Closed the resort on the best day in years.

More than 1/2 of the people (250) who work in my office could not get here today. You can't run a ski area if your employees cannot get to work. Most live in rural areas with long driveways. Give'm a break!... I would assume you were lucky enough to have minimal snow removal since you have time to go skiing.

Bah. IMAGINE the size of the bumps on Exhibition.

In APRIL!

...I'm as sorry but I have to agree that that is really weak...they probably don't let you ski in the trees either

Whitetail was closed yesterday?

closed early yesterday - and closed all day today...........liberty didnt open till 10:40


if this was my business - id make sure i could deliver on days like this

Yesterday was the powder day. Who cares about the day after? Sounds like you missed the boat!

...obviously Whitetail doesn't care...

Riiight. A bunch of minimum wage slaves should risk their lives so you can ski whenever you want? Trust me, every attempt is ALWAYS made, including sleeping on the floor, to get open on time.

...lol...

I heard the real reason that they didn't open today was because they had a breech in security sometime in the past few months that they just found out about. I

guess some crazy WV boys broke in and stole all of WT's artillery. Yeah, word has is that many a deer in WV were subject to a quick death via heavy ammo...

And then when Whitetail patrol went to bomb this morning for avy control they found their stash was empty.

No avy control = no skiing at Whitetail today


In completely unrelated news (I swear)...

I've got TONS of fresh venison for sale or trade. Just let me know if you want backstrap, stew meat, burger, sausage, or jerky meat. I'm just sayin.......

The word I heard was many trout were depth-charged and cooked at the same time.

It would take some WV Boys to break into & out of the Lowland Mass dumpage wasteland!..Venison..Had about 15 of em in my back yard every morn & eve last weekend up at the Alpps camp but since it ain't hunting season..how much for the Jerky?

...surf 'n' turf WV style...

ScottyB, so let me get this straight - yesterday, with National Weather Service Blizzard Warnings, 50mph recorded wind gusts, the most snow in recorded history for the DC area, Maryland DOT closing roads (including Route 15 still closed today), snowplows being pulled because of dangerous road conditions, motorists stranded in snowdrifts in Frederick County unable to seek shelter, the National Guard mobilized, roofs collapsing on people's homes, emergency services unable to operate normally, hospitals pleading for 4WD vehicles to help transport the sick and injured, stores unable to open for people to buy food - and YOU'RE pissed because a SKI AREA didn't open???? Nice . . .

No, that would've been last Saturday. Sorry you missed it. It was quite nice. Would've been too windblown today. Guess that's why the road was closed.

Read the web site carefully. PA declared a state of emergency and closed the local roads. Whitetal routinely closes when the local roads are planned to be closed so that we don't contribute to the road clearing problems. In past big dumps with high winds, we've had 6-10 foot drifts blocking the roads on either end of the valley where the farms are. It's much harder to clear that kind of mess with doofuses stuck in the drifts.

Freshpow was right about Saturday. If you wanted turns today, you could have come to the Mount Airy snowboard park

Thanks for eloquently saying what I was thinking.. When the roads to a resort are impassable, you can't fault the resort for not opening. Safety comes first, and this snow isn't going anywhere. We're going to be blessed with great conditions for many weeks to come.

...this topic is just crackin' me up...yeah scottyb shame on you for saying a ski resort closing because of a couple feet of snow is lame??? don't worry fellow mountaineer-why waist your time trying to spend money at whitetail just to get hounded by employees anyway when you can just stay in WV where they keep their resorts open and the local people and municipalities can handle the snow...remember when we got 44" inches in 20 hours up here in the valley and there was a state of emergency, high winds, snowplow trucks stuck on 32,etc, blah, blah, blah, blah, and the lifts opened an hour late after we dug them out and tons of people showed up to ski...so just give Whitetail a break for closing and if you want a ski resort that stays open in a blizzard stay in WV...

If they are going to close the place they need to do it in a timely manner. Like the night before and not keep the snow report showing they will be open with EPIC conditions. This baits people into trying to get there so they can make money.

BTW we got there via PA roads and so did many of their employees who were told to leave when we pulled in. Liberty was able to dig out their lifts and operate that day and they had the same weather, kudos to them.

