So a few guys and I headed up to Timberline for the day today. On the whole I would say that it was a great day. Not too cold and not too warm. The snow was also pretty good, nice, soft, and groomed (for the most part).

Off the Wall skied really well today. There was still some loose snow in patches on top of a soft (if there is such a thing) layer of ice. I would say that we made at least 5 runs on it. The Drop also skied fairly well, didn't have as much loose snow and it was a little icier than OTW. It was also starting to get a somewhat thin in some places.

The rest of the mountain was spectacular. We made laps on Almost Heaven, Dew Drop, and Thunderstruck most of the day. None of the slopes developed hardly any ice or any slush the entire time we were skiing (watch out for the death cookies on Almost Heaven though!). The only snow that really started getting slushy was the beginner's area in between the two main lifts. Other than that everything held up outstandingly. There wasn't much (if any) snow left in the woods, as you can see from some pictures I have put up. Like I said, all in all it was an excellent day on the slopes and luckily it was also spent with some good friends. You can't beat that! Here are some pics:

First shot of the day (around 9:45 am)


Starting to lose some snow!!


Losing more


There is still a small skiable line (kinda)


Looking up The Drop


Looking down The Drop (notice thing spot on the right)


Looking down Off The Wall


Looking up Off the Wall


Watch out for that gravel!!!


Pumphouse Glades anyone??


Woods to at the top/right of Off The Wall


Looking down Off The Wall

From your pix, OTW and The Drop looked groomed?

They look like they have been groomed since the last time I was there (Sun. 2nd) but they haven't been groomed in the past few days. All of the moguls that were starting to build up last week are gone. I am not sure when the last time it was groomed, but I am sure it wasn't last night.

Looks good to me. I see no whales, so I guess they have been groomed out to make a thicker trail cover. Correct?
When did Tline add the large number of tall snow guns? Impressive!
And thanks for all the pictures...a picture is truly worth a thousand words when posted by a neutral DCSkier.
The Colonel

Timberline bought a bunch of snow sticks last year and put up about half. They seemed to have put the rest up this year.

Hate to say it, but it looks like crap to me. If I want groomed *black diamond* runs, I'll ski Whitetail, which is half the distance from DC and has faster lifts.

From what I took in today I think neither slope has been groomed for a few days, both just had a layer of ice and not enough snow, both of which caused it to ski (and look) a lot like a groomed run (just with more ice).

I've always said I wish they would let OTW keep the whales and The Drop be groomed out once and then allowed to bump up.

Neither OTW or the Drop have been groomed for over 3-4 weeks, however everytime you get snow (almost 20" last week), warm and then rain, bumps will flatten out. I did multiple runs on both on Saturday and Sunday and found them very good. BTW, both runs are north facing and don't soften up as quickly as Whitetail's east facing bump runs, hence the "hard pack."

OTW & The Drop have been groomed since the weekend of 3/1 & 3/2. The rain & warm weather wouldn't have smoothed things out that quickly or evenly.

Every ski area should have one designated bump run. Exhibition at Whitetail has had the same bumps on it for the last couple of monthes.

With no bumps, I guess there won't be a bump contest this Sunday. Just say no to grooming.