Dennis:

When do you think CV will get serious about snowmaking? They are still lagging far behind the pack. If Timberline can get Sally, WL, and OTW open, CV should at least have the entire Valley Vista run going from top to bottom.

Denis- DO you do a lot of BC skiing in CV? Is there a lot of skiable terrain? How hard would it be for a novice to pick up using AT gear?

I have always been interested in this but since my time is so precious I have been reluctant to give it a whirl since I figured the learning curve would be too much.

Hey Terp,

Yep, LOTS of BC opportunity in and around Canaan, a whole lot.
AT gear w/ skins? it's doable, but light & quick waxless are better suited 75% of the time due to the rolling terrain and shorter downhill runs you take. The other 25%, when conditions have really turned on and if you know how to link it together into bigger portions of sustained up and down, then skins are the way to go, IMO. Biggest hurdle, if you're new to the game, is dealing with highly variable conditions that can change on you from one turn to the next. Eventually, reading the snow hopefully becomes instinctual and you figure out which aspects and pitches are holding the goods. They don't groom the woods and that crust Denis wrote about was pretty damn gnarly.....sometimes supportive, often times breakable. Hopefully it'll settle out a bit this week, or at least get enough coverage on top to take it out of the equation. Otherwise, it's still just skiing.

And you get to see stuff like this, the highlight of my day Saturday. We found these fresh tracks behind CV, on our way back to the Nat'l Nordic (picture by my buddy Marty):

It's not quite sleepy winter time yet.....

We also found what we figured were bobcat tracks up on BaldKnob, a cat print about 3 to 3.5" in diameter, looked about a day old. Also spooked a doe over in the Sawmill Glades and she showed us how to run up the side of the mountain, fast and graceful. And oh yeah, there was also a flock of turkeys that flushed and flew out from the trees on skier's left of GravityDrop while we were over there. Not sure if Denis spotted them on his way down, they flew out between him & us on the hill.

Nice to finally meet you face to face Denis, see ya on Saturday again?

Tom

Tom-good info thanks! If I wanted to try this, how would you or anyone else suggest I go about it? Do they have BC guides/lessons at White Grass? Any thoughts? Thanks again

whitegrass is your destination. Tony, Mike, Chip..they are all good guys. Just talk to them about what you are looking to do, they can point you in the right direction. It is easier to visit during non peak times, you get more of their attention, but either way around it, they are the "go to" place for nordic/bc travel in Canaan..rentals, guides, maps, people...

on a side note..if you decide you're addicted, but lodging is an issue, I know of a rental place still looking for season long roomies

Steve

Tom- Awesome bear track pics! This settles a discussion my wife and I were having Sat. night at Timberline about whether the bears were hibernating yet. Found lots of bear info at lots of sites, but I couldn't find hibernation dates. We had one on our deck at Northface in August, despite our bearproofing measures, but hadn't seen him again and were wondering what he was up to. Guess she wins the debate (again...).

John,

Actually they did seem serious about snowmaking. They just weren't serious about opening terrain or anything else. I was there at 8:15 to get some breakfast. There was one guy in the kitchen who said they'd open at 9. This is when lifts open at 9. The lift ticket window didn't open until at 5 til 9. I guess they knew their market because there weren't 2 dozen people there at 9. The area employees are super nice. You can't walk by anyone without getting a cheery "good morning".

TerpSKI, AT gear is overgunning it for CV and the Dolly Sods. Better to learn to telemark or free heel parallel. Light backcountry skis with scales for climbing are much more versatile for the rolling terrain you will encounter most of the time.