from 12/6 to 12/8. They also say that they will be closed from Mon-Wed to make snow and then reopen for good on Thurs 12/13. Hopefully that will give them a chance to get a nice solid base down.

Of course, as of right now the forecast for those days is highs in the 50s

Clay

BELEIVABLE!!..Only place on the planet that will push back the opening date after a foot & a half dump!

Yeah I got 4 foot drifts in my yard..NO EXAGERATION...snowed all day today and last night...it is supposed to dump all night and tommorrow...I have buddies who went to hike/ski the slopes today...they probably got more runs in hikin/skiing up then if the lifts were runnin anyway...

Can you Imagin a place like Whitetail Or wintergreen or whatever & what they would do with all this natural from mama nature? Its mind boggling to me to see all the help from the snow gods that the CV areas get & to watch them vedge all these years...BRING ON ALMOST HEAVEN!

It's probably all blown off MPC because of all that wind they get...

Forget any type of compassion I felt for you..you MUDDA!

LOL. So that's why I feel like it's windy down here all the time in the Wardensville area... the MPC winds just cover the eastern panhandle.

You guys have me rollin'

Where do you think all that blown-off snow ends up? Maybe at Tory Mountain?

Those brutal northwest winds that rake MPC bone-dry probably send all the snow down to Tory, where the natural bowl shape of the upper creek serves as a perfect catch basin for drifts and shelters the slopes from wind, resulting in a fresh, continuous wintry base of Utah-like fluff, I'm sure.

sure. it bounces off the mpc western bowl and funnels due south to tory. i heard they could not open tory because the snow removal equipment for digging out the lifts would cost too much, and southerners could not handle the deep pow anyway. good think that failed

btw, since they have a whole foot of snow anyway, shouldn't CV be fully open by now ? last time i was there the chairs were spinning with no lifties in sight anway, so why not now ?

Can we change the subject?..I'm guessing those bone dry winds are also responsable for the lack of water up there.,,after all they don't call it DRYFORK for nothing ...Try crossing the river now..you MUDDAS!!

Well, you could steer the thread back ON-TOPIC

Clay

Sorry Andy. I just had to see your "rant of a million rants" after you posted that last night. I'll stop now...

SO, ANYWAY, is Timberline waiting for it to start raining to open up, is that the deal? And it's snowing back in MD. My mother wrote to tell me, yippee. We're gonna get... something tomorrow out here. Dang Alberta Clippers. Hope y'all are enjoying it!

Actually, t-line is getting the groomers fired up so they can flatten all that fresh pow-pow so nobody can ski it.

yeah baby! look at the webcam. they need TWO of those things to flatten it all down!

Clay

I think people are overlooking the fact that even with a fresh foot of snow it's what's under the ski's thats more important unless everyone is skiing on their rock sticks. I'm suprised every year that Timberline can get Sally opened by Christmas.

I will say that I rarely hit a rock or bald patch on a Timberline slope. I can't say that about other resorts that will open trails with 6" bases.

We'll see.

I refer to when we have a 12+" dump mid season, they groom all that pow out, even on the steep runs. In my opinion, if you can't ski the pow, you shouldn't be on those runs. I can see grooming the greens and most blues, but leave the blacks ALONE. Now, if you choose to go off piste, as many of us do, you accept the risk of trashing your skis and have nobody to blame but yourself. And, I agree that at t-line you run less of a risk of trashing your skis on the groomed runs. One day, while at whitetail, I trashed two pair of skis on their "freshly made and groomed snow." Both required either base welds or edge re-construction. I was sick about it.

I agree, there's not enuf under the 12" or 18" or however much natural they got since Monday. The question is WHY NOT!!??? . Big headlines about their increased snowmaking capacity, two years running. There have been msny opportunities since thanksgiving to make snow, so where's the snow???don't tell me it just would've melted those whales on the drop were there into may.

New season Same story....... "We'll do what we do the same way we've always done it because we've always done it that way and that's what we're doing beacuse thats how we do it and we'll continue to do it that way because that's the easiest way for us to what we do, any questions?"

No it makes sense... they have only had about 15 days of high temps that have not reached freezing so far this season... i mean what resort could be expected to open when they receive a foot and a half of snow and have more opportunities to make snow than whitetail does in the entire month of january!!! But i agree with roger, the snow will be much better when we can get a little bit of rain on the slopes and let the temps get above freezing... who wants to ski in fresh snow and cold temps anyways?

OH it's ok, as my ole buddy tgd just pointed out they'll have enough open for the cub scouts this weekend, that's what matters most don't u no. I'll be skiing/drinking/eating/sleeping somewhere this weekend, it just won't be at timberline.

