Many wise thoughts from our well-traveled ski Yoda. Wisest I've found (paraphrasing):

"If the ski conditions are good in the Mid Atlantic, get it now, tomorrow and the day after, since it likely won't last much longer than that."

Sudden onset flu symptoms, 12 hour trip to the 7-11, cable company now has 2 day service window, whateva it takes.

Primo conditions the past weekend, el sucko conditions this week and likely next weekend (bring yer ice skates.) If you weren't on the slopes enjoying the extreme goodness of the past few days, shame, shame, shame.

it was nice, I even got over a few times (on off peak hours of course!) The skiing today and tomorrow could be nice though... if you don't mind fog and drizzle, I bet the corn skiing could be fantastic like during the last warm shot!

Really? I know a bunch of rain is coming today and tomorrow but the forecasts I have seen say that the rain should be changing over to snow Wednesday night, with a chance of snow continuing into Friday. Conditions should then be OK for the weekend, no?

Umm, I think you guys missed the point.
JohnL was posting some of the "classic" lines he's seen Denis post.
That line didn't refer to last week or next week...just something he thought was cool.

Or maybe I missed the point.....I dunno.

Sorta both. The "If the ski conditions are good in the Mid Atlantic, get it now, tomorrow and the day after, since it likely won't last much longer than that." is something that Denis always says and I've learned to adopt that philosophy. The rest was my ramblings about this week.

Oh well, ya toss something out, sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn't.

At best, the conditions will be a looot worse than they were this past weekend. Absolutely stellar pow and packed pow this past weekend. They'll need a lot of snow later this week (which I'm not sure they'll get), otherwise it will be dust over crust this upcoming weekend. That dust will get quickly scraped off the refrozen permafrost layer. With the exception of the center of The Drop, none of the blacks and double blacks last weekend had a hard layer to be found; there was a mixture of natty and MM snow, not separate layers.

Plus up to one more inch of rain is forecast before the arctic air will come in, so the MM base will take a hit and there will be nothing left that isn't MM.

Really wanted to get out this past weekend, but various un-rescheduable (sp?) obligations this past weekend kept me close to home. I did make it out to Mnut with my rapidly-improving 7 year old on Sunday afternoon and conditions were pretty good.

Oh well hopefully conditions will be better than expected this weekend. Looks like I'll be heading out with some friends who are pretty set on Snowshoe so on top of everything else there will be the crowds to deal with.

I wish I could have hit T-line but Blue Knob was calling and we hit it good on Thursday. Nice combination of MM and natty as JohnL says. Not enough natty to get East Wall open and damn, I just realized we never poked into Skyline but there was less than a foot of natty since the previous meltdown. The other glade off of Jack Rabbit were not accessible as JR was closed.

Seven Springs was a bit of a let down on Sunday but I was in a funk. Marcus brought out his Prophet 98s and was ripping it up so it must have been me.

Yes, Denis is right, gotta get it while it's here cause it really could be the best of the season.

I hit Blue Knob with some friends on Saturday morning, got on the slopes at 9 am and it was an amazing day. 6 inches of fresh stuff plus atleast 2 more during the day. We skied non-stop 9-4 and had an absolute blast. There may not be a day like that for the rest of the season. It was my first visit to BK, and I will most definitely be back when there is snow, it is well worth the 3 hours from DC. I got to do some glade skiing and may have poached the ditch, which was awesome. Looking forward to skiing east wall glades hopefully on my next visit. I loved how long the trails were compared to others in the region I have visited this season (Whitetail and Wisp). T-line is next on my list for pow chasing and I'm heading to Snowshoe for a long weekend later in Feb. I just moved to DC this summer and found this message board recently and its a great resource to plan my trips. Thanks for for all the updates on conditions and such.

Welcome! Absolutely make it a priority to hit Timberline when it has the goods - just keep checking these forums, you'll know when to go.

You are a quick study DCski11. Hitting some good stuff. Where did you ski before?

Welcome to DCSki.

I'm a DC transplant from Richmond so I learned and grew up skiing at Wintergreen. It has been fun skiing new mountains this season(BK, Wisp, Whitetail)up here so I can prepare for my return to Jackson Hole in March. Can't wait for T-line now that I've read everybody raving about it on here.

...southside of Richmond? Ski the pass or any Glory hikes? There is no place like timberslime...

Well, it would be nice to take one's own advice.

Just returned from our Scout troop's annual ski trip to 7 Springs. We arrived on Sun night and left today at noon. Not the best choice of days. The time frame for this trip is always the two Fairfax County teacher workdays, when the kids have off, so as to get them away from the weekend crowds. That was Jan. 27-29 this year. In truth half the kids in Fairfax County were there. So I missed this past weekend, when it was doubtless great, in order to ski in the rain. 7 Springs is not one of my favorite places. The terrain is short and uninteresting, it draws huge crowds, and it is as much an amusement park as a ski area. Aside (Please re-open Laurel Mountain.).

I must admit that The amusement park aspect helped a lot this time. The boys could swim, skate, play arcade games, bowl, etc. after they got soaked. Our Scoutmaster likens the hotel to a cruise ship, which is pretty accurate.

