Took the family to Liberty last night and while on the the lift looking out at patrol handling an injured boarder in the park I had a question that I could not reconcile. I first skied at Snowshoe in the late 70s and my recollection back then was that when the slightest bump formed in the trail, patrol would stomp it, chop it up, or flag it out of bounds. The same was true of little chutes etc. on the sides of trails.

Today in all of the mid-A terrain parks there are huge mounds of snow, table tops with sharp corners, iron rails, etc. etc. all of which would make a 1970s patroller cringe in my non-professional opinion.

At Liberty, as the lift passes by the park carnage, it then hits a good section at a good 35%-40% grade in the mountain full of rocks and trees of which the skiers get no enjoyment. My point is as I see it now after 30 years, there has been no real technical improvement in local skier terrain, and I cannot see how saftey is the issue any more--cost yes, but safety---not.

Why not have the locals clear this terrain, leaving at least a few trees and rocks to huck, add some guns and hope for the best. IMHO snowmaking and grooming technology has certainly improved enough to allow the old school skiers some fun too. And if you think about it, every local resort has these areas. But perhaps my thoughts are old school and I'm supposed to be satisfied with the park.

I wondered about that liftline last time we skied there. Has anything "off-piste" on the frontside ever been skiable?

aaron

Meh.

If it was cleared, it wouldn't be much more than Blue Streak and White Lightning already are. With lift towers in the smackit middle.

Gobs of work. For maybe 200 feet vertical. That would create speed and skill mismatch problems at the runout in the terrain park.

I don't see it happening.

Liabilities/insurance. If you like that idea of clearing terrain and lines that look nice to ski however, come to whitegrass in the fall and knock yourself out. then enjoy the fruits of your labor in the winter. I like clearing glades myself, but even the younger folks who usually ski at timberline terrain park have jumps and "cliff huckstables" all over the place if that's what you are into. It's kinda like the wild west of skiing off-piste.

Comprex--you may be right, but my thinking is very small--meaning 200ft at a 500ft resort is fine. Perhaps the cliche of quality not quantity is also in my head--even a 2 foot drop off something natural would be nice albeit covered by FG or MMPP. I am also thinking of more than just Liberty. To Chaga, I did have a reference to the recent WG vids in my post that I deleted--shouldn't have, but oh well and I am thinking closer to home---for me at least.

Not enough good skiers. Too many impressionable, reckless, bad skiers. Too close to major population centers full of idiots. Too much in view of impressionable chairlift riders. Not enough snow cover, even if you could some blow some snow in there. Some of those rocky scree slopes are pretty nasty; you'd need weeks with a bobcat or get hit with Alta-like snow cover. Plus, I'm guessing those rocks probably serve a purpose.

Keith, I appreciate your points, but I've long ago given up that pipe dream. Accept gravity, don't fight it. Les trois resortes de Canaan Vallee, Blue Knob, Laurel Mountain (when it returns.) Plenty of playground, but as you said, you do have to drive to it. How crowded are the above compared to the Sno Time areas? How much easier is it to look the other way at those places?

But as a ying to the above yang, if you can't find some mischief locally, you probably aren't looking hard enough. Doesn't have to be 200 ft of mischief.

What Chaga said - liabilites/insurance. Not gonna happen. Although even I have to admit that with that last storm, it was aaawwwwfffuuulll tempting!! But then, I wanted to keep my job . . .

It has been skied.

Opening it would be a nightmare. The pitch ends right at the mid-station unload. Morons would see it, combine the pitch with the long flat runout below and figure they could hang on until they hit the flats. Add lift towers and people congregating after unloading at the mid-station and total chaos would ensue.

Finally, I am not sure what it would add to the mountain. What you get is not too different from Upper Ultra.

Way too many downsides, no real upside to opening this.

I found this little rock jump about six years ago or so at a lift serviced resort in the valley...I am sure this same rock jump is doable right now with the conditions as good as they are...there are all types of natural features like this in the valley that can be accessed from the two lift service areas...you just have to find it...its not on the trail map...if you like skiing trees or playing on stuff like this I would suggest heading to the valley asap, while the gettin' is good...

Hey Tucker. I think I recognize that jump and I won't give up your secret stash under threat of death! I hit that once by mistake and didn't land it too gracefully. Next weekend should be epic in the valley. See you then.