Some resorts are mushrooms--they pop open after 1 or 2 nights of the right conditions. Timberline is a crepe myrtle tree. It takes weeks to fully bloom but when it does, it will knock your socks off. Keep the faith.

PS It times like these when we need some words from DCSki's poet laureate, Jimmy.

John,
What a great line! If it's okay with you, I think I'll add it to my signature.

"Timberline is like a crepe myrle tree" -Johnfmn

Clay

Johnfmh is Chauncy the Gardener.

Mannn...Jimmi..your feeding us a bunch of DO DO!!

Early season skiing with a foot & a half of powder at TL is still Crepe !

Maybe more than a foot and a half -- I've measure over 9" here today in Davis.

[quote=kwillg6]I refer to when we have a 12+" dump mid season, they groom all that pow out, even on the steep runs. In my opinion, if you can't ski the pow, you shouldn't be on those runs. I can see grooming the greens and most blues, but leave the blacks ALONE.

I partially disagree.
1. Most expert trails at timberline other than under the chairlift are sufficiently wide that they could be partially groomed, say about 1/3 of the trail width, or less. Second, we rarely have real powder dumps in the mid-Atlantic, say like they get in Utah. We get deep snowfalls for sure, but they are usually have a higher water content than those out west. Or we get deep wet snow that is much more difficult to ski. By grooming just part of the expert trails Timberline would encourage folks trying to improve to the "expret" slope level by giving them a place to ski that is more difficult than the blue slopes, yet not even more demanding because of a recent deep snowfall. By leaving most of the expert slopes ungroomed after a major snowfall there would be ungroomed snow for the less challenged snow lovers to venture into and allow the rising skiers to try out with a safety net nearby to bail out if needed. And for some of us, skiing the expert slopes is great, but we don't necessarily want to exhaust our legs more with each run.
Enough rambling,
The Colonel

With all do respect..that comment makes me want to to puke, grooming powder is for dip sh$%# and pickers...mother natures fresh pow pow is what skis and snowboards are made for!!!grooming and man made snow is for boy scouts and men who wear pink panties....ahhhh....I just did puke...ahhh...taste like puke and red bull and corn dogs...and puke...

we have been pounded with snow in the valley for three days now,,, you could ski anywhere on the lift accessed trails in the valley if you wanted to...people are skiing at white grass and all over the woods in the valley and davis and state parks...the only place people aren't skiing is where there are the lift served ski resorts, cause they ain't open and if they were they would be groomin the precious pow pow anyway...how backwards is that????

grooming powder...ahhhh...just hurled again...

I can't stop laughing!! What does puke, red bull, corndogs, and more puke taste like?? That can't be good

If there is two feet of snow on the ground and there isn't a lift running in the Valley, that is indeed a sad state of affairs.

It's been a marginal snow year in CO, but there's been more than 2 feet of snow since Dec 1. Terrain is opening up everywhere. Wolf Creek got a four foot storm and opened everything- you hit a rock that's your problem. Vail is skiing on 1,000 acres of terrain already. Breck, Keystone and Loveland are still marginal (marginal means they only have about 200 acres of terrain open a piece), but I think after this weekend you're going to see a LOT more trails opening up around them. It might be a nine hour drive to those ski areas for me, but dang if they don't know what to do with two feet of fresh snow- open it and ski it baby!!!

Tucker....my feelings exactly w/o the regurgitation.( ) Initally, as I learned to ski, freshies were, ahem... a challenge. The more opportunity you have to ski it, the better you get at doing it. Sking fresh pow pow is a lot like having sex. Once you get the full sensation, you can never get enough of it. Now to convince the folks at t-line to let us use up the freshies when they open on Saturday :(. Imagine. T-line being 100% on opening day if even for only a few hours. What other ski area could boast that? You know damn well that patrol will have used at least 50% by this afternoon anyway.

yeah but right now, isn't grooming like extra important so they can establish a good base since its the first significant snow? after that tho, i agree, black diamond slopes shouldn't be groomed when there are freshies

I am not in favor of grooming an expert trail when they get a dose of powder, but they at least need to groom out the snowmaking piles (whales) *before* the powder arrives. I was at TL after a powder dump last year, and the whales ruined what otherwise would have been a spectacular powder run down a steep trail. There was a ton of fresh powder on the trail, but no real way to ski it like powder. And thus the snow went to waste. I really don't see a point to the whales at TL -- they didn't even knock them down to stretch out the snow at the end of the season. If the whales are not going to be used to store the snow, then get rid of them. I think it ruins what could be a great expert trail.

