hey thanks for the research john. and i guess my source wasn't completely wrong-hey. But i still think that you are going to have to use your poles to move when you leave the tunnel and I think my kids will be taking of their snowboards and walking to get to the bottom. ANd yeah bawalker you can blow snow to make it steeper, but the problem is the grooming machines have to go through the tunnel so they will be limited to how much snow can be piled up there. it's going to be to flat when that trail leaves the tunnel there just isn't enough drop. But I agree with Blanzy- "we will let the skiing experience speak for itself"

hey but if you know john who is this "thrasher engineering" group that blanzy is consulting. thrasher sounds like some kind of ripper term. I would certanly hope if they are actually consulting ski industry minded folks that those folks are letting timberline know that they are living in the dark ages in terms of terrain parks. Blanzy if you are reading why don't you build a couple terrain parks for the kids like every other resort except timberline does. It would be great to be able to visit my vacation home with my family and not have to listen to my kids whine about not having any rails to grind or jumps to catch air on.

Fred:

This new trail is more of an access trail for the new slopeside development called Winterhaven than a ski slope. At places like Killington, these kinds of trails have no snowmaking and are only groomed occasionally. In this region, however, they will have to have snowmaking to be viable or property owners will raise a big stink.

I took a look at the new trail from a distant vantage point and was pretty shocked at how flat it is in sections, but until I ski it, I will hold off on my judgement. To me, the litmus test for a flat trail is polling. If you have to poll it to get through a flat section, then the trail is poorly designed.

With all that being said, there's still a great need for beginner and lower intermediate terrain at Timberline and if this new trail provides another top to bottom option for that group then it is performing a service for the resort as a whole by keeping lower level skiers off advanced slopes and giving instructors another place to teach students how to ski or snowboard.

Finally, I could not agree with you more about the terrain park issue. Timberline could attract a lot more experts if it could improve their terrain park. This is an old complaint and I'm kind of surprised no one in management is listening. Also, I'm sort of surprised that CV does not try and pick up the slack by building a serious park. There's plenty of room for one on the Weiss Meadows and a park would make that whole area a lot more interesting. It would give people something to look at while riding the lift.

If Lower Salamander is any example of Timberline's idea of a steep enough trail, then we are in big trouble.

PS - I wish CV would move their park to Meadows 2.

Actually if you have been to Wisp fred, you can see a living example of the fears of flat terrain. If you haven't, there is this one section midway down the mountain on a blue trail that at first drops off pretty steeply, then stretches out forever and ever (at least the length of a football field or close to it) until it goes through a tunnel. I almost swear there is a bit of uphill in it. Anyway, 8 times out of 10 I can never make it on speed but instead have to walk it to make it to the otherside of the tunnel and then drop down on a piece of black. I've even had to walk a piece of the salamander at the first turn... lets hope this new one isn't like this.

Thrasher Engineering is a civil engineering consulting firm based out of Clarksburg and Charleston WV. They appear to be a reputable firm. I don't believe I've ever heard of them doing work on ski slopes before but they may just be involved with surveying or environmental/water issues. Here's their website: Thrasher Eng