Hello DC SKI Community! I am in the process of purchasing a vacation cabin in the Wardensville WV area and am looking to get as much information about skiing in west virginia as possible. Seven Springs has been my home mountain for almost 20 years, given that I went to college near there and its relatively easy to get there from DC for day trips on the weekends (and its also a great resort). I have only been to Timberline once and Canaan Valley a handful of times. These two resorts are going to be the closest to the cabin I am purchasing and will make them my new home mountains. Being an avid skier, I have recently gotten into touring/mountaineering and have all the requisite gear for the activity (skins, wide powder skis, randonee bindings). I am hoping to connect with some folks in the general area who would be willing to share some local knowledge of where some good places are to go touring. I have heard there are backcountry options at Timberline and am eager to give them a go this winter. But in the mean time, if you can point me in the right direction I would greatly apperciate it. Are there any ski clubs in the area? Thank you so much for your time and willingness to share!

You came to the right place! There are a lot of people with similar interests on this board. You will want to check out a little ski area called White Grass in Canaan - http://www.whitegrass.com/report.html    They will be a great resource for you I'd guess. 

If you haven't committed yet you might want to consider a closer location, or go out there and drive it to get your own read on it.  Wardensville is still about 2 hrs. Away from Canaan Valley.  

Whitegrass is indeed the place to go to get into the backcountry.  I havent skied BC in WV other than whitegrass and immediate Vicinity.  I know there are other places but they are beneath the radar and you need local contacts.  You can learn more by talking to the folks at Whitegrass.  

Another factor is the snowfall pattern in WV.  It is highly orographic and concentrated along the higher elevations of the Allegheny Front.  It is common to have deep snow at TL, CV, and WG and little or nothing in valley spots as little as 20 miles away; Harman, Mouth of Seneca, Scherr, and bare ground in Moorefield, Romney and Wardensville.

Thanks so much for the tips! we are committed to the wardensville area mainly due to how close it is to DC. I have made the drive to T-line before and its actually 1.5 hours for me from there, so its not too bad. I am used to 3.5 hour drives each way to seven springs and back to DC for day trips on the weekends, so 1.5 hour drive is nothing for me! Thanks for the WG tip. i certainly will check it out once it dumps. and yes, will be talking to as many locals who will share their knowledge with me.

eggraid wrote:

check out a little ski area called White Grass in Canaan - http://www.whitegrass.com/report.html   

well, a little lodge for sure! as a ski area, it is the biggest mountain with the most terrain in the area to ski powder till your heart is content. The only downside to using skins is that you will be taking them on an off a bunch unless you want to restrict yourself to the handful of top to bottom runs. Some of the best glades or runs are shorter, but you can connect them together with a little bit of up and over, then down, then up and over to another, then down, etc etc. And there are 'flats' to go across also in which skins will weigh you down because they have no glide at all!  If you have the money, consider getting something like the "voile vector bc" skis with the fishscales under foot on them for climbing and you will be much more mobile and happy on that mountain than lugging skins around, trust me :)

Also, you should be able to get from Wardensville to Canaan in less than 1.5 hours for sure now

For WG and environs, I always carried skinny skins to slap on over the scales on my skis if desired.  I used a 65 mm skin on a 90mm waist ski.  Skinny skins have enough grip for virtually all of the WG slopes and they are lighter and have better glide than full width skins.  I skied the gas line (ask Chip) a lot and preferrred to go straight back up with skins rather than zig zag thru the woods.  At least 90% of WG skiers dont use skins, but most of them could herringbone up Everest anyway.  I'm an old fart and I don't (won't) herringbone. Its too much like work for someone of my age and fitness level.  The WG Zen masters use edgeless scaled XC skis like Rossi Evos, with NNNBC boots and bindings.  They are a joy to watch, but you won't see them for long, they climb too fast. 

I have seen increasing numbers of BC skiers on the lightweight offerings from Voile with AT bindings, usually Dynafits.  It should be a great set up.  

I wax my scaled skis full length with alpine race wax.  Iron it on and aggressively wipe the excess off the scaled area while it is still liquid.  It's only the wax that is absorbed into the base that you need anyway.  Treat the unscaled part of the base just like you would an alpine ski; scrape well and buff.  This costs you a bit of grip but gains a lot in glide and greatly reduces ice formation and build up on the scales, which can turn a great backcountry day into an ugly debacle.  You only need to do this 1-2 times a season since you're not putting the miles on those skis as you would lift skiing.  

Another comment about the accessibility of the CV area resorts.  Those roads are pretty gnarly switchbacks and not many relief valleys where you can make good time.  30 miles away can take 45 minutes on a good day.  Mile a minute isn't a reasonable estimate for tavel around there. 

Once you're there it's as good as it gets in the Mid Atlantic and better than the average farther north.

White Grass is the place for touring.  If you plan to do lift-served then Timberline and Canaan Valley are a nice nearby pairing.  Here are some old articles that give a flavor for the area:

http://www.dcski.com/articles/1441

http://www.dcski.com/articles/1336

Photos from Timberline:

Here are a few from Canaan Valley:

Canaan Valley will be your best skiing, probably 90 mins away, but Bryce Resort in VA is a small ski area less than an hour from you it looks like. I've never been, but it has a nice family vibe from what I've heard. 