Edited to add; We spoke with a MD state road person, while helping to unstick some cars, that MD officals had contacted WT the night before and told them to close which they refused.

I love the jokes about deer hunting and trout exploding, I will have to try that next year.

Time to go ski some power lines.

As of 11:30pm on Thursday night, RT.15 was still closed between I70 & PT of Rocks. Why is RT. 15 still closed?

Between Wednesday am and last night, I have driven over 550 miles in VA, WV, PA, & MD. The road conditions in WV were by far the best. Props to WV road crews.

Like Tucker said, you should have gone to WV!

Of course, if they ever finish Corridor H, WV road crews will have to spend all their time and effort backhoeing -that- every powcalypse. ..

Pretty sure MD had the most snow on the most interstate highway miles out of this storm series.

Reading the timelines for all the different segments on the Corridor H website is high comedy.

There is an argument for every argument..Of course if you factor in the population Density & tax revenue & grade factor of WV's switchbacks compared to MD...Well..I think WV has won the contest Hands Down!..Maryland is for CRABS!!..WV is for...Git-er-Done!
Ok..there is this chairlift issue...

I've got one for that one too.

Bummer.

I wish I had been there with a like minded companion. From mountain biking, I know some lines there that are probably skiable less than once a decade. Thursday likely the best chance ever to try that stuff.

Why didn't you go to Liberty or Wisp after you got chair pulled out from under you at Whitetail?

We dug out on Wednesday evening, checked the Whitetail web site which was boasting the best ski conditions all year for Thursday 2/11, went to bed totally jazzed, dreaming about what we would experience the next day. Got out early, 70W was a pain with the truck traffic and the sometimes iffy roads but we didn't care with a couple of feet of powder awaiting us. We couldn't believe our eyes though when we got to Clear Springs and found out that Whitetail was closed for the day. Are you kidding me, the best conditions all year and you guys could't get the place opened! No way to run a railroad, I got up at 6:00 am and put up with a 2 hour drive, and you let the best day all year slip by! You can't be serious! I'll not be back!

The last thing Whitetail wants to do is close. Whitetail wants to keep resort guests happy - and it wants to make money. -They opened Friday despite the fact that the MD police wanted them to close b/c Blairs Valley Road was impassable (Blairs valley ended up being closed around 8:30 AM until late afternoon.) The high winds and blizzard conditions made the roads unsafe Wednesday and the drifting snow made road clearing difficult on Thursday.

I work at Whitetail on the Mountain Safety Team. I went up Friday 2/5 and spent the night in the bunk room (with about 25-30 other patrol/safety people and a few family members) so I could be there for my shifts over the weekend. The first strom did not have as much drifting snow and the roads were cleared in a more timely fashion. We were out at 6:45 AM digging out the lifts - along with any other employees who had stayed overnight. Most of us worked double shifts and helped out wherever needed (rentals, lifts, etc.) Many guests were able to enjoy great conditions that day (if they could make it out of their neighborhoods.)

Whitetail rarely closes - we are open even when it is warm and rainy. In this case safety was really an issue.

...if your truly looking to keep customers coming back then when customers like scottyb and jungaheart pull up to the parking lot and you have to turn them away then you shouldn't be turning them away without a couple free day passes for sure...if I were running the show then I would throw in a couple beers at the bar for good measuer...as well..

probably would have been good PR to do this. Unfortunately no beer - Whitetail is dry - no liquor sales.

...as it's in an unincorporated area of a dry county (damn Mennonites). You're allowed to BYOB (a little known and not too well advertised fact). Just can't bring it out on the slopes...

So just like the local/state governments shutting down the roads, this is another issue Whitetail cannot control...and before it's posted, we all realize in the bountiful land known as West Virginia, closed roads and the lack of base lodge beer and booze are never an issue. ;-)

...and don't you forget it!!

...off-piste skiing is also allowed in WV, well in the canaan valley area at least, in fact it is encouraged...no beer,no bar,dry county,,,is that supposed to be some kind of sick joke???

