'Had a great time last week on opening day at Whitetail.  Snowtime really came through with all 3 areas open.

With the warm weather and liquid precipitation passing through, I'm wondering how quickly Wisp, Whitetail, Liberty and Massanutten will recover.  Any updates about the r*in/snow line and prospects for snowmaking afterwards on the Allegheny Front and in the Shenandoah Valley?

Woody

bousquet19 wrote:

'Had a great time last week on opening day at Whitetail.  Snowtime really came through with all 3 areas open.

With the warm weather and liquid precipitation passing through, I'm wondering how quickly Wisp, Whitetail, Liberty and Massanutten will recover.  Any updates about the r*in/snow line and prospects for snowmaking afterwards on the Allegheny Front and in the Shenandoah Valley?

Woody

Colorado looks nice.

I'd be more worried about freezing rain from the Sunday/Monday storm if you were skiing/driving those days.

I think everywhere is going to get a lot of rain by Friday evening; it's a matter of how much snow they can make/falls Friday nite to make the surface something other than an ice skating rink on Saturday. (No way all the lost base can be made up in one nite.)

There will be skiing, how good is TBD.

From a skiing stand point, this weekend may be a waste of gas and miles on my truck.

Heading to SS tonight to do some pre-scheduled condo work.  Looks like Fri will be a good day to work (and drink) indoors.  Hoping the rain changes to snow early Fri PM so I can get in a few runs Sat.  Ballhooter area could be an ice rink.

Heading to Wheeling Sat night for the Madonna - Greenbrier West state champ game before the dreaded ice storm rools in Sunday.

GO BLUE DONS!!!

jimmy wrote:

GO BLUE DONS!!!

Ditto!  

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

"From a skiing stand point, this weekend may be a waste of gas and miles on my truck.

Heading to SS tonight to do some pre-scheduled condo work.  Looks like Fri will be a good day to work (and drink) indoors.  Hoping the rain changes to snow early Fri PM so I can get in a few runs Sat.  Ballhooter area could be an ice rink."

Agree..think it will be a case...of Beer!...No.no..A case of too little..too late.
All snow by 1 or 2 am..(too late)...Not that much..(too little).

Thinking that the eastern side of the Alpp spine at lower elevations will be very  FREAKing scary later on in the weekend (cold air trapped and damed up)..careful out there!

  

As of 545am Saturday, rain has stopped here in the Shenandoah Valley.  Weather seems Ok, partly cloudy and 30s.  Whitetail webcams show snow remaining, and their report has Fanciful, Sidewinder, Snow Park, Angel Drop and Home Run, among others, open.

See you there!

Woody

Rained ALL day Friday at SS.  Frozen granular on Sat AM with fog and a dusting of snow.  Better luck next week.

Dusting of Snow

No crowds at the Boathouse

Just wasn't feeling it with a head cold.  10 runs and I called it a day.

So what is the actual vertical ft of the following parts of SS?

Basin: 780 ft or 587 ft? I HOPE it is bigger than that, but you did 10 runs and logged 5875 ft of vertical.

Soaring Eagle Chair: ?

Silver Creek: 600 ft. Not sure where I go that. 

Western Territory: 1480 ft per mountainvertical.com

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

Rained ALL day Friday at SS.  Frozen granular on Sat AM with fog and a dusting of snow.  Better luck next week.

Dusting of Snow

No crowds at the Boathouse

Just wasn't feeling it with a head cold.  10 runs and I called it a day.

What App did you use? Edit: Ski Tracks?

"what App did you use".... Duhhhhh....he used a West Virginia App...good nite!

JohnL wrote:

 

What App did you use? Edit: Ski Tracks?

Yes - Ski Tracks.  

Droogie wrote:

So what is the actual vertical ft of the following parts of SS?

Basin: 780 ft or 587 ft? I HOPE it is bigger than that, but you did 10 runs and logged 5875 ft of vertical.

Soaring Eagle Chair: ?

Silver Creek: 600 ft. Not sure where I go that.

Western Territory: 1480 ft per mountainvertical.com

Yep, the front side of SS only has a little over 600' of vertical.

SS website says the basin has 800 but the maps show about 600.  Perhaps Soaring Eagle is 800?  I'll try and find some of my old stats from last season and see. 

Does anyone know if Blue Knob opened this past weekend? Their website says they should be open this Friday, December 13th.

According to my Avocet ski function watch, and using my somewhat fuzzy memory, SS Basin has 750+/-  vertical feet in the Basin area depending what section/trails skied.

The Colonel

Note that when using an altimerter or smart phone app to measure vertical drop skied that a single top to bottom run can show as multiple runs depending on length of stop/falls during run.

The Colonel

JohnL wrote:

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

Rained ALL day Friday at SS.  Frozen granular on Sat AM with fog and a dusting of snow.  Better luck next week.

Dusting of Snow

No crowds at the Boathouse

Just wasn't feeling it with a head cold.  10 runs and I called it a day.

What App did you use? Edit: Ski Tracks?

 I would use these with a grain of salt.  I used the same app at Whitetail this weekend and it showed the delta as 968 feet, where WT publishes 935 feet, AND K side is closed which is the highest part of the resort, AND I did not head over to the beginner area which is the lowest part of the resort.

Perhaps on the SS basin issues, this is more reliable data from Ski Lifts.org and SAM: (this first number is length, second is vert)

2006

1997

Note sure what this last lift is but assume it is Powder Ridge.

Oh, and the Cupp lift:

Well, since this thread is officially a tangent, I'd trust this more

Google Maps Topo

and guesstimate Ballhooter Lift vertical of > 680 ft (and < 760), with a best guess of 700 feet or so.

This may aide in orienting: Sat View

If a thread has been hijacked, would it be considered OT to return to the original post?  ;)

Rain poured down on Friday, December 5, dumping about a half-inch in the northern Shenandoah Valley.  But Whitetail's webcams showed good coverage remaining when the sun went down ... and when light returned Saturday morning.  One of my two friends had bailed last night but I met the other at 7:15 a.m. and we were at Whitetail's lodge when the ropes dropped at 8:30.  Every trail that WT expected to be open was indeed open.  More surprising, the coverage wasn't bad.  In fact, coverage on Fanciful improved as the morning progressed and skiers knocked snow over the thin spots and packed it down.  Angel Drop, Sidewinder, the beginner slopes and Home Run had side-to-side coverage.  Snowpark looked skimpy from the parking lot but, it turned out, provided plenty of room to maneuver.  Thin crowds (hmm, a contradiction?) made that maneuvering much easier.

We made more than 20 runs and I was worn out before we packed it in mid-afternoon.  All in all, a fine early season day at WT.  A tip of the touque yet again to Whitetail's snowmaking crew for blowing enough snow to get WT through a nasty warm-and-rainy spell.

Woody