and the news that the owners of Wisp bought it, but were logging it, but maybe were fixing up the lodge, defaintely were improving the road, up to 1500' of verticle, and so on...

... I finally decieded to take a looksy (my company has a Keyhole Pro subscription).

Looks like the cut trails would have served about 900 feet of vert and forget about getting any more because the topology just doesn't support it.

As far as current activity, it is hard to tell just what is going on there, the imagery is not current.

I'm curious as to what you are seeing. Job Knob is clearly at 4260' or so and the previously cut slopes go to 3400' where they converge for 850' vertical. If you then look to the northeast, on close to the same trajectory as the east most cut slope, the creek is at ~2750. So, even if you didn't go all the way down, you still get 1450' ft. If you were to drop off the apex of the existing trail's turn, which is at 3600', the linear distance to 2800' is 3700' feet. This yields an 800' ft drop over 3700' linear or about a 21.6% slope. This compares with 4600 linear for the 850 drop (18.5%)from the top of the knob to the existing "base." It is also a better drop than the 900ft vertical over 4300' linear for the fall line at Timberline (21% slope). Looking from the top to the possible northeast base, you would have 1450' over 6800 linear feet, again an overall slope very comparable to the Timberline fall line.

For another comparison, you can look at Cupp Run at Snowshoe. Per Keyhole, the top is 4560' and the base is 3180' (just over 1400 ft) over a linear distance of 6150' feet (22.6%). So, while Tory is not quite as steep as Cupp overall, the lower portion is quite comparable.

It's also interesting to note that all the vertical figures arrived at with Keyhole fall short of the vertical published by ski areas. I suspect there is some "wishful thinking" in the ski area figures, but there are also many examples of known, verified elevations (precise lake levels, for example) where Keyhole values are off by 10 to 15 feet.

So, overall, it seems to me that the 1400ft potential for Tory with a very desireable pitch is quite real. Now if they can just find about $50 million to build it....

Job knob is just shy of 4500' so readjust your figures!

Well I looked at the cut trails, top the bottom right around 900 feet.

That isn't to say that they could use the other side of the hill, but on the north face they aren't getting any more than that.

Gat,

So what you see is another hill similar to Tline? That's ok, what with 350k slopeside lots, modern lifts and a user friendly lodge. When, not if, seems to be the question. Sure would be nice to get some on the ground information from someone in the valley. Surely they didn't buy the land to timber and graze sheep.

jimmy

I've talked with a number of knowledgable WVA locals about the current status of Tory Mt. And, as I had suspected, it's just a logging operation, nothing more, nothing less. There are no serious plans for a ski area, despite all of the talk and speculation.