Oh, I dunno about grooming out the whales. I kinda liked them the way they were last year. There were whales on OTW earlier in the season and once they groomed them flat, that trail became as boring as I 70 through Kansas. It's a different story if once flattened, the trail is allowed to bump up into a real black run, but that is rarely the case there. There are a couple of blues at t-line, which if bumped up, would easliy classify as blacks. Difficulty should not be determined by steepness alone. That's just one part of the equation.

I def. agree with you there. OTW wasn't anything like it usually is once they flatten it out. Atleast with the whales it would take some time to reach Sally, with it groomed up it took no time at all to make it down. I think the whales make it a heck of an adventure in making it to the bottom and are fun once or twice in a day. Although I would probably much rather them just groom it out and let it bump up on its own (I guess they do do that sometime with The Drop though)...so I am mixed.... BTW, I have skied The Drop after it has bumped up for a few days after some big snows and have never had more fun on any other slope in WV...heck maybe even VT for that matter...

oh heck, save the whales. It's not that steep or that long and the whales give it character. It's a different experience than you get anywhere else and its a good challenge for the rising intermediates. The pow is in the trees and lift lines - we need to clear out more glades. I can say that since it does not take much to challenge me

besides which, now that they have raised their snowfall to 200" you will get a lot more pow days.

so Kim, just how many tries did it take you ....

edit: the real point. even though I cannot just pop up there for a day trip, it's still frustrating to see TL and CV closed with all that snow and only WG tearing it up. I know last year I skied trails with only a foot of cover and was darn glad to do it.

I guess what I was trying to say (but didn't make it to clear) was that I would like to see OTW have the whales and The Drop be groomed and left to bump up, or vice versa. And as always, DO NOT GROOM THE FRESHIES... I REPEAT, DO NOT GROOM THE FRESHIES!!!!



Forgot all about that. Now that you put it that way...It's gonna be a good season

IMHO the combo of whales and deep powder on the Drop last year made for a wild ride with lots of air opps and soft landings. I had a lot of fun on the Drop when the powder was deep and the whales were running. You have to ski the trees at Tline if you want a pure powder experience. I'll agree though, the Drop makes a great bump run if left to mogul up. Tline's double blacks are really not very challenging when groomed smooth.

Hey now! We have tornadoes for the same reason that OTW has whales- keeps things interesting...

I guess I am in favor of trails like Rumble at Sugarbush, with "natural" terrain:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gSfUgRL7BWo

(mind you, I wouldn't quite be ripping like those guys, I just like the terrain)

Compared to stuff like that, the whales seem contrived to me, and don't really feel right. They don't have the flow or rhythm of natural terrain. I suppose with a little more planning and care, whales could be laid down to give more of a natural feel, but what I saw last year were a bunch of 12-15 ft high piles of snow all down one side of a trail.

OOOOH john ski the hole mountain egan, while we're waiting for timberline to "open" u gotta watch that RUMBLE clip thanks craig that's too nice.

skier219 I think after all the discussion about whales here it is, u nailed it for me, i agree last year the drop looked too much like someone fell asleep on whale watch, "the whales seem contrived to me" and would'ev been way more fun "with a little more planning and care, whales could be laid down to give more of a natural feel"...........

Jimmy,
Wait, did I use a capital "J"....jimmy, please forgive me...way to formal for you!
About your whale comments...AMEN. Either make something useful out of them (not necessarily get rid of them totally) or why have a trail that is rarely skied by the paying customers. Last year I skied at the Snow Luau weekend I skied them twice; once tentatively and once after skiing the afternoon with you and the other DCSkiers I skied them well. But in no case was there a crowd (more than 2 skiers) on the trail. Again I ask, why have them if they do not really add to the skiing experience, any more than the grease dripping, ultra slow main chair contributes to the "Timberline experience"?
The Colonel

That's a classic Net video. I've been lucky enough to ski with John and his brother Dan when they were instructors at clinics I attended. John is prolly the most enthusiastic skier out there (and he can be out there...)

At least the whales are an attempt by Timberlame to make the "Expert" terrain more interesting. When groomed, both are way too short and way to easy to be considered "Expert" runs. Without some dynamite, large glacier deposited rocks and some massive earth moving, you're not going to come close to Rumble. But we can wish...

To me, the T-Line whales make a lot of sense for OTW, but not as much for The Drop. I prefer the The Drop to be groomed as infrequently as possible and let the skiers bump it up. OTW has enough variation (flat top, steeper mid-section, steepish dog leg to the right at the bottom) so that the whales work (provided they are whales and not terrain park-shaped kickers.)

And Tucker's recent post on grooming powdah at Timberlame was spot on! Though the visuals were a bit harsh.

Yeah I apoligize for that post....it was too crude, but I don't think it was harsh...there should be some kind of law against grooming powder,,,however in the end I do believe Karma will take care of that kind of thing...