Phew - where to start???
Ok - let's start with the story of the guy in Frederick who was driving home from work and ended up spending the night in his car and people describing him as lucky to be alive. Why? Well, he was just driving along when all of a sudden whiteout conditions forced him to stop and trapped his car. Despite cell phone contact, rescue crews were unable to reach him. This story in the paper was not an isolated incident . Hmmm - can anyone find stories of trapped Whitetail skiers?

In open country, 50 mile per hour winds and 3 feet of loose snow can create sudden white outs and make a clear road impassible in minutes. This is why roads get closed. When one gets stuck in those conditions and then asks other people to come do what one was not able to do, one is asking other people to risk their lives because of one's selfishness or stupidity. This is why one should not complain about such things when severe weather has been forecasted.

It's interesting that Whitetail is getting slammed for not closing and also for closing. Whitetail closed at 5PM Wednesday and announced on Wednesday that they would be closed Thursday. I did not check the website on Thursday morning, but I did get the email on Wednesday that Whitetail sends to the general mailing list announcing the closure. My guess is that if you saw a web page on Wednesday night advertising to come on Thursday you either did not do a browser refresh or you weren't checking the conditions report. If Whitetail did not fully update their web site, that was a mistake. It would have been nice if skiers who were turned away on Thursday were offered some concession, but then someone would be slamming Whitetail for encouraging people (yet another case of "damned if you do and damned if you don't").

Driving in through Clear Spring on Saturday it was easy to see why the roads had been closed. Off the side of the road you could see bare ground on the farm land. That snow had to go some place. There were huge piles of snow on the sides of the road obviously created by a front loader. The road is where a lot of that missing snow went. I heard similar reports from people who came from Mercersburg. It may have been possible to get to Whitetail via back roads on Thursday, but that does not mean it was legal (a local state of emergency was declared) or smart.

Does WV clear snow faster than Maryland/PA? Sure they do. They get more snow and they have the equipment ready for it. If MD and PA had enough equipment ready to quickly handle these kinds of conditions, they'd be getting blasted for wasting money in the face of global warming. We haven't had anywhere near this kind of snow for 8 years. WV also did not have it as bad as central Maryland did.

Whitetail stayed open through the big snow on Feb 5-7. At times it took 2 hours to get from Clear Spring to Whitetail. For most of Friday night and Saturday the local roads were difficult and dangerous, but not impassable. It takes something really serious for us to close. We work very hard to provide an experience so enjoyable you'll want to come back again and again. As an employee (and not speaking officially for Whitetail) I'm sorry if we weren't perfect, that we had to close and that some guests had a bad experience. But as a guest you need to realize that there will always be situations where we have to make decisions that are going to make someone upset no matter what we decide. When we make decisions for safety reasons, it's only common courtesy to show some respect.

..I will agree with you on that one for sure, WV got a &*^% load more snow then Maryland did and WV ski resorts where still open...but otherwise I have to side with the customers on this one and would think any spokesman for the mountain would be apologizing and offering these folks free ski passes...if you are going to have to close then it sounds like whitetail should handle the situation a better next time....employees getting on and making excuses/explanations is fine, whatever...I guess at least readers now know that if it is snowing you best call whitetail to make sure they are open or plan on going somewhere you know will be open...this started out as a consumers thread at least...

O yeah - and another thing. Whitetail did something special last Friday (2/5) night that I'm not going to specifically mention (so as not to encourage more of this). Let's just say that several of the skiers on Saturday morning were well rested because of something Whitetail did beyond the call of duty. If you're going to slam us, you owe us credit where it's due. I know that some of you die hards are out there.

...did they serve a beer???

Cross your fingers. Rumor has it there's a referendum coming.

......pow'n'beer...

Speaking as someone who works for a service-based industry, when weather like we just had is in the forecast, we actually plan ahead and have essential personnel stay the night at nearby hotels, and shuttle them to work in SUVs.

I was at Wisp during the first dump of snow 10 days ago, and they were actually *planning ahead* with their staff so that they could remain open. What a concept. Wisp never closed throughout (although they did close some slopes so grooming could commence) and I have to say it was some of the best skiing I've experienced in a long time.

Not asking people to risk their lives so I can ski powder, just asking business people to plan ahead.

As more of a destination area Wisp is much better suited for something like this. They'll have vacant lodging to use and plenty of guests staying on the mountain and w/in a very short drive. Whitetail on the other hand has minimal lodging at the base with most of its visitors driving from an hour+ away.

