Madeline and I just returned form another weekend at our new favorite spring skiing destination... We skied T-line saturday and CV sunday. A detailed review follows.. The short wrap up: Excellent snow conditiosn both palces. Every square foot of terrain is skiable at each place. Call in sick tomorrow. Serioously, do it--this means you John Sherwood.


The Snow at T-Line was even better than last weekend. It look like they had recieved a few inches of snow almost every day this past week. The drop was better coverd this weekend. I got into the glades at a few places, like off of the drop and in some of the marked glades. Every square foot of the mountian was skiable and there was no "shady cover" at all.

Sunday, I got my first try at Cannan Valley. The snow was sweet as 4 more inches fell during the night. Madeline and I skied the whole mountain except timber trail. The meadows were sweet and there was plenty of untracked all day. On my last run I found the glades off of meadow 3 where looked to be in good shape.. too bad I didn't get in there in time.

The meadows are probably the best trails on the mountain. Gravity is nice too. The nastar course had the best snow of the groomers. Another out of the way trail called weis's chute or some such was also a favorite. Its right next to the lower section of the park... Its short and there is just enough room for about 5 hop turns on a double fall line through the soft snow. It holds snow well and gets plenty of windpack. Deffiantly a unique challenge at this "easy" mountain.

Someone mentioned DSOTM as a favorite trail... This is a black diamond right? IMO the trail is way too flat to be a black or to leave as a powder run... It really should be groomed but if they groomed it it would be a green so ... yeah its ass. There are a couple of nice sectiosn where you can link maybe 5 turns through powder before straight lining yet another flat section. The its bad when you have to hike up the 2-3 little hills in the middle of a down hill trail through 12 inches of untracked. The meadows have the same problem of an uphill traverse, however the slopes themselves have room for more linked turns so its more worth it. And they don't suffer from the worst feature of DSOTM... the lack of a lift back to the top...

Perhaps this is the time to mention a more fundamental probelem with Cannan... trail lay out. I guess it sbecuse its a state run place but I doubt the trail lay out was "designed" in any serious way. After taking DSOTM down to what I will call the "back side" of the mountain your only lift option is to take the short beginnner lift up about 200 vertical before traversing back to the "front side" where you can take the lift back to the summit. This I consider to be one long traverse both the DSOTM trail and the lift ride. And every single trail is accessed by a traverse since when you get off the main quad (the only open lift to the top) you are put immeditely into a traverse to skiers left and from there more traverses probably will await... and then once at the bottom you have to travers back to the lift. I think I spent one minute of traverse for every minute of down hill time all day.

Cannan has a distinctly more resort like feel than T-line. This is a good thing. The resort its self is more well developed than T-Line. They have parking attendants to ge the case lined up in an efficient manner.. nicer lodges, clean bathrooms, and much better food service... T-Line is a nice ski hill with a shanty town and condos at the bottom. Cannan at least makes a valid attempt to be a real resort with minimum amenities.

The biggest complaint was the massive lift stopages at Cannan... Sometimes the left stoppped 5 or more times durning one trip up... Its ridiculous... You spend more time waiting on the lift some numb nuts to put his skis back on than you do riding the moving lift. This began at 10AM and increased throughout the day. Ugh...

The coverage was awesome at CV too. I poked arround in some trees off to skiers right of gravity. There were opened patches and nice deep snow but there was alot of undergrowth. That hill could benefit from some pruning.

I might come back soemtime when the meadows are open as they are sweet and worth the hassle of getting to... Other than that... I will probably not be coming back. The lift situation and the traverses are just too annoying.

I'll put-up a good Timberline report as soon as I wipe the satiated grin off my face.

The only negative part of the entire weekend was being stuck on Silver Queen Sunday afternoon.

Yeah, I was on the silverqueen when they had to do an auxillary power evacuation yesterday. The lifts at timberline suck!!! They are slow, they always break down, and to add injury to insult they drip grease on you when you ride them. I wonder if anyone from management has ever ridden one of there delapadated lifts?

Man, what an example of difference in skier taste's Tromano. Your complaint about the trail layout at CV- that's my favorite part! I LOVE the way it feels like it was put together hodge-podge. The result of all those traverses are that there are endless little cutoffs and switchbacks and twists that can take you in a whole host of directions. Did you ski under the triple chair? It's not an official run but when there's snow it's never officially closed either.

