Just back from Timberline. Although the resort lost a lot of base during the the thaw, Snow conditions were good (mostly groomed machine made snow and frozen granular).

The good news is that management is re-coating nearly everything--something that rarely happens at Timberline. Thunderstruck, Salamander, and White Lightning were open, and those skied well, but there were no top-to-bottom blue trails open, forcing a lot of novice skiers on Thunderstruck. As a result, Thunderstruck got a little beat up, but White Lightning skied well the entire weekend, even late in the day on Saturday.

The other good news is that the Silver Queen triple is up and running, well sort of. I road it for the first time on Saturday. It's tighter than a standard triple--three adults will find it to be very intimate. It's also easy to bang your head on the bar. However, the chair does have a nice padded seat--an improvement over the unpadded Thunderdraft triple. Unfortunately, the lift was down most of Sunday morning. It looked like a wheel needed to be replaced. Losing the lift for half a day did not make a difference this weekend because the place was empty. Hopefully, all the bugs were worked out this weekend and things will be running much more smoothly next weekend.

[This message has been edited by johnfmh (edited 01-11-2004).]

were they making snow what do u think will be open soon

They were making snow everywhere. Everything except DROP should be open by MLK.

What are your thoughts on Timberline with the forshadowed snow this week? If Timberline were to get a 6"+ snow how much faster would things open? I'm expecting to go there this Saturday.

All the major trails will be open by MLK:

Dew Drop
OTW
Almost Heaven
Thunderstruck
White Lightning
Salamander
Winterset

That's my prediction.