New Ski Trail at Timberline - It Exists!
July 18, 2005
While mountain biking around Timberline this past weekend, I came upon the Winterhaven access road and followed it uphill. Low and behold I found the new ski trail - pretty well cleared, a culvert tunnel (similar to the one on Winterset) carrying the trail under the access road. The section of trail I was on was fairly narrow and not particularly steep - looking more green than blue. Later, I was riding on Dew Drop and could see the trail down through the woods below. Though my perspective was limited, it appears that Timberline has made great progress cutting the trail so it should be open next season - depending on snow making.
When I was riding Dew Drop this past winter there is a point about halfway down the trail that it looks like there is a cell phone tower off to the left hand side with an access road leading upto it. Would that be the road that crosses the new trail with a culvert?
Not sure Brad. I rode up to the culvert from the base. Didn't notice a tower - lots of heavy equipment though. But you can definately see the new trail (as well as some future homesites) from Dew Drop now. I guess they are planning on building homes between Dew Drop and the new trail - but there is a pretty steep drop down to the new trail. Should make for some interesting construction!
Tom
Yeah. That's the road. If you ride it you'll also discover the Vader lift depository... so if you got a truck and you want to do some reclaimin'..
So... have they destroyed the bike trails over there? I guess I'll find out soon... if the 24 Hour dh is gone there's a good chance I'll take all of my money elsewhere all the time. Heck, if even Sidewinder is gone... I'll be VERY tempted to bring wrath down on them from the active biking community.
Oh, for those of you wondering what happened to Big Chainring... they developed it into a real-estate-laced road... any signs that were remaining are now gone. I won't say where...
Any evidence of hookups for snow guns? Power and water? The trail is nothing but a cut through the forest without setups for snowmaking.
I hiked it Sat., trust me there isn't as much as the picture would lead you to believe...
But, Tline Rd. got paved!!!!!
The pic looks about how Shays and Cup looked this weekend.
My impression is that they have really just started the project - but that they were going at it full-bore now. I didn't see any infrastructure - mostly tree clearing and road building. Oh yes - lot markings. They are making sure prospective buyers can get up there to see the available lots.
BTW, the road up to Winterhaven is plenty steep too (steeper than the ski trail!). I think the road is steeper than any of the roads on the Mountainside section of old Timberline. It will definately be 4WD access only come Winter.
I biked all over the mountain on Monday. There still is some snow up there but really only isolated piles. I believe all the named whales are still holding on to OTW, but they stand isolated by wide bands of mud. The largest snow pile I came across was at the top of Salamander - it is still probably 15 feet high and 25 yards across. That one could hold out into June before it melts.
Mt. Amos!!
Yeah... it used to be you could bike to the top Memorial Day weekend and take a nap on the snow.. or try to bike down it.
So, does the pitch overall seem to be in between Salamander and Dew Drop? I think if it is and they LIGHT IT for night skiing it could be a very good thing for advanced beginners to have an option besides midstation or dew drop. I'd rather drink beer than night ski on dew drop bcause it usually resembles an obstacle course with slow erratically moving obstacles.
I would estimate the pitch was a little closer to Salamander than Dew Drop; however, I saw only a section of the trail and looking at the trail map yesterday it looks like this will be a pretty long run - perhaps steeper up top. I do not recall seeing if they plan on lighting the trail. It eventually intersects with the unlit Winterset trail so I suspect it's going to be daytime hours only.
Has anybody been to T-line to check on the progress of the the new trail and associated snowmaking infrastructure?
I found another picture of the new slope from on top of the tunnel.
Picture of new slope (scroll to the bottom of the page)
It doesn't look very steep from this angle. Is this a Green slope or Blue?
