We have received 15.7 inches of snow in the past four days, and it's still snowing here at Canaan Valley Resort. Stay the night midweek (Sunday - Thursday) at Canaan Valley Resort and receive 20 percent off our Best Available Rate on cabins, cottages, and lodge rooms with our Cabin Fever discount.
I was up there today. Mighty fine conditions! Defiently had a good time. My only gripe is that some of the snowguns (the older ones) sound like jet engines! Probally the loudest I have come across.
I also was at Canaan Ski Area today! Lots of fresh powder. They were running many guns, and while I understand and tolerate running the guns, especially after a two week period of limited snowmaking weather, I have a major gripe about the snow being produced, and the number of guns pointing at a single spot. I hit the slopes at about 11:40, temperature was about 16F. The guns on the primary slope, Valley Vista and the Face must have been set wrong and produced a very wet product that instantly froze into ice pellets, and coated my goggles with ice making visibility difficult at best. In addition, the guns were aimed horizontal to the trail, vice up into the air. This meant that even if you took the goggles off, the ice pellets caused pain and your exposed eyes closed for protection. I found it interesting that the guns on the beginners chair area were blasting snow, vice ice. In addition as you came around the curve from the top there were multiple guns all seemingly aimed at a single spot, effectively creating a dangerous man-made icy white out. I fell over here, as did others. I'll have a very sore hip tomorrow!! Did I mention that the two signature trails: Timber and the much advertised Gravity were both closed for snowmaking. So despite amazing fresh snow my first two hours trying to ski were miserable. Later in the afternoon I saw a snow cat crew working on the main slope guns, and suddenly I could ski without ice building on my goggles. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. It is supposed to be less cold, and a bit more natural snow. On a positive note, they began to open slopes with just natural snow in the afternoon!! I'll report again tomorrow! Come on up!!!
Actually Canaan should pay me to come visit; I was here for the 20" blizzard last year, and there has been over a foot of fresh snow this trip.
MorganB
aka The Colonel
Good to see the Hickory Dining Room at Canaan Valley Lodge open for dinner weekdays this ski season. Last year the dining room was closed resulting in a dearth of places to eat for those staying in the Lodga. My Petite Filet was excellent!
Colonel, have you ever eaten at White Grass Cafe? I recommend it highly.
hope you get that powder tomorrow. I love the Weiss meadows in powder.
Thanks for the reports Colonel and ParkCrewDrew. Sounds like good stuff at Canaan, even though Gravity and Timber remain closed. (Gee, could they alternate them on weekdays this week?) I'm thinking of getting out there for a day of skiing on Wednesday.
Any Tuesday reports from the ground at Canaan?
Woody
PS I definitely appreciate the fact that Canaan is now posting snow reports early enough in the morning for those of us in VA, central MD-PA and DC to have an update before hitting the road.
Your concerns are the same concerns as most locals and the business owners who rely on the resorts being open in the winter. Snowmaking is not a "set it and forget it" job. It is however, a harsh job that nobody wants to do for minimum wage, which is likely the issue around here.
The Colonel wrote:
I also was at Canaan Ski Area today! Lots of fresh powder. They were running many guns, and while I understand and tolerate running the guns, especially after a two week period of limited snowmaking weather, I have a major gripe about the snow being produced, and the number of guns pointing at a single spot. I hit the slopes at about 11:40, temperature was about 16F. The guns on the primary slope, Valley Vista and the Face must have been set wrong and produced a very wet product that instantly froze into ice pellets, and coated my goggles with ice making visibility difficult at best. In addition, the guns were aimed horizontal to the trail, vice up into the air. This meant that even if you took the goggles off, the ice pellets caused pain and your exposed eyes closed for protection. I found it interesting that the guns on the beginners chair area were blasting snow, vice ice. In addition as you came around the curve from the top there were multiple guns all seemingly aimed at a single spot, effectively creating a dangerous man-made icy white out. I fell over here, as did others. I'll have a very sore hip tomorrow!! Did I mention that the two signature trails: Timber and the much advertised Gravity were both closed for snowmaking. So despite amazing fresh snow my first two hours trying to ski were miserable. Later in the afternoon I saw a snow cat crew working on the main slope guns, and suddenly I could ski without ice building on my goggles. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. It is supposed to be less cold, and a bit more natural snow. On a positive note, they began to open slopes with just natural snow in the afternoon!! I'll report again tomorrow! Come on up!!!
