The past few days I've had a great time skiing and teaching at Timberline.

I left the house around 5:30 and drove out on Monday morning, so I could be there at 8. I keep forgetting that I don't have to be there til 9....I need to work on that. Anyways, the thermometer in my car read 5 degrees when I left my house and traveling over the mountains on 33 it fluctuated between 3 and -2. Upon arriving at the Ski School desk I learned that it was -8. Despite the cold weather, it was then I did something that I never would have thought in a million years that could be done. I clocked in.....to ski. That's right, I was officially getting paid, to ski (well, to teach people to ski).

The children's program didn't have any children, so I spent the 1st hour in a clinic with Mike (This guy is an incredible teacher and I would highly recommend taking a lesson from him if you ever get a chance). After the clinic I had a few hours to make some runs. I met up with Jimmy and we made a couple really sweet runs. The sweetest of them all was on Off The Wall. The conditions on OTW were PERFECT. The sticks on it had been blowing snow the entire night before and into the day. Since it was so cold out this made for the best man made snow you could ever ask for. The whales were so beautifully soft and the right side even had a few inches of "powder". I could have made laps there the rest of the day. Overall, yesterday was a great day, besides having to come inside after every 3 runs, just so you could regain feeling in your toes. I did teach a lesson, so I did actually get something accomplished.

Today was more of the same, except I taught a few lessons and it wasn't nearly as cold. OTW still skied amazing and even had some very soft moguls starting on the right side.

The past few days were a heck of a time to be out on the slopes. Although temps were really low yesterday, the forecasted wind never did show up. It's a shame that as I write this I can hear the rain pounding down on the roof. Hopefully it doesn't do too much damage. I'll be back out for the long-haul starting Friday. Hope to see you out there!!

BTW, I must add that Timberline has done an awesome job over the past few days with snowmaking. They have made a TREMENDOUS amount of snow. It was almost unbelievable when I saw it all this morning. They were pushing out Lower Almost Heaven today and were supposed to groom it this evening. It should be open tomorrow. Also, Lower Thunderstruck should be opening soon too. Lets just hope we can get through this rainy streak!!

Looking down OTW


You can't see it but there's a huge smile on my face


Jimmy putting in lots of hard hours at work


Looking back up OTW


A happy skier


Another happy skier


Lower Almost Heaven (all of that got pushed out and groomed by 3 pm)


At the top, first run of the day


So smooth & so soft, all of the way down White Lightning

Longtime lurker on the boards and decided to go ahead and pop my cherry on this thread. I too was at timberline on monday, right on about the temps, absolutely brutal. OTW was by far the best run all day, and seemed to only get better as they blew more snow on it throughout the day plus it didn't seem to be getting near the wind twister or WL were getting.

Hey there mu(marshall??)skier welcome in from the cold. OTW was ever changing, JohnL skied it saturday and said it was sweet sunday it was dust over frozen tracks experts only and as you know Monday it was soooo cherry poppin turnin droppin turnturn popdrop sweeet soft powpow. My only regret is I wasn't able to stay for summore work on tuesday.

UNOWUT teh weather has been a roller coaster so far but i hope everybodies getting some of this. What a start to this season. I looke back on last year and it was JANUARY 17 when i had ten days guess what 12/22 was???? Everbody, pack it up and head for the mountains make some turns soon and have a Merry Christmas.

Sounds like i picked a good day to head up then, i can imagine sunday it was pretty solid as the backside of the whales were pretty solid.
As for my user name, yeah a Marshall guy here, currently there punishing myself for 2 more years in MBA school.

As Jimmy said, two different seasons this past Saturday and Sunday. Saturday had hero soft snow on OTW; spring conditions. It had experienced little traffic, so the surface was very smooth. Best lines were right over the tops of the whales.

Sunday was frigid mid-winter; expert-only conditions on OTW. The snow froze in place overnight (was not groomed.) The hard surface was not too much of a problem, but the very irregular surface was nearly impossible in some sections to ski on. If you weren't careful, you could twist an ankle or a knee in those conditions.

Dang Jimmy, you're 8 days ahead of me this year. And you'll be pulling even further ahead this coming week. I'll have to beat you on quality, not quantity this year.

All that work is paying off; Jimmy's skiing is looking a lot better this year.

Show off!

Good luck on the job!