FWIW roads close all the time in mountain areas. The road going up to Silverton gets snowed in from time-to-time. It happens. It sucks, but it happens.

Whitetail rocks. Best bump run and best steep cruiser in the region. Easy to rack up twice as much vert there in a half day than you can get at Timberline on an all day ticket plus night skiing.

Rod, Timberline sucks. It's too far away, they let people ski in the trees, drink beer, no mass transit and the locals sound like they're speaking a ferrin langwage. You all were right to sit around and wait for Whitetail to open, Timberline sucks .

Timdrline doesn't suck. I once skied Tline with a foot of fresh and was pretty much the only person there who could manage the conditions. So that was a good day. Your mountain is kind of flat, that's a plus in my book. I guess the lack of mass transport could be seen as a good thing if you wish to exclude people who don't have cars, like me.

Oh and, I've never had my lift ticket marked with a big black X and/or been threatened with expulsion for skiing between trails except at Timberline. Whitetail patrollers have seen me in the trees and only smiled, big smiles!

Tucker,
"it sounds like" can be deceiving. That's why I'm posting in this thread. The truth is that the people of Whitetail do care. The truth is that it was not the snow that shut Whitetail down. It was a local state of emergency. The truth was that Whitetail did shut down Wednesday night. Scotty's posts makes it sound like Whitetail arbitrarily closed because there was too much snow, didn't get the word out and didn't care. The people that work there know that's not true and you can't blame us for wanting people to know the truth.

It's obvious that a guest had a bad experience. That's something Whitetail strives very hard to avoid and it's something I already apologized for. A lot of people work at Whitetail for the love of the sport. Many of us have been working our butts off for the last couple of weeks going beyond the call of duty to provide a quality experience for our guests, doing exactly the kind of things that we've been accused of not doing. We do it because we do care. We're not perfect, but we're not as bad as this thread makes us out to be. We'd like to hear from those of you who think you can do better. You are exactly the kind of people we want to hire.

Whitetail has made a bundle, it's packed. The more disgruntled customers who never come back, the better. Go to Wisp or Timberline. Otherwise, they'll raise the lift ticket prices again. Demand for Whitetail skiing is much greater than supply, which is not good for the consumer.

I talked personally to a MD DOT rep and was told that MD DOT told WT to close WED night (for Thurs)as they could not keep the road open. WT refused and said we will open then did a 180 Thurs. morning when it was apparent the masses and their money could not get there.
We drove there via Pa roads and pulled into the parking lot at WT a little after 10:30, a string of employee cars were just leaving. 5 WT employees standing around watching one guy shovel a side walk as we tried locked doors on the main bldg.

Backing up to your next best story are we. WT F'ed up. Just admiting and move on. As for me I will go else where( ie drive further)on a pow day to a resort that is at least gonna talk straight and be open.

Did you mention Global Warming Rusty?...We don't do that here..it could cause some disagreement

In response to TL being flat...??!!!?..at least it has twists, turns & Dips..I call Whiteail, Treadmill Skiing...

Tucker, you may have had more snow over the past week or so, but I'm not sure you all had the wind we had here. I have not seen drifts this big since my D&E days, and even those were up on 33 before you drop down to Seneca---not in the valleys.

Come up to and get a workout Telemarking bumps on the Exhibition treadmill with the Whitetail crew. I guarantee you will not get bored. You will have so much fun that you will not be able to get up out of a chair the following day without using your arms. If you can hang for three hours, I will refund your lift ticket price.

Skipping through a foot of untracked in Weiss Meadow is fun too. Oh wait, that's not Timberline... Hey, that Salamander is the best novice run this side of the Mississippi!

[quote=Hey, that Salamander is the best novice run this side of the Mississippi! [/quote]
Salamander is indeed a long slope, but a bit too long for the vertical of Timberline. Coming around the second curve (I think) with a stiff NW wind blowing can cause a near dead stop unless you are carrying a lot of speed, something novice boarders and skiers are not prone to do.
The Colonel

Keith, I am sure it was nasty down there...if they are closing roads it had to be bad...we have been having the usual winds as well...here is a report from Dave Leshers sight from last Wed that I thought was pretty amusing...