Actually Canaan should pay me to come visit; I was here for the 20" blizzard last year, and there has been over a foot of fresh snow this trip.
MorganB
aka The Colonel
Another snow surprise this morning Feb 1, looks like about 4" freshies and snowing hard when I left Canaan Valley at 1:00 pm!
Come and get it, CV Ski Area looking great but holding off on opening Gravity and Timber!!! TL has opened another way from top to bottom, but Sally still closed! Not sure why CV cannot open Gravity while still making snow. I noticed a report that 7Springs had huge piles of snow on NorthFace but most NF trips not open!!
The resorts cry out for more mid-week skiers, but then shoot themselves in foot by saving slopes for the weekend...not a smart way to run the railroad if you are serious about attracting more midweek customers!! Look at the Snowshoe model, most trails open midweek, no wonder they get the crowds...better product!
Yep, Colonel, yesterday (Weds, Feb 1) was a great day to be at Canaan Valley if you like upper blues and natural-snow runs. A friend and I got there at 9am and skied 'til 430 (sorry to have missed you by a day). It snowed all day (light to moderate snow), keeping the surfaces fun and fresh. Yes, they were still keeping Gravity and Timber closed and working them with the groomers. The main drag under the lift, and Ramble, provided alternatives that were great fun. Ski Daddler was ... crunch! ... ungroomed and crusty. Did they forget it?
I stink at skiing ungroomed natural snow but had a blast, esp. on my CV favorite: Dark Side of the Moon. You are really way out there when you ski over to the Dark Side.
Woody
An average of 3.6 inches a day for the last 10 days...do the math!.....Feast and famine...welcome to the WV Alpps.....
Skiing at Whitegrass was great yesterday. They are the only resort in the Valley with 100% of their terrain open right now. All that snow was nice (albeit anything but light and fluffy) as well. Made for turning off trail on those skinny/edgeless Evos quite challenging for this amateur xc skier.
David wrote:
Skiing at Whitegrass was great yesterday. They are the only resort in the Valley with 100% of their terrain open right now. All that snow was nice (albeit anything but light and fluffy) as well. Made for turning off trail on those skinny/edgeless Evos quite challenging for this amateur xc skier.
Whitegrass also has the second fastest lifts in the valley. They are pretty awesome. I wish I wasn't fat and knew how to XC ski so I could take advantage.
AndyGene wrote:
David wrote:
Skiing at Whitegrass was great yesterday. They are the only resort in the Valley with 100% of their terrain open right now. All that snow was nice (albeit anything but light and fluffy) as well. Made for turning off trail on those skinny/edgeless Evos quite challenging for this amateur xc skier.
Whitegrass also has the second fastest lifts in the valley. They are pretty awesome. I wish I wasn't fat and knew how to XC ski so I could take advantage.
Out of curiosity, I'd be interested to hear the fastest lodge to Bald Knob time. I'm sure Chaga has some ideas...
First of all, we sincerely value your input and appreciate your ongoing support, Colonel.
The only thing we hate more than 50-degree days during ski season is disappointing our most valued guests. This has not been a banner week (so far) on either front. Mike Chaney and his team on the mountain and Steve Drumheller at the helm talk almost daily (often at 5 a.m.) to devise a strategy to achieve the best possible conditions on as many runs as possible.
This week, we faced the proverbial “rock and a hard place” scenario, and we decided the most expedient way to goose Mother Nature was to keep “pounding away” making snow on Timber Trail and Gravity. Just want to make sure that if another warmup comes, we’re prepared to ski into late March. We are truly sorry about the negative impact on your skiing experience earlier this week.
There’s some good news now, though. You can #DefyGravity to your heart’s content for the next several days. We have nearly eight inches of fresh powder and frosty weather ahead. We have 38 trails open today, and the entire mountain will be open this weekend.
Hope to see you on the slopes this weekend. And keep those comments coming.
