What a day! That is about all I can say. All the snow that fell in the Valley yesterday made for some great skiing today. Almost all of the slopes were groomed (including OTW), but there was plenty of powder to be found in the woods, under the lifts, and on "The Drop".

I arrived at Timberline at about 8:30 this morning (a little earlier than I anticipated) and decided to dress in a hurry and get to the lift for the first chair. I made it down to the lift about 15 minutes before it started, but was happy to wait to be the first to ride up. This was the first time I have ever got to do that. On the way up I had plenty of time (go figure?) to decide which run I would make first. Figuring that I wasn't going to find any untracked powder, I decided that White Lightening looked like a perfect place to leave first tracks on some of the softest corduroy that I have ever skied. It was a truly great feeling to make huge turns (spanning almost the entire width of the trail) on snow that looked like the groomer just finished it. I knew that after that it was going to be a good day.

I believe after that I skied Almost Heaven and then Dew Drop. Again, both of these trails were perfect, soft corduroy. I then skied the run underneath the main lift (can't remember the name?). It had already been skied up pretty good, but still made for an interesting run down. I sometimes found myself in shin-deep powder. Because it was skied up, I also found myself on some not so forgiving ice. The combination of ice and powder on this run made it the last time I would ski it for the day.

Today was also the first time I have had a chance to meet up with a fellow DCSkier and ski some runs. I met up with Craig (Skier219) after lunch and we made several runs in the time we were together. I am sure that Craig can attest to the great skiing that was had today. It was also nice skiing with someone who shared such a love for skiing. I am just like Craig (and probably everyone else on this forum) in that I am always trying to devise a way to make a comfortable living, provide for a family, and of course....ski everyday I want to. When I got home I tried hard to convince my girlfriend that I now had proof of others who are just like me.

Here are a few pictures that I took today. I included a few shots I took on the drive up. Enjoy!!




This is one of my favorites. I took it right outside of Harman while I was driving.



First Chair!!!



Fresh!



Top of OTW



Bottom of OTW



Lots of fun!









White Lightening



I was the first person to ski that trail today!!


P.S. Pray that this upcoming weather system changes course completely and doesn't ruin all of this new snow (I am a dreamer)!!!!

Great article, wonderful pictures. Thank you,
The Colonel

Nice pictures David, and great report. Glad we could meet up; I enjoyed skiing and talking with you, and hanging out with someone who has skied TL before. And yes, it's OK to be a ski nut -- it's contagious around here!

I have some pics myself, and will try to post them here tomorrow. The skiing was definitely was as good as it gets with the combination of Bluebird weather and fantastic snow. I have not skied natural corduroy like that in a while; it was smooth and luxurious, and soothing after yesterday's powder assault. Light natural snow groomed into corduroy makes the man-made stuff feel like gravel!

Craig

Beautiful photos David. I can imagine skiing Off the Wall now. Mmmmmm. I bet the glades were nice too.

Blue Knob was especially delicious today -- best I've managed to hit it in a couple of years actually.

- the other Craig

OK, I put up my pics here:

http://members.cox.net/craig.hunter/tl030807

I got sick of using Photoshop to make photo archives, and tried Apple's iPhoto/iWeb. Made a sweet album the first shot with zero fuss. Damn that software is slick. Now I need to ditch that crappy cell phone camera....

One thing I found puzzling about TL is the snow piles on The Drop. I wouldn't even call these whales because of the insane height and shape (more like volcanoes). They basically ruined the trail for instances like this when you get abundant natural snowfall. It would have been sweet if the whole trail was available for skiing (there was a *massive* amount of powder here), but the only line was a zipper down skier's right. There is way more snow stored in these piles than they will ever use up (at least on this trail) before the season ends or the rest of the mountain melts. I don't get it.

Craig

great pics by all, thanks for sharing.

Speaking of natural cords - at Keystone a few weeks ago, about two hours into my first day I shared a chair with a local who then led me through the woods to a roped off, freshly groomed, real snow, ~2000' vertical run - no tracks except for ours. What a great way to start the week. There was a huge line of people at the top waiting for the rope to drop and I had this absolutely incredible feeling of wonderful guilty joy all the way down.