"Feb 10 - Windy and much colder overnight with snow continuing, then diminishing during the morning with a few periods of dim sun. Snow resumed light to moderate through the afternoon with strong winds continuing and visibility often sharply reduced in blowing snow. Many drifts over six feet; it is exhausting to wade into open areas to make snow measurements. Driveway is impassable and we have been marooned for past two days."

Dave does a really good job reporting the local daily weather for Canaan area

http://canaanweather.4t.com/

if i read that right, he is claiming 191" so far, which is just completely sick. wow.

You right, I love it! Salamander is the only named trail I skied there last Wednesday.

191" and counting. Hopefully, it be over 200" by Wednesday am. Anyone want to meet to celebrate the 200th inch?

....we got 8 inches last night and it is pounding snow right now....we are now over 200 inches on tuesday a.m....if the forecast is right we will be celebrating anywhere from 210-218 inches on Wed morning....

More snow overnight and more to come, I hope Tline doesn't close down for the day.

Scotty,

I believe that is what the MD DOT guy told you. He was wrong. Whitetail closed at 5PM on Wed and announced at the same time they would be closed on Thursday. I believe that you saw employees being sent home on Thursday. I also know that we had instructors shoveling out lifts on Thursday.

A lot of people have been very busy since 2/5. People and communications break downs should be expected. That DOT guy could have called Whitetail and told someone "you have to close now" and could have easily gotten a "can't do that" response if he wasn't talking to the right person. It takes a lot of coordination to close and it takes time to wind things down. That DOT guy could have been way too busy and seen way too much WT traffic to believe that the resort actually did close. When you're tired and mad, you can believe a lot of things.

Ha Rod if comprex ever gets the ski bus going i'm sure you'd be welcomed with open arms at Timberline, but I was somewhat concerned that you were threatened with repulsion for skiing in the treees?? so i checked into it. Seems that a snowmaker noticed you doing one footed skiing drills and reported that there may be an outlaw telemark instructor on the grounds. Ski school supervisors were then dispatched to check you out. Their investigation revealed that while you were not moonlighting the fact that you were pretty much the only person there who could manage the conditions was somewhat suspicious. They reported same to Ski Patrol and suggested that they keep you out of the trees so they could save all the fresh lines for themselves and their friends.

Thats is not what the website was saying all evening (Wed) - at 11:30pm they announced the road closure but not "resort" closure for the following day......

I got the email alert in the afternoon. I did not check the web site. What page were you checking on the web site? Is it possible you were pulling up an old version on your browser cache? I will double check the bit about road closure vs resort closure on the web when I'm back there this weekend.

I hit the browser refresh button about a million times that eve:)

I was checking the Whitetail website on Thursday morning, as we were stuck in Mercersberg on the way back from WV. Between sometime Wednesday night and 10ish on Thursday morning, the Whitetail site claimed they would open at either 11 am or noon on Thursday. That's when the alternate directions were posted. By 10 or 11am, the site had switched to saying they were closed.

You are correct, this is what you missed if you weren't here.
Youtube

To keep things stirred, at least WT doesn't add 50 feet or so to their vertical to reach a magic number like some other resorts:

hints, TL, SS, Elk

Check skistats, lifts.org and the topos for yourself.

Word is that Doc at TL is going to fund a Highspeed Lift by using the top of the mountain as a landfill..hope to increase the vert this way by a few hundred feet..1300 vert..Yeee--Hawww!!!
2000+ vert sitting around the corner at MPC

...saweet turns and conditions on that vid, looks like great pow...

...on a different note-if this thread is going to turn into a bashing timberline thread then someone better start takin' numbers because that could go on forever and I will take the first few jabs myself, but if you are seriously going to argue that there is better terrain and conditions at whitetail over timberline right now then you just don't know what you are talking about and you should seriously should come check it out...

Also there is the mountain top removal angle, just truck your unwated mountain tops over to Tline and they will claim another 10' vert with every truck load.