It should be a pretty easy drive from Wardensville to Canaan, there is a new super-highway that starts right there near Wardensville and goes (I've heard) to Davis.

http://www.whitegrass.com/downloads2014-15/cvcvc.jpg

Probably the best map to get some basic bearings from a front side-off piste ski perspective.  WG has more maps on their website.

Overall there are two commerical downhill resorts, both decent, but poorly managed and undercapitalized (mostly slow lifts and marginal snowmaking).  But the best snow conditions in the region.

There are 4 cross county ski operations: WG, Timberline, and Canaan and Blackwater State Parks.  Blackwater has an old sledding hill and they added snowmaking and a carpet lift this past season.  WG is the best cross country ski area south of New England.  Plenty of backcountry to explore with high elevations for the region. 

The second time I ever skied was at Canaan valley! Actually, the last time I skied Canaan was in 93-94. Last year was my first time visiting Timberline. I cant wait to hit these places more often! I will certainly check out the touring center as well. When the snow starts falling, I will certainly reach back here to see if I can join any of you on a tour or something! thanks a ton for all the information!

Please explain how CVR is poorly managed.  If the resort is open top to bottom by the middle of December and stays open until damn near the end of March what am I missing?  I know the mountain manager and he is committed to providing the best conditions for the skiers and boarders.  Have you ever talked to those running CVR and provided any input to them regardng how the mountain is operated?  Canaan leaves plenty of terrain ungroomed after a dump for the powder hounds.  I have no complaints whatsoever when it comes to CVR.  And no, I'm not on their payroll. 

Snapdragon.  Fair enough. I have been skiing CV since 1980 and recently skied there two MLK weekends, one right before and one after the improvements.  Both weekends, very limited terrain, not full side to side coverge on what was open, spotty grooming, and Gravity was not even close to opening.  All while the DC local resorts (2,000 ft lower) were 100% open, so IMHO if these other resorts can get open, CV should have 100% of their snowmaking terrain open by that date, especially with the higher elevation and lower temps.  It was not, and one of these weekends was after the state spent some money on snowmaking.  Just my thoughts and i am not a picky skier and am a fan of CV and TL.  

CV has limited fanguns - most trails don't have electricity, and several outlets on Valley Vista and one on Ramble don't get used at all because they're inconvenient, not to mention that there are only 18 mobile fans (T-line has over 60) on the whole hill. Most of the guns on the main slopes - Gravity, Valley Vista, Ramble, Timber - weren't upgraded at all and are the same old inefficient, loud sled guns as they always have been. (The guns on the old towers are exactly the same as the sled guns.) Further, compared to some resorts, the hydrants are spaced out pretty wide so the density of guns on any given trail is lower.

Now, the state had the right idea with buying new more efficient tower snowguns. Each tower uses perhaps a sixth of the air that a sled gun uses in warm weather, now Cutback, Lower Timber, Sissy Schuss and Bunny Buster can have all their guns on at once, while the old guns take care of (most of) Valley Vista/Chute. However, I've heard Canaan's snowmakers complain about (and seen) snow just blowing into the woods on Sissy/Bunny, I think the guns are too tall for that run and they don't throw the snow straight in other places. (You might have seen Old Canaan Curve being made with the old guns despite five new towers on it.) 

What really needs to happen for what y'all want - Gravity, Ramble (priority because race trail), Vista/Chute, Timber, and B Lift by Christmas in a decent year - is for Canaan to max out their water every night they blow, something around 3000 gallons per minute. Right now when it's warm they usually run out of air to run more guns before the pumps are really working. Adding or using guns that use less (or no - fanguns have onboard compressors) air lets them move more GPM. Without adding more fanguns and wiring, they can replace the guns on Valley Vista/Chute with some longer-ranged Low-E towers. They can add a mobile tower on a sled or five to help cover the main base and steal one or two of those fanguns to fill in between the two polecats on B. They can put good towers on Gravity. I don't think there's enough hydrants on Ramble if they put one gun per so they'd need to redo the pipelines there. With the movable towers they can get the wide spots of Timber and be able to make on all of it at once after the base area is done. If they relocated the three polecats from Meadows 1 to the Terrain Park those could handle it with a lot of grooming or with help from other fanguns.

I don't really understand why the new towers they have are where they are. The beginner area ones make sense, mostly, and Upper Canaan Curve, but the ones around the top of Spruce and Meadows One and Old Canaan Curve don't seem to have the throw they need and Canaan's snowmakers seem like they just ignore 'em.

I think a lot of this has to do with CV being operated by a company that doesn't own the place, so upgrades don't happen unless the state gets involved and the state doesn't quite know how to run a ski area. Everyone there seems to do a good job with the tools they have.

Hopefully we will begin to see an effort to improve snowmaking at CVR beginning this year, not necessarily from an improved infrastructure but from increase management efforts by the NEW company that has the management contract for the park's amenities, such as the golf course and ski area.  Maybe some additional funding could come the way of the ski area that might help make the changes the firewarde mentions in previous post.

have any of the Cannan regulars noticed any positive changes to the golf course or other amenities during this summer?  Anyone heard of any improvements to the ski operation?

The Colonel