Well, today's my birthday and here I am sitting in front of the computer vice being out on the slopes on what has to be the best weekend for skiing this winter. Wow, Seven Springs received 18 inches, and most all of the Alpps received great snow.
I did get to Wintergreen on Friday and found fantastic man-made conditions, albeit in a snow gun blizzard. Got to ski with the friend that introduced me to this wonderful sport thirty-nine years ago when I was 28 years young. He has had heart and other health problems that have kept him off the slopes for years. Thanks to extensive exercises at a Charlottesville cardio rehabilitation center he tried skiing a few weeks ago, which led to our day at Wintergreen. What a joy to ski with him again, and to see the smile on his face. He even called the folks at the rehab center to say "thanks", as we rode up a lift together.

So how has it been out there this weekend. We stay-at-homers want to know. Jealous...yes!
The Colonel

Happy Birthday, Colonel! Glad you had a great outing on Friday.

I drove out to Seven Springs with a crew of four 15-16-year-old boys yesterday (Saturday). This was my first time at 7S, and probably my first time listening to 6 hours of heavy metal (3 hrs up, 3 back in the van) in a single day.

The conditions were super with the new snow that had fallen, plus what 7S had made the night before, plus the 1-2" that fell during our day there. All runs were open. Everyone was remarking that it has been a while since they had skied in conditions that were this good. So happy to be skiing in glades. Many, such as Alpline Meadows (?) near the Blitzen lift are more like blues, rather than blacks, which was fine by me. Corkscrew is a welcome departure from the wide-open slopes, 'tho I enjoyed the slopes as well.

Food tip: the "signature wrap" in the cafe above the rentals is a chicken-'n-cranberry salad special, with pecans and baby spinach. Well worth seeking out!

Many people commented that today (Sunday) should be a banner day as well, so I'm looking forward to reading others' posts as they come in from the slopes.

Woody

Glad you guys had good ski days. I had a good day on Thursday at Snowshoe, but wish I also skied Saturday or Sunday. I feel guilty for not skiing this weekend since the conditions were so good. In fact, I've pretty much laid around the house this weekend accomplishing nothing except tuning my wife's skis and fixing her car. I hope we get some good reports from other folks, with photos!

P.S. Happy birthday Morgan!

C- cool .. nice u had a good weekend - yeah we skied today (sun) @ white-butt it was actually really nice.

i know i am caustic sometimes and weird but props 2 u for feeling excitedaboutkskiing ; doesnt it rule?! my g/f asked me if i was bored today skiing @ the mid-atalnic again i and truthfully said no -

i skied mostly on the lift between all thebeginner things and the detach-quad and i washappy b/c i was makingturns.

nice -

Happy Birthday Colonel!!! You'll be glad to know that I spent your birthday on the slopes....

I went to Timberline and man what a day it was! I started off by finding $20 left in my ski pants from the last trip. I went to pay for my $53 lift ticket and found out that college days started back up so I only ended up paying $17. Oh yeah, the skiing was fantastic!! It was pretty mild most of the day, while the afternoon was actually a little too warm for my liking. And the skiing....It was great. It was so soft and smooth this morning it reminded me of the day we skied there last year in March (Craig). Throughout the day it didn't get skied off a whole lot as there was always smooth lines on the sides of trails. I was also very greatful that they did not groom OTW or The Drop last night. They made for some sweet/awesome/soft/quad-burning/big-smile/not-too-big mogul skiing that only got better as the day went on.....so nice, so nice. Did I mention that I only paid $17?? Oh yeah, I didn't wait in a lift line all day either...and at last count I believe 51 people hit their head on the upper lift. Now to my 2 complaints, sunburn & forgot the camera (sorry). All in all it was an awesome day and I was just glad to get out on the slopes!! Wish I could have met up with some DCSkiers though, but maybe during the Snowy Luau.....

Happy Birthday Colonel!

Wounded Warriors day at Ski Liberty. Good to see a few of the troops having some fun.

The snow was some of the best all season with plenty of coverage and bumps on Eastwind top to bottom and on Upper Strata. Snow earlier in the morning had a nice firm consistency without being too icy or too mushy. Towards the afternoon it got quite a bit softer, but the surface stayed eminently carvable. Breakthrough day for my son (6 years old) as he skied with me on all the trails except Upper Eastwind. The VW sized bumps were a bit much for him.

Many happy returns!

David,

Any whales on OTW or The Drop? IIRC, T-Line groomed them out a few weeks ago.

I'm kicking myself for not making it to T-Line (or even Blue Knob) on Saturday. Had to work late on Friday, so driving out on Friday was not an option. Figured I'd get an early start Saturday AM. Not! After two hockey games and one power skate lesson this past week (one night with 4.5 hours of sleep), I couldn't drag my butt of of bed until noon on Saturday.