I think Whitetail's web site may not have been updated Wednesday night. Before going to bed on Thursday, February 11, I visited Whitetail's web site (just after midnight) and saw that they were planning to open Thursday, but had posted an advisory about what road to take. (This wasn't a cached version of the page; it was the first time I had seen the message.) Seeing this, at 12:19 a.m., I posted a note on the forums letting readers know that special travel directions had been posted for February 11:

http://www.dcski.com/ubbthreads33/ubbthr...57595#Post57595

I didn't learn that Whitetail would be closed until later in the day on February 11. If someone looked at the web site Wednesday night, based on my own experience (around midnight) it did seem to imply that Whitetail was planning on being open Thursday.

But, I also can't imagine heading out onto treacherous roads Thursday morning without first checking with the resort. I have always advised readers to check with a resort directly before making a trip -- not the night before, but minutes before you head out. There are a variety of reasons why operating conditions can change with little notice (e.g., mechanical problems, high wind, lightning, etc.) That guidance is especially critical when we have challenging conditions like we had last week. Ski resorts don't close unless they have a very good reason to close; as we've seen in this thread, a number of employees went to extraordinary lengths to keep the slopes open through two of the biggest blizzards on record in the mid-Atlantic.

Scott, you are right on the morning website check but even that might not avoid frustration. A few years ago my daughter had a lesson at Liberty. I checked the web site before I went and it said "best conditions of the season." When we arrived 50 minutes later the Alpine Quad was shut down due to a high wind advisory, and they were busing people to the back side. No mention of this on the website. In the ticket line to the right and left windows were upset customers and each mentioned checking the website that morning. One group was asking how long of a drive it was to WT, and the other was a father, with two kids who kept mentioning the "best conditions" plug on the website. No big deal to me as I prefer a warm bus seat to lift rescue anyday.

I would never second guess a resort on safety but the point is that in today's world near real time updated websites, tweets etc. are essential and thats what the customers expect. As the technology improves this should help in these situations (except of course for TL, which I am sure will continue to update their daily reports on a weekly basis.

I figured out why Rt. 15 was closed, there was at least three huge snow drifts between I70 and Mt. Zion Rd. The drifts were 8-10' tall (maybe taller) and were at least 100yds long. I wonder how many cars or trucks they found in the drifts when they plowed? The drifts could have easily covered up a couple dozen vehicles.

I live across the road from WT and they had little choice but to close. Almost all of the roads in the area were closed by the counties and state. MD didn't get Blair's Valley Road fully open until "late" Friday afternoon. Roads were drifting shut. I'm sure it was a tough call, especially since Thursday would have been a beautiful day on the mountain...

I live across from WT and I am a former Garrett County MD resident (Wisp is where I grew up skiing). The situation is different here at WT, which sits 6 miles off any main road, back in the middle of snow drifting farm country.

The difference is that Wisp sits on RT 219 which is considered one of the major roads (next to an interstate) through Garrett county. It is a must that that road stays open in the winter and it is one of the first priorities to the county. Not so for "Blair's Valley Road" which happens to be a MD road.

For the record, during both blizzards... PA did a much better job of clearing Blair's Valley Road than MD did. The MD side was the side that was closed. However, as another poster said, the winds and heavy drifting closed those roads... It took MD until late Friday afternoon just to get Blair's Valley Road opened up to "one lane". Blame Washington County if you want to place blame someplace.

For the record, I enjoy both Wisp and WT for what they are. When snow season is over here, I'll probably head to the Wisp for a day or so of late season skiing. No need to bicker over the two resorts.

ok this is my last one i swear......

the northern resorts are seeing 35+ inches at most spots.....i dont think any of them are closing today or tomorrow

This ain't up north. I used to live there and they can handle it. Even Somerset County, Garrett County is prepared to handle this. I am sure they wanted to open the resort more than you wanted it open. I have a half mile driveway to plow...I couldn't go skiing, I couldn't get out of my driveway for 2 days. Many rural folks who work at Whitetail could not get to work because they couldn't get out of their driveway. You Yuppie City folks do not understand this. No one shows up with a snow plow and salt, we have to plow it.
Time to move on.

Just hike the mountain next time. Get untracked all day long. What a bunch of whiners. We wanted to ride chairlifts! Boo hoo! losers!

