as a Blue Knob with snowmaking. Snowshoe is always going to command the yuppie Seven Springs I like shorts slopes with little pitch trails (except for two). Many advanced skiers are fairly pissed off that Snowshoe hasn't expanded at all on the Western Territory in a number of years.

TImberline could make a real market niche for itself if it got OFf the Wall and THe Drop open as soon as possible. Add a few glades and it could make real inroads with advanced skiers. RIght now all we have is Blue Knob who has most of its stuff open only a few days a year. Clear underbrush, Make sure snow is made on the double blacks, and people will flock to TImberline.

timberline has lost the hustle.I hope they get it back cuz i love the place.

i have never been to timberline, and to be honest it was solely because their trail map made the place look like an oversized bunny hill. but with their new website, trail map, and what i am hearing here about their expert terrain i am suddenly fired up about going. now i see that the "anticipated" opening date is december 11? why the wait?

Someone will probably correct me if I am wrong but Timberline doesn't have the snowmaking capabilities of a major corporate resort like Snowshoe. Timberline does however have more snowmaking this year and with the amount of water from all the rain I expect they'll blow more snow this year. Also, Timberline is known for having deep base's. This allows them to weather the tough times when other resorts have grass poking through the slope and it also allows them to stay open longer than a lot of the resorts in the area. I am hoping they can open Dec 11th. We'll see.

This is how TIMBERLINE should portray itself:

http://www.skitimberline.com/snowmaking.asp

The picture was taken this morning.

THINK SNOW!

I was given the impression that water use restrictions prevent Timberline and Canaan from deploying huge snowmaking systems.

Water has never been a problem for Timberline. They have a wonderful reservoir system and generous pumping rights for the Blackwater River....

This is what I like to see. More white stuff!

Chad do yourself a favor and look closely and be very careful about judging a resort by its trailmap. Pay attention to reviews of the resort and real stats, not the trail map. Hidden Valley looks like a great mountain on the trail map, Laurel Moutain looks like a bunny hill, but I'd rather ski at Laurel any day of the week. TImberline's a fine resort and I put it as second in the mid atlantic just behind blue knob.

<<Water has never been a problem for Timberline. They have a wonderful reservoir system and generous pumping rights for the Blackwater River....>>

*cough* *cough* need I remind you about the year they had to fix the dam on Spruce Island Lake?

But hey, atleast they don't run out of water like Canaan.

Blue knob over timberline? I dont think so! The bottom of the crairlift is higher at TL than the top of blue knob.Real snow, real mtn ,real fun!! Hey Chad TL opens late because its safe for them.Thier strategy is to stay open till early april when everyone else is closed.

Andy:

You have got it right. Timberline opens late as a simple cost/benefit decision.
The early season is not worth the cost of blowing snow and then having it melt. The decision has nothing to do with water issues. There are no water problems at Timberline. The resort has received lots of rain and the reservoirs are overflowing. Some of the hiking trails around Spruce Island Lake were closed this summer b/c of too much rain!

I've skied the early and late season at Snowshoe and despite wonderful conditions, I'm always shocked that so few skiers make the effort to ski on these periods. You won't see a serious line at Snowshoe until the weekend before Christmas.

In any event, the argument is probably moot at this point given the forecast for the next few days:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/WVZ041.php?warncounty=WVC093&city=Davis

[This message has been edited by johnfmh (edited 11-15-2003).]

johnfmh ...
You are right about early/late seasons at SS. Maybe not all the runs are open but there's enuf to have some fun. Another trick we do is book Friday thru Monday. By Sunday noon the slopes have cleared out so much it can be like skiing at a ghost town. Ditto Monday morning. Only problem on Mondays is they seems to open the Western Express late,around 10:30,leaving us only about 2 hrs skiing before we have to head out for the trip home. The big kvetch I have about SS these days is they have filled up the weekends with so many 'events' in order to draw clientel that is getting increasingly harder to find a long weekend to ski there without battling the slope equivalent of the Beltway rush hour. We get seasons lift passes at SS (we go often enuf to make it more cost effecient) but I think that next year we will try TL and head further north New England way.
We want to buy something around here for long weekends and our choice so far has been SS but we are now rethinking .. the crowds are getting to be a big put off.

Well then what exactly are the water issues in the Canaan Valley? I thought that the problem was that both resorts were limited on what they could take from the Blackwater River.

gatkinso: I don't think the Blackwater was an issue. I'm pretty sure that Canaan simply ran out of water in their lake that year (2 seasons ago, the horrible season, remember?)

Timberline's never had problems like that.

Snowcone:

Timberline can get crowded just like Snowshoe. The best way to avoid the crowds is to not ski in the middle of the day on Saturday. That's what my wife and I often do at Timberline. As an alternative to the Saturday crowds, we occasionally head over to White Grass or Canaan Valley on those days. If the lift lines get long, we jump in the car and visit Chip Chase and his motley crew of Telemark and Cross Country fanatics at WG. If you really want to be alone in the woods, White Grass delivers.

If I owned a place at Snowshoe, I'd spend Saturdays over at Silver Creek or at the Nordic Center and let all the non-regulars ski Western Territory and The Basin.

Also, Saturday crowds are really only a problem during a handful of weekends in January and February. March in WV is completely and wonderfully non-crowded. You can make your best turns on that month, whether you head for Snowshoe or Timberline. Also, the weekend before or after a long weekend is usually not crowded at either Snowshoe or Timberline.

[This message has been edited by johnfmh (edited 11-17-2003).]

Johnmfh- you're 100% right about nordic skiing. It's also a heckuva lot friendlier, even though skiing in CV is generally a pleasant experience. The folks at Whitegrass are downright midwestern in their friendliness though.

A couple seasons ago, I went cross-country out at Jackson Hole. There are groomed trails that lead straight out of town, you don't even need to go to the nordic center. I got about four miles out and stopped in a random field. It was snowing lightly and you could hear the wind blowing through the pines on a mountaintop three miles away, adn that was the only sound. Has to be one of the most tranquil winter moments I've ever experienced.

Nordic is definitely underrated.

Yah I remember that season. I had a broken collar bone (from an early season Killington excursion) and missed it most of it.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

While sidelined I was talking with Junior (one of the more colorful lift operators at Canaan) and he was telling me that CVSP couldn't get permits to pump from the Blackwater after they ran out of water due to water restrictions (but that they would have them for the next year).

However that was a severe drought year as well.

Now I don't know if Junior was right or not - but that is what he said.