Sounds like the conditions on Saturday were the best of the year.

Crush,

Surprised I didn't run into you today at The Tail. On one chairlift ride up, I look over, and the boss of my Government PM is sitting at the far end. Plus, my ex-boss was riding on lift ahead. Glad it was the weekend and I wasn't using a sick day.

A few hours later, I'm listening to the conversation between a mom and her young daughter on the lift ride up. Parts of the conversation jogged my memory and I look up, and it's the wife of the guy I play roller hockey with. Hadn't seen her in several years.

Whitetail had great spring conditions today (with some of the usual mashed potatoes in spots.) Coverage was solid (though Limelight is pretty narrow). Exhibition had decent sized bumps from top to bottom. It took some work to ski a lot of the lines (though nothing like challenge of The Knob last week.)

Yeah the bumps at Whitetail were getting sharp yesterday, today must have been a little worse.

Crush, Whitetail is not good for your girlfriend. Snow Park lift is usually icy. Go to Liberty, she can ski Dipsy or Strata Bypass from the top connecting to any of the runs from halfway down. Much more fun for advanced beginner/low intermediate than Whitetail, and you can take an advanced trail and meet her at the junction just a few hundred vert feet down the hill. Until she is a strong intermediate, Whitetail is not going to help her love skiing.

JohnL,

No whales on either of them. Just some nice soft moguls that have built up over the past few days.....

well, as I skied both saturday and sunday last week, on decent man made, this wkend was a homey. I had two bike rides and a hike with my 6 year old. turned all the gardens and compost, raked, and fertalized. bought some new shimano shoes. often works that way, eh ?

I have to give kudos to anyone who has been skiing for 39 years and into their sixtie - way to get after it, dude !

Happy Birthday!!

I went to WTG at our usual time of Sunday Noon. Was not sure what to expect but was pleasantly suprised. The perfect conditions I experienced earlier in the week held up enough to make for a decent day of skiing. If they can make it through a couple of warm days looks like there might be some more snowmaking weather coming up. Nice base on several trails and warm enough that I actually saw a couple of bikini tops.

I had an interesting encounter with an out of control skier and one of his skis. He nearly flattened me, about halfway down Dobie...I was making tight predictable turns so no excuse. He almost took my arm off...I stayed up, he went down and a full yard sale ensued. However, the brakes did not deploy on one of his skis and it continued on down the hill roughly parallel to me. At the run out it was about a foot away from me. When we got near the lift line I finally gave it a poke to stop it. I felt a little bad because I could have stopped it at any time but I was kind of curious to see what would happen. Plus he nearly plastered me.

You too huh? I encountered one on Almost Heaven at T-line. My story sounds strikingly similar to yours, except that this poor boy's boot was attached to the ski that was wizzing down the slope beside me....I couldn't help but laugh...

David,
Some years ago I was at Whitetail on the expert slope to far skiers' left. I saw a woman fall and one of her skis continued into the woods. I stopped to offer assistance and then went to retrieve her ski. When I found it I was shocked to see the boot still in the binding (this explains the brakes not deploying). I took the ski to the woman and asked how this had happened. She told me she was wearing a friends boots and they were a bit too large (a bit, try to get your foot out of a properly fitted and tight ski boot!!!). She also told me this was the second time that day this had happened to her.
Once she was up I skied on down and found a ski patroller and reported what I had seen. He said they had already had to retrieve the lady from the woods earlier, and then he took off looking for her. Either she was going to rent boots that fit, or they would pull her ticket.
Insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Colonel

Went to WT friday with my first pair of new-new skis in 21 years. (been on ski blades and old rentals in the meantime) OMG, the skiing has never been such fun. My knees revolted when I tried exhibition, telling me no more moguls.. ever, but I had a grand time on the rest of the mountain. The first two to allways go, fanciful and snow dancer, seemed to be getting narrower and narrower and yellower in places as the day went on, but it seemed to give those slopes more of the old eastern narrow trail challenge.

Rod, I know it may seem rare, but even snow park was pretty good, at least friday. The only icy/hardpack stuff I saw was Bold Decision.

Happy Belated Birthday and great story about your friend. I skied at Bryce on Saturday. My sister in law skied for the first time in 20yrs. She had been quite good at one time, but life, five kids, and many moves as an Army wife had put skiing on the back burner. I saw her zipping down an intermediate run while I was riding up the chair. She had the biggest grin on her face. I'm not sure her children ever knew she could ski and were amazed when she blew by them on the hill.

.. no no u don't get it she skis bold decision and finds it "nice" ... the point was we were both skiing really easy terrain and it was still fun ...