Oh but we are entitled to use your facilities whenever we want. Actually no. Closed means closed. Please don't come back.

wow - easy guys - just making one more light harted/slightly frustrated remark...(ive worked at a few ski resorts in my younger days)

I just found the whole thing incredibley ironic

Another thing to keep in mind is northern and western resorts (as well a places like Snowshoe in WV) tend to be destination resorts -- and many have employee housing on-site. They can be self-sufficient in a big storm.

Scott, I've overheard some employees talking before while at Snowshoe. Up there they don't call it employee housing. They call it the "servant's quarters". Yeah, it sounded pretty bad...

Well, after all the trash talk directed at Whitetail by the WV crew, I thought they may want to examine the situation in Canaan today: All areas are, I believe, closed, and Rt 32 is blocked by snowdrifts. Employees and other staff cannot access the ski areas. Does that make Timberline, Whitegrass and CV shameful disgraces as well? No - it points out that there are limitations to what anybody can do when the weather REALLY gets going with major storms.

I was at Whitetail the day after the closure as well, and conditions were great at the ski area. However, Blairs Valley was still only one lane wide in places and yet some of the drivers were still going well over the speed limit over blind hills. In my eyes, anyone who thinks it was unreasonable that Whitetail was closed with the conditions as they were is, well, let's just say "ill informed" to be nice.

Good luck with the roads in Garrett, Tucker and Preston this weekend and be careful. Being stuck in snowdrifts overnight is no fun for the driver and dangerous to those that we rely on to try to respond with help.

OK - should have read the other threads first. I just talked with a CV patroller in Davis. He could not access CV this AM and his understanding is that all areas are closed and that 32 will be reopened tomorrow at the earlist. He was turned around by DOT just north of Freeland road and barely made it back to Davis.

...timberline is open with running lifts(for now atleast..the wind seems to be picking up)...not sure if they are running the lifts at white grass, but I don't think they are turning people away in the parking lot...I know...sorry, couldn't help myself..

Wisp is also running just two chairs today. Whitegrass will have to get Froggy going through the drifts before the "lifts" will be usable. And, of course, if 32 and parts of 219 remain blocked, it's pretty much academic anyways...

Tomorrow should be AWESOME


Note: It should be pointed out that I-68 is presently completely closed in both directions at MP 34 and RT 219 S off of Keysers Ridge is very limited

Here's some pictures from the webcams at CVR, WT, & TL. The pictures were taken within 5 minutes of each other.

Canaan Valley

Tline

Whitetail:


So why do people subject themselves to this when they could be skiing 24-30" of powder?

Wow, I'd rather be studying...

Go to Whitetail

Go to Whitetail

Go to Whitetail

That looked like Sugar mtn,nc last Sat..Crazy..had to park almost in Boone & ride the Shuttle to the Mountain!
Some of that Crowd might be moving the valley's way with the completion of Corr H but the lowlanders are spoiled with modern lifts & infrastructure so many will not come back.
Wisp is probably slammed too...There is still money in skiing!

Why?? Same reason why people from Centreville would go to Target on a Sat. I have some why questions myself looking at the pictures:

Why is CV basically the same since I left college in 1984? Other than the housing around TL, there is no meanigful change there IMHO in 25 years and in fact I see decline---the Wildlife Refuge office used to be a nice resturant and what about the hotel at the bridge in Davis? See Tucker's post on another thread about economic conditions in the Valley. I suspect a fair number of locals don't hit the slopes that often.

Why is the CV Lodge infrastructure crumbling? Why was the Lodge dining room vacant a month ago when I was up there? Certainly not the food, it was just fine.

Wanna check out some pictures---compare the shots of the new slope side rooms at TL, with shots of the new rooms at Bear Creek outside Philli. I am sure that the lift lines at Bear Creek looked the same at WT at that time too.

CV is a not a gem in the rough, it is a rough gem. I treasure the place for this very reason. But I would never try to compare a Sat. at WT with one on the Valley, there just not comparable.

...as far as infrastructure goes it this area, that is puttin' it nicely...just talkin' about the resorts in the valley-they could not handle even a small percentage of the crowds that whitetail gets, or any other resort areas in the mid-a for that matter...it will be interesting to see what happens around here as corridor H approaches...