very comfortable on just about any blue hill and I am comfortable on the easier advanced slopes. We would like a place that would challenge us but where we could enjoy long runs as well.
Thanks in advance!
If you're going on a long weekend, ski both!
Both areas should suit you fine. If you decide to ski both, ski CV on Saturday bcause it's always less crowded than TL.
jimmy
I forgot to mention. It seems that it is cheaper to buy a multi-day pass to one resort rather than ski both, that is why we were looking into which is better.
I don't like to say one's better because they're different. My preference is TL. Canaan has less vertical and no "expert" terrain, but the meadows, trails like spruce run & gravity line can be a good challenge. CV is a great cruising mountain. TL is more vertical, no wide cruisers like valley vista @ CV.
I understand the multi day ticket catch; if you can swing the extra bucks for your first trip to the valley, I have to agree w/roger z, ski them both. If not, I'll recommend Timberline
jimmy
I guess given your self-description I'd mildly go in favor of Canaan. T-line is cool but Canaan isn't quite as steep and they have some unique terrain... the Glades, the Meadows, and Spruce Run are all pretty neat to check out. Also they pretty much have an open mountain policy: you can ski wherever there's snow. So that means you can make all sorts of loops down the main slope: skiing down the Vista trail to the main run underneat the triple over to the beginners run via an unmarked meadow, or cruising Ramble or taking one of the innumberable cutoffs on the mountain between runs. Canaan skis bigger than it is.
But really, try to get to both mountains: they're very different. If you're worried about $$$ at all, go to Whitegrass for your third day and rent some X-C skis. Even if you've never done it before, it's easy to pick up and Whitegrass is the most unique experience in the Mid Atlantic, period. The people, the atmosphere, the attitude: way cool.
If you have the time, I would ski CV, Tline, and WG. Three uniquely different ski areas.
You use to be able to buy a lift ticket that could be used at both CV & Tline. Does anyone know if they still do this? If so, where can you purchse them?
Pay the extra money and ski both resorts + WG. In skiing, variety is the spice of life and worth the extra dollars.
CV to cruise - TL for challenge.
CV Season pass holder here so a little biased. I would echo previous sentiment however. CV is an 850 vertical (50 feet of it just getting from the lodge to the lifts--hurtful hill to hike) with no serious steeps compared to TL's 1000 feet and their double black runs. CV's got great hills for the high intermediate to expert but anybody looking for serious pitch may be disappointed. While it's terrain isn't quite as agressive, there are a lot of positives. Very seldom more than a 2-3 minute lift wait (crowds much smaller than TL), great warming hut on the green side, awesome family atmosphere (not a lot of cut throat wild powder hounds), and the terrain is so varied. Always loved the design layout of the mountain...so many connectors to take multiple routes down.
I do the season pass there with my family and when my oldest son and I want an afternoon on the wild side we go over for a half day at TL for a little OTW.
Going up again this Friday night...life is good!!!
On the previous comment regarding the ticket that would allow you to ski both resorts...yup they had it. It was called a "Ski The Valley" ticket but it was discontinued a number of years ago. Not sure why---possible the revenue sharing became an issue for the two resorts. Too bad...it was great as a weekend sampler.
I just wanted to say thank you to DC Ski. I got my magnet and pins yesterday. I am now officially a member. I feel like on Animal House when the pledges recieved there pins........"Dorfman, from now on you Delta Ti name will be...Flounder"..............LONG LIVE DC SKI AND THANKS TO PHIL THE GROUNDHOG
skiTLINE - Your showing your age!!!!
Wasn't Animal House popular in the late 70's early 80's.
Just giving you a hard time...from a 42 yr old who remembers..
will be 33 next wednesday. feeling the creeks start. used to be 3-4 days skiing wasnt a big deal. now i weed a weeks vacation to recover.
skiTline,
uh... I'm 41 and I don't really feel those creaks and groans. The big trick is if you're going to do some long ski trips (7+ days), the cross-training needs to start a least 3 months before
I do cardio year-round but I really focus on the biking and leg lifts as the season approaches. Another thing that seems to help me is using the "Sport Legs" product which is a calcium lactate. It's supposed to counter-act the lactic acid that builds in the muscles during hard exercise (mogules, deep powder, etc
)
-Warren-
thanks for the tip Warren. can i mich that lactate stuff with vodka? maybe a little cocktail?
no, i really shoyuld work harder in the offseason. i am going to try and bike more this spring,summer, and fall to get ready for 05-06 season.
Quote:
thanks for the tip Warren. can i mich that lactate stuff with vodka? maybe a little cocktail?
no, i really shoyuld work harder in the offseason. i am going to try and bike more this spring,summer, and fall to get ready for 05-06 season.
Mix that stuff with vodka and you'll have a really dirty martini 
.
I 48 for the first time and it's the same thing every year; next year I'm not going to ski myself into shape, just stubborn, i guess.
Going to TLine late next week for 4 days. Where can I buy the "sports legs" I'll try it. Then i'll let you guys know how it tastes with Vodka
As for next year..... Well, jimmy and I have a lot in common!!!
Bkenviro - my vote goes to CV because of some flak I took from TL's patrol. Basically, I got yelled at for wearing earphones while skiing (hey, I LIKE skiing with tunes!). The patroller was very abrupt and condescending. He threatened to kick me off the slopes and take my lift ticket if he saw me skiing with earphones again. I will admit, however, that this was quite a number of years ago so TL's patrol may have mellowed. I sure hope so. Man, that guy had issues!
Rick,
It's sold from web. The URL is (surprisingly enough)
Sport Legs Check it out.
-Warren-
I thought I would report on my Pres. Day Weekend Trip to the Canaan Valley. We ended up taking many people's advice and checking out both resorts. Canaan was not crowded at all (went on Saturday). Though that is not hard to believe considering at least 1/2 of the mountain and most of what seemed to be the good trails were closed. None-the-less, my wife and I enjoyed skiing the runs off Upper Canaan Curve and Upper Spruce. The start of the day was extremely hecktic with nearly an hour wait to buy our lift ticket then that tiring climb just to get to the lifts! The rest of the day was awesome and the conditions were nearly perfect. Though, we did get a bit bored by the end day.
Sunday was, as people predicted, quite different. We headed to Timberline where we were greeted with relative calm and no wait to buy our lift passes. We quickly found a change machine for quarters for our locker (a difficult feat at Canaan) and we were on our way to the slopes. That was the only relaxing for the entire day. We were then greeted by line upon line upon line. Our average lift line wait was at least 15 minutes. And it took us at least as long to find a table for lunch. We were excited for more skiing options due to the deeper base, but were dismayed by the conditions. We did learn how to ski steep ice punctuated by large mounds of "powder". To the credit of Timberline, they definately have more challenging slopes. Though it is hard to compare since 1/2 of Canaan was closed.
I think we will stick to Canaan on our next trip to the Canaan Valley (assuming they have enough snow to stay open!).
As an aside, we staid at the Ladybug B&B in Davis. You can't beat $50 a night including breakfast, hot shower, and comfortable bed. Janie, Charlie and their dog Brutus were excellent hosts.
Thanks for all your advice!