DSOTM used to be one of my favorite runs, but not anymore. I still like it in that it takes you out of the way, but back in the day- did you see that narrow little strip right next to the run on skiers' left? That used to be the whole run. The first drop came down on a trail about fifteen feet wide, and then you skied out onto a flat open meadow, only to plunge back into the woods in a slightly narrower and steeper drop than the first one. Then that popped you back out into a final field before turning right onto the beginners' lift. The experience was magical- from going through this gnarly, narrow trail in the woods to these beautiful open fields and then back in again. Obviously that's all gone now, and there's NO WAY that trail is a black diamond.

On the other hand, there's no way the meadows are diamonds either.

Did you try out Spruce and Glades? Snowfields?

Roger,

Heh, thats funny to hear. I didn't mean to imply that I wanted a cookie cutter hill but rahter that they could make much better use of the available terrain. My feeling is that with their current layout the hill actually skis much smaller than its 850 vertical. The steepest section of the hill (right at the top directly under the lifts) is closed off (officially) and skiers are funneled through a traverse with out having the option of sking down directly.

Unfortuantely I didn't ski under the tripple chair at the top. The signs said it was closed off and I didn't want to get in trouble my first time at a new hill. I assume it has the same slope as gravity.

I only skied the DSOTM once as the first run of the day. I did notice a little section next to a rail fence off to skiers left. It sounds like the trail was better in its original configuration.

As for the other trails you mentioned, Spruce and the glades were both pretty cool too. They rate just behind the meadows and the other trials I mentioned. The glades in particular had a really nice entry and wind down the hill very nicely. Lower spruce has a steep and narrow section to spice it up.

Overall I think the hill is very oriented toward lower level skiers. It is a great place to practice powder turns and to learn to ski as even at lower levels almost the entire hill is accessible. The black runs at Cannan would proabbly be blue or even greens at many other resorts arround here. Snow park at WT compares to many of the blues at Cannan. The most challenging run, gravity was a run of the mill black diamond similar to exhibition at whitetail. There are a few nice steep sections right near the bottom of the quad lift but other than that the challenge is limited.

1. I am jealous.

2. I am jealous.

3. I am very jealous.

Tromano, I think Timberline has better skiing than CV for a variety of reasons, but the big ones involve vertical, snowmaking, grooming, and better off-piste for Alpine skiers (the Nordic Wildlife Refuge is great for freeheelers but basically inaccessible for fixed heal types).

For much of the season, Timberline, on average, has a lot more terrain open than CV due to better snowmaking. Grooming, as you mentioned, is also much better at Timberline. Finally, Timberline has more sustained steepness than CV. The extra vertical helps, but what really makes the difference is the sustained steepness. I'll ski CV 1-2 days a season for variety, but for day-in, day out skiing, I prefer Timberline.

I'm surprised the top of the triple was closed off. Even the entrance right beside Gravity? That's usually where they let you in.

Oh well, this must be childhood nostalgia showing, I think I prefer CV to T-line. To be honest there isn't much in the Mid-Atlantic that strikes me as challenging anymore, so I figure a good day on an "intermediate" hill is pretty much the same as a good day on an "advanced" hill. My favorite run at T-line is probably Almost Heaven (I'm a sucker for long blue cruisers- Gondolier at Stowe is the epitome of great cruiser trails- in between bouts of moguls and trees), followed by Off the Wall. But Canaan Valley... yeah, I've just been skiing there too long. Think it might be my favorite place in the Mid-Atlantic. Except for the base facilities.

All reasons as stated are valid...HOWEVER when it comes to a pure in your face power day, you know, the ones where the powder seems to just spray as you float along in that state of euphoria that only we skiers know, I prefer CV. Although it doesn't have the steeps and vert of t-line (which is my favorite) the meadows, DSOTM, Paradice, and too many un-named runs to mention, let alone share, make it THE place to get my face shots!

Tim,
Had they groomed all the whales down on Gravity. When I was there (President's day weekend), they had left Gravity completely ungroomed. It had an appearence very similar to that of Off The Wall. The reason I ask is that if groomed, you're right it's a VERY easy black (really more like a blue), but in the state that it was in, it is very much a true black.

-Warren-

Warren,

Gravity was ungroomed and the lower sections did have some large whales. However they were less excessive then off the wall and were much more skiable. The uppersection (steeps) was all moguls, no whales. I think the trial as it was is comparable to exhibition at whitetail. Off the wall is still a little bit steeper and becuase of the double fall line a little bit trickier.

Is it true that the mtn managers for CVR and T-line are brothers?