Well, I just got in last night from 6 awesome days of skiing at Timberline. I can't honestly say that I have ever had a better stretch of skiing. Yeah, it was cold most of the days but the snow was unbelievable.

After driving up on Wednesday night, I woke up early on Thursday morning to about 6 inches of fluffy powder at the house. Driving into Canaan I could clearly see that there was plenty more up there. My first run of the day I made down Dew Drop. Wow. While playing around on the skier's right side of the trail something happened that scared me to death.. A few times I looked down and my knees had disappeared.. After regaining my composure and realizing that they were just hiding below some fluffy pow pow, I was able to make it the rest of the way down (losing my knees a few more times). The rest of the day I spent making 2 runs at a time (it was freaking cold) and having a ball finding untracked powder all of the mountain. Upper Thunderdraft (under the triple) skied really good, as did Off The Wall. At the end of the day I had decided that this was one of the best days I had ever had on the slopes. I ended the day with 14 ounces of NY Strip goodness at Muttley's (sp?) with Jimmy, Scott (SCWVA), and Santa Clause.

After getting some more snow overnight, Friday was another awesome day to be skiing. I think it was around 10-15 below when I showed up to work. Because of the temperature we didn't have many children in the program so I got some free time to make a few runs. In the morning everything was still very soft. The Drop made a Friday afternoon opening and man was it O-So-Sweet. When Timberline's snowsticks blow snow when it is below zero something magical happens. Light "powder". I met up with Jimmy and Scott (who has already skied it several times) and they took me to the soft goodness. It was unexplainable how different but sweet that trail was to ski. The snow was just awesome.

Saturday was cold. -26 when I got to the ski school desk. Not too fun of a day to be out skiing, although the snow was still awesome.

Sunday and Monday were both really fun days (and cold). We picked up a few inches each day/night. I had several student both days, but was lucky enough to ski most of the mountain with them, as they were pretty darn good skiers. Both days rank up near the top of my days spent instructing. Tons of fun!!

Tuesday was a pretty cool day too. After teaching a 1 hour private lesson, I was lucky enough to clinic with one of Timberline's best instructors. After making just 3 or 4 runs he had fixed a few things that have been bothering me with my technique and I felt like I was skiing a whole lot better (you can't beat getting awesome lessons while getting paid!!!) After lunch Jimmy, JohnL, and I made about 4 runs (one of which they got to see me crash). We spent some time flying down off the top then skiing the trees (plenty of cover) down from mid-station. As we were leaving the snow really started to come down and we were all thinking of an excuse to get "stuck" in the Valley....

Sorry for the length, but I just wanted to report on 6 awesome days of skiing. Who knows how long it will be until I can say that I skied powder 6 days in a row.

Here are a few pictures:

Buried in on Thursday


My new friend Annie


OTW after a half day's work


An office with a view


Big pointy whales look like giant.....


Plenty of snow under the triple


Jimmy is a happy man


JohnL is pretty darn happy too


Snow Snow Snow


Dumping as we were leaving

I'm going to feel like a rookie If i ever hooked up with you all for a few runs...you & crew get a lot of practice!! I'm lucky to get 10 ski days a year now that I live far,far away down here at the beach...

Just one question David...Big pointy whales that look like ..what?..WHAT DAVID????

You guys are the kings of the world.
That shot of JohnL is pretty cool, reflection gets all three of you in it.
That's a lot of snow on OTW!

We skied Tline Sun-Tuesday. I must agree with David, conditions were the best of the season. Lots of snow and cold! But not really any wind. The snow on the Drop was amazing. Thunderstruck skied like butter all weekend. I thought White Lightning was the best run on Tuesday.

I greeted Jimmy and JohnL at the top of the Silver Queen. Sorry John, I didn't make the connection to DCSki on our brief introduction. I've yet to meet you David - maybe this weekend.

I spent the whole time skiing with family mostly - though I've given up keeping up with my daughter. You may have seen her and her girlfriend - each 4' tall, shredding nothing but blacks and double blacks all day long.

Tom

David. U DA MAN! I would've thought that jimmy would have been back to work like he said he was going to, but HE DA MAN 2 if he played hookie on Tuesday. The pow-pow looks schweet. I can't wait till Friday. Guess I'll see you guys again at line-up Saturday. I wonder if any other DC Skiers will be at t-line this weekend scarfing up all the goodies.

(By the way... the whales look like big pointy "ta-tas" to me. )

The real question I wanna know...

Are the Cherry Bowl Glades skiable?

Wow... is all I have to say... I drove up to Killington this past weekend and experienced far less fresh snow then that!

JohnL said they reminded him of Jayne Mansfield. That's as far as I go....

David couldn't be more correct in his report. I've been waiting a long time for a weekend like this one--a weekend when it snows every day! Natural snow epitomizes the the T-line experience.

As David suggests, it wasn't so much the quantity (The web site reports 11 inches in the past 48 hours) of the white stuff but the quality, thanks in part to the cold weather.

I skied Sunday through Tuesday, enjoyed every run, and enjoyed seeing so many happy skiers.

John,

Welcome back to DCSki.

Yep. Great conditions all weekend long. Colorado conditions, as kwillig6 said. Add in another 2 feet of snow, and it would have been Utah conditions.

Through the mayor (Godfather?) of Timberline (Jimmy), I met/skied with a whole bunch of the Timberline mafia this past weekend. David, kwillig6 and the mrs., tgd (I also didn't realize who you were until the next day), tomh, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. Great time.

More than see you crash, I was almost part of the crash... Stopped and looked back up the hill to see a T-Line instructor's blue jacket sliding across the snow towards me at Mach 5. Wasn't going to wait and find out if it wuz you or Jimmy. You never saw an old guy like me ski backwards so fast. Still don't know how you missed me AND the Ski Slow sign.

Some more real quick info. Skied Saturday PM to Tuesday. Seemed to chose mostly one trail each day.

Saturday - amaaaazing, consistent, soft snow on The Drop. OTW had some heinous ice on the back faces of the whales.

Sunday - Upper Thunderstruck (?), under the lift. Great soft snow and bumps to far skier's right; just had to avoid the unmarked 6 foot deep depression just before the final lift tower.

Monday - Off The Wall. My favorite trail in the Mid-Atlantic along with Extrovert. Deepest snow on the non-glade trails. First skied the sides to catch untracked, then the best lines were straight over the whales. Some tricky lines with an icy spot or two added to the challenge. This trail rocks! Upper Thunderstruck to Pearly Glades was also very nice.

Tuesday - White Lightning and Pearly Glades.

Glade coverage - most glades still needed rock skis. Pearly Glades had excellent cover (but it is really not much of a glade.) Hit several hidden treasures (and uncovered a mini rock ledge on a really bad line choice) on Monday on Glade Runner. No core shots, but some pretty good dings. With blow-in due to man-made on Lower Thunderstruck on Tuesday, looked like coverage had improved significantly. Still, I didn't want to tempt the snow snakes or tuner gods on Tuesday.

Ask SCWA about upper mountain glades. I saw the tracks, but the intel I gathered from several sources indicated that it was still thin.

Prediction: with a bit more snow this week, prime-time coverage in just about all the glades this weekend. I'll be in them, but with skis that I don't mind trashing a bit.

I hope to get up there Sat and Sun, maybe I can chronicle some of you guys. I'll be in green jacket, will have a faded DCSki logo taped to my helmet, sacrificing my steeze for the cause.