The trip was a success. One way or another, they all are. Nobody got hurt and everyone is safely home. They are all looking forward to next year.

....how did the Hot Dogs taste?...

Yeh, it's time to retire the current ice skates anyway.

Denis,

How many years have you taken Scouts on their annual ski trip?

I think the other half of Fairfax County was at Tline over the weekend and then went to Wisp on Monday.

"Cruise ship" must have reminded you of the Bunkhouse at Tline.

you beat me to the punch! lots of local folks in service businesses forget about that holiday and get re-surprised every year with the business. i was a little surprised to see a giant line on the main lift at 2pm on a sunday when we got there thinking we would would have the place to ourselves like previous sunday which was mlk holiday! silver queen had no real lines and had a blast in great ski condish though!

(today turned sunny and 60 quick and should have been super sweet corn skiing. hope someone did, besides 3-2 and ski school)

That's why my son spends his entire day in the Alley terrain park. I try not to fall into lazy habits that wide open easy terrain seems to engender. And yes, please open Laurel...maybe next year.

This looks..OK

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...Field2=-79.4665

guess it depends on how much snow the valley gets on Friday. Looks like Sunday may be the day to go.

From Chris Bailey (two days ago):



Still, snow will get scraped off the re-frozen base (esp the steeper spots) fast. Will be interesting to see what the warmed ground and running water under the snowpack will do to the MM trails.

But, I'm more concerned about this: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...eld2=-111.62125

We did Hidden Valley on Sunday. Awesome conditions especially early when all the "kids" were still sleeping at 9 AM. Large crowds (by HV standards) around 11. North Summit's lift broke down around 11ish for about 20 minutes. What mess that created for a while.

I forgot KDKA TV was up there that weekend for some event. We could not find a seat in any of the 3 food court seating areas. Luckily, we grabbed a picnic table outside.

Tried to grab a beer in Glaciers. Is that bartender who always wears a Ford polo shirt challenged? He has 2 speeds, slow and slower. That's the second time I was there on a Sunday and that happened with him.

From now on, we will park at the North Summit lot and "tailgate" for lunch. I'm not waiting 15 minutes for a $4 Miller Lite again. My cooler works just fine. Any I'll be the first one served.

I see ur cards...Im throwing down the Alpps....right back atya...BAMMMM!



Tonight Rain showers before 10pm, then snow showers. Low around 16. Wind chill values as low as zero. Very windy, with a south wind 37 to 41 mph becoming west in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 80 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Thursday Snow showers, mainly before 2pm. High near 16. Wind chill values as low as -7. Very windy, with a west wind 36 to 41 mph decreasing to 23 to 28 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 65 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Thursday Night Snow showers, mainly after midnight. Low around -2. Wind chill values as low as -21. Breezy, with a west wind 17 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
Friday Snow showers likely, mainly before 2pm. Partly sunny and cold, with a high near 5. Wind chill values as low as -26. Windy, with a west wind 23 to 28 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Friday Night A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 1. Breezy, with a west wind 19 to 24 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Saturday Snow showers likely, mainly after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 24. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Saturday Night Snow showers likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 17. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Sunday A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 23. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Sunday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 12. Breezy.
Monday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35.
Monday Night A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 21. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tuesday A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 29. Chance of precipitation is 40%

I see ur cards...Im throwing down the Alpps....right back atya...BAMMMM!

JohnL's hand wins Cuz I'll be in Utah tomorrow and you wont be in da Alpps! BAMMMM!

U get the Charlie Sheen award...Have a goodin Buddro..Jealous!!
The average of the models showed the precip changing from liquid to frozen somewhere between 1/2 am..temp has dropped 3 degrees in last 15 min (1:20am)..38 at CV Bases..Let it SNOW!!

Could b testing the Goods Sunday..only wrong statement by JL..I'm a freefish..

PS...32 at 4440' Silvercreek at 142am....Whewww..Jan thaw part 2 over..

So if the valley gets the snow that is being called for over the next couple of days, somewhere between 4 and 9 inches between Thursday and Friday, and it continues to drop a few inches Saturday and Sunday, does the general consensus remain that everything at T-Line will get scraped off quickly resulting in man made glacier skiing this weekend? Too bad, I just came back from skiing a few inches of fresh at Attitash and Wildcat in New Hampshire Monday and Tuesday and after glancing at the forecast was looking forward to maybe chasing some WV powder this weekend. Will Timberline and Snowshoe be running the guns the next few days to add to the base/open up more trails or are they about done trying to make snow for the season?

Snowshoe appears to be blasting away.

http://www.resortcams.com/cam-snowshoe-shavers-centre/webcam.html

Looks windy there today, a regular blizzicane.

Timberline is making snow.

Massanutten had snow guns on all day. Was about 32 by mid-morning after a "high" of about 50 at midnight. Wind chill was 16 in late afternoon.

I predict a new & interesting TR from our esteemed Denis soon

Well, you should have said hello, or perhaps you did and I just don't know your pen name.

Sadly, I wasn't there today. That was snapped from the webcam.