Oh yeah, I have seen a few boot-out runaway ski events on the slopes and it always cracks me up. I guess it wouldn't be so funny if the skis ever hit me or another innocent bystander. Those things turn into missiles when the brakes don't deploy.

You got to love those out of control skiers who crash into other people and then scatter / launch their gear to create even more of a hazard. I give those guys a wide berth.

Feliz Cumpleaños al Coronel...

This weekend was simply amazing also at Snowshoe. Great for beginner skiers too. I had two new skiers among my FL/TN family contingent that invaded my condo (to my glee). By Friday morning, it was heaven. And snowed all day into Saturday. Powder everywhere. Yesterday (Sunday) it got slushy in the mid-day but still with gobs of snow. Today my family went skiing but I'm nursing my second-floor height fall out of my rear deck when I was trying to change the batteries in the remote temperature sensor. If there hadn't been snow drifts, I would have been in the hospital. Regardless, I'm skiing this afternoon.

Craig you spend WAY TOO much time at Snowshoe.

I spent the last week splaining to my wife how she needed to be more defensive and aware of what was going on uphill and behind her because we were going to be spending two days skiing there. Forgot to warn her about the idiots who have no idea how to unload a lift. She's riding the Pmonkey lift with these two clowns all they talked about all the way up was how they were going over to Cupp Run like she should be impressed that they could cross the street by themselves uknow surely she wouldn't know anyone who could handle Cupp Run............i just deleted the rest of this post because i promised myself i wouldn't whine about what happened next........

Funny you should say that Jimmy... I just started a new thread on the subject of civility... or better yet, trashy morons taking over the slopes....

Colonel,

Happy 39th anniversary of your 29th Birthday.

You didn't miss much. The skiing sucked. Tline didn't groom the powder (or at least where I was skiing), nor did they groom the woods. There were big drifts everywhere and the snow kept flying up into my face. The snow was too soft, I like when it's nice firm. Plus some snowboarder with a shaved head and a pointy beard kept following me around. Luckily, I found out that snowboarders can't ski/climb over downed trees and bushes like skiers can.

On Sunday, it was just too sunny and the sky was too blue. Man, I hate skiing when it's like that.


Colonel, I hope this makes you feel better.

So, the question is, were you wearing your helmet?

I hope you at least got the batteries replaced after all that!

No need to explain, I can picture the rest of the story vividly in my head. Nowadays, I try to be first or last off the chair to give the rest of the crowd room to self destruct. Doesn't always work, but I think it helps a little.

Last time we did a family trip to SS, my sister in law and her husband got taken out by a boarder who cut right across in front of them as they got off the Ballhooter lift. It's like the guy assumed everybody was going the same direction as him. You got to wonder about people on the far side of a chair who immediately go the opposite direction...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate all you guys and gals. Due to an unexpected family committment I couldn't consume the sweet nectar of Ullr on this, the most bestist weekend of pow pow there was or may be this season And Jimmy, don't u know that the shoe has the biggest collection in the east of flatlanders who yearn to impress and they arrive almost every weekend from exotic southern places? That's why I don't do the shoe anymore unless I have no choice. Driving there on white roads is a true adventure as u slalom around their SUVs sliding off the road.

Happy B-day Colonel, 39 yet again?

I went back to Blue Knob with the family. At last week's gathering my daughter asked me to take her back so she could challenge herself. She told me that all those times I took her out of her comfort zone and then she would proceed to verbally eviscerate me were fun times after all. Even though she was freaked out and angry at the time later she felt good that she took the challenge. So with this revelation my mission was set, a hard, fun day on the blacks. My wife would take son and his friend to terrorize the beginners on Mambo and Jack Rabbit.

I didn't make it on Saturday but Sunday was still very good. It left me wishing that the gathering were happening then instead of last weekend. After a few warm up runs we skied Extrovert, Stembogen, Shortway, Edgeset, Triple Glades and I even took a wrong turn down East Wall Glades thinking it was D-Trail. I was surprised it was open due to all the brush that has not been cleared. I'm not talking about weeds and grass, I'm talking saplings and bushes. Luckily my daughter didn't follow, I told her not to drop in after I realized how scratchy it was going to be. Our excursions onto the natural snow trails were few. I feared ruining my newest skis. I bent one of the tails on my Rossi 9S World Cups last week.

The skiing was very good but what I was most appreciative of was my daughter's skiing. She overcame her fears, skied aggressively, had fun and displayed a level of technique that told me that over the years she was listening to my advice after all.