How come you all don't go up to Laurel with our local Crazie?

Absolute bomber base in the Valley trees right now. Good early season snow followed by light rain (not enough to significantly erode the base but perfect to solidify it) followed some more snow on top =

A bit of TLC has been performed over the past year or two in the T-Line trees. If properly introduced, I'll buy the culprit(s) a beer or two at Timbers.

Tucker, Kim,
I'll swap a line or two with y'alls. My Valley lines aren't as good as the ones of you Valley vets, but I'm curious and observant and most of all, I know a bunch of great ones at Solitude, Alta, Brighton, Pow Mow, etc.

The woods were awsome at CVR on Saturday, kept thinking about the woods at Tline, might hit them up on Tuesday am.

Anyone want to ski/board on Tuesday?

Want to? Yes. Able to? No.

urtehsukscott jk i runinated teh front of my truck on Sunday more on that in the winter drivngs thread but that screwed my planz to ski the Better Terrain today, got a taste w/JohnL on Satur and Mark & Shelley on Sun day. Only thing i can say is there is plenty of Better Terrain available in Tucker's County for you skiing pleasure, but i'll be here at work til Friday.

SCWVA GoGoGo, UNOWARE , that is all.

if you are really into skiing....heed this advice and take some sick days or whatever you can do to get here. Haven't seen the ground in almost a month. Hopefully this is a long-term pattern, but it's still the mid-atl, so nothing is guaranteed. But for now and the near future Canaan is officially on code red alert, which means SKI EVERYWHERE in conditions that are as good as they get.



if you are up for a few glade runs at WG late afternoon today, hit me up

I'll be at Blue Knob this Saturday. I haven't been there yet this year but their site list all terrain open, it should be good with lake effect all week and sub freezing temps too.

Boy, I'd love to take a sick day or two this week but I just got recalled after a 2 month lay off. Why of all weeks must they call me back this week? I skied 7S in the New Years Eve cream cheese and fog for my only day out this year but house calamities and holidays have kept me down mountain doing my home (m)owners repairs. I'm sure my employment will end as soon as it rains (in about a week or 2).

Anyone interested in visiting the backcountry of TLine, White Grass and Canaan Valley in the next 4 days?
There is plenty of snow and a lot of great untouched lines.
ludovic@akaflash.com if interested

LHC,
Where are you seeing all terrain open? I looked this morning, and most of the lower mtn stuff off of east wall seemed to be closed.

Wow GG, it was all marked open yesterday. BK has a habit of being 'cautious' opening up expert terrain especially mid-week. We've been getting steady lake effect since New Years. There is close to 10 inches of snow in my suburban yard. Seven Springs is boasting 34" in the last eight days. Seems like there be enough cover to open the natural terrain. Boy it would be nice to see a season long snow pack in the mountains around here.

BK closed even more terrain today (this morning, I think they posted 76% open and now the web site reads 70% open). I was ready to book a place to stay for this weekend, but am now hesitant to do so. Does anyone out there know if Blue Knob is just saving snow for the weekend?

Blue Knob is closing terrains? I just got back from shredding teh gnar two and one half ours of untracked boot deep pow on a 350 yarde driving range at Oglebay and you tell me You want to know WUTS open at bk?

HEY are you guys payin attention ORWUT??????

Tuckers county is GOIN OFF!!!

Cmon down you won't have to worry about what's open cause its all open, ski where you want inbounds backcountrie this is the best WV snow pack in years untouched lines as far as the eye can see.








I may have to call in dead this week

A call to BK last eve. revealed some info. First, I was put on hold for five minutes, twice (b/c you know how busy they are on a Tuesday at 7 pm). Anyhow, the very nice person on the other end of the line at Blue Knob said that they didn't want folks skiing into the eastern glades. So, to prevent that from happening, BK closed eastern trails that border those glades. Looking at their map, basically everything that can only be accessed from East-Wall Traverse is closed as of last night.

NWS said this morning that the Laurels got dumped on last night...so, I'm still holding out hope for a BK trip this weekend.

The issue with BK was not so much which slopes were open, but which lifts. You cant tell if Route 66 or high hopes is open, but now it looks like neither one is.

Looks like everyone needs to ski BK, so that they can afford some more rope for closing off individual sections.