Actually it is the 38 anniversary of my 29 birthday...67...I hope the math is correct.
Thanks one and all for the kind comments.
As for the folks that, when unloading from a chair, cut across from the left to right, or vice versa:
I try to avoid this problem be asking as the chair nears the top, going right or left. This gives me enough warning to avoid the crash.
Again, thanks all,
The Colonel
"Skiers don't get old, skis do"

Lou,
How was today's skiing? Are you over your bumps and bruises from the fall? Or did you wake up to find everything sore and stiff? Remember RICE!
The Colonel

Hi Col! I had a stiff neck and swollen throat from the bumptious snowplowing lady who crashed into me at Soaring Eagle. Then yesterday, I fell down from my deck at a two-story height to a snowdrift. RICE worked and today, after a great whirlpool, many Naproxen tablets, an Israeli salt massage, and taking it easy, I made it to the slopes. Then... My cousin, new at skiing and on his first Black run, crashed into me at Grabhammer after I asked him to wait until I got down so I could critique his descent. He didnt wait. And on top of that, a boarder came down and crashed into both of us, breaking one of my poles. To top it off, I was cooking a bacon and eggs breakfast for the family and a piece of bacon fat blew up and spattered my right arm with hot bacon fat.

Maybe I need to light a candle to some Catholic Saint... You know who?

On the other hand, the conditions today, even in the afternoon, were absolutely awesome. A bit of slush on the main face of Snowshoe, but otherwise it was corn, which I like because it allows for a great edge.

Awesome, both to the bad run of accidents, and to the good luck of nothing really bad happening to you. And the great annual family gathering you sponsor which will endure in memories long after it ends.
Take care,
The Colonel

Lou, If I were you I would be wearing my helmet nonstop for the next couple days!

219, I didnt' tell you that Wednesday, I will leave my family at Snowshoe and travel back to DC to see the podiatrist on account of a stress fracture in my metatarsus on my left foot, caused by the hiking of the Kalalau Trail in Kawai'i. My biorythms are a bit warped lately... :-)

Lou,
If this was about golf I would say you are "looking for strokes"!
One good thing, nowhere to go but up!
The Colonel

I'm taking it easy today. Period. Taking advantage of the weather, at 1051 hours it was 47 degrees, thick fog and wind at top of Snowshoe. We're awaiting the rain that has been forecasted and hopefully it will turn to snow later on today...

That being said and just to be fair about the hole thing everyone along enjoyed the trip. Stayed in Treetops, older two & three bedroom townhouses i guess, rustically inexpensive "bronze accommodation" they call it in intrawestvirginia but the sweet thing was they were a short level walk to the Villiage and the top of ballhooter lift.... i could get used to the no car required deal....started snowing when we turned up the mountain friday nite and stopped noon saturday big smiles all around, started Saturday on powder ridge everybody skied together and we had so much fun... we skied everything except silver creek saturday, ..those new sawmill? trails i think are a good addition the first won to the right of Widomaker i like best the other had a long runout at the bottom.....Widowmaker was ungroomed both sat & Sun after about a foot of snow, bumped up ok not too much crowd there....... everybody wants to do it again?

Go figure
Ski WV

So how was it out there this weekend? Specifically at Timberline. I am thinking about heading up that way tomorrow to get another day in. Did anyone ski it today?? I'd like to hear back from some people who have, just for some assurance....

.. feh like i feel at this point it's not worth it to drive +5hrs to wv after all the discussions on it .... just skied local @ whitetail and actually had a great time from 1-4 . sort of frozen sugar but still it was fun wailing some turns there ... plus brought my own booze so double-fun but the car carrying two kayaks (red and blue) flashing the sun off the top gave me a heart attack while driving my zipcar minicooper 100mph on 70 ... heh thought it was a cop and me with a bottle rolling around in the back seat .... whew!

I'll be at Timberline most of the day tomorrow enjoying the $17 college days lift ticket. I'll be wearing a blue Spyder jacket with a silver Giro helmet & red Spy goggles. If you see me give me shout....

Second the good times at Whitetail today-- "firm" but not too hardpacked conditions 9-1, with low crowds, no lines, pond skimming and my first day ever of knee dropping fun. After a months-long search I finally found boots big enough at the right price, and took a great group lesson in beginner tele from a level III instructor today. Class size-- One. Thanks C and Whitetail! Made a lot of progress, had a lot of fun, and now I've got one more toy to play with sliding down the hills. Sorry I just missed you E, although I couldn't catch you on my snowboard in Utah a few seasons back and I know I couldn't hang with you on these new hippy skis quite yet. David, I'd say head for Tline if it's close-- if the Tail can put out a day like today, I'm sure the CV conditions ought to provide a grin or two. If nothing else is working for you, try a new toy on the hill! When you're sweating it for a pharmacology or pathophysiology final in a few years you'll have one more good day to look back on to help you through it.