My wife and I drove up to Canaan Valley yesterday so I could hit the opening slope (intentionally singular) today.  They had a lodging deal for the opening weekend of the ski area at $25 dollar lift tickets.  On the drive up yesterday, I was wondering if this trip was a good idea and if they would be able to open the ski area today.  It rained during the whole drive up, sometimes it was a moderate rain and there were several periods of torrential downpour as well.  The idea of skiing the next day did not fit the weather.  Despite the heavy at time rain, we pressed on and made it to the lodge at Canaan Valley a little bit before dinner time.

When you enter the lodge, it looks totally different than last year.  It has a much more upscale look to it.  The rooms are also a vast improvement over what they had previously.  The beds were nice, vaulted ceiling, decent size flat screen TV, and upscale decour.  At first glance, this did not seem to be the same Canaan Valley resort that my wife and I stayed at before.  However, when you scratch under the surface, some of the old remains.  The game rooms were the same as old, with some of them in bad shape.  We stuck our heads into the pool area and it looked the same as in the past.  The in lodge dining had not change either, and was actually worse than what I remembered.  So while Canaan Valley Resort has made their rooms feel upscale, the rest of the resort lags well behind.  

But the trip wasn't about the lodge, but getting to ski opening day at Canaan.  The rain did finally end Friday night and even changed over to a small dusting of snow, and we woke up to the ski area reporting that they had 8 runs open.  8 sounds like a nice number until you look at the trails on the map and see that those 8 comprise of 3 beginner runs and one top two bottom trail that is divided up as 5 smaller runs on the trail map.  In reality, there were 3 beginner slopes and 1 intermediate run from the top of the mountain.  

Still skiing is skiing, whether there is one or many runs open and it was good to be out on skis.  Canaan did their best to make the terrain they had open skiable, which wasn't an easy task after a week of rain and then freezing temperatures.  The open runs were groomed, but with very hard snow.  There were a few areas on the one top to bottom slope where the snow was pretty bad, but it was still skiable and you could make turns on it.  While it wasn't ideal conditions, I was glad to be on skis and had a grin on my face as I rocketed down the slope.  One plus to bad conditions, the place was practically deserted.  I think there were more employees at the ski area than skiers today.

Since it was the first day of the season for me, it took a couple of runs for my body to remember what this skiing thing was.  I did a couple of laps of two of the beginner trails until my body remembered what skiing is and I was starting to carve turns again.  I then moved on to the one top to bottom run and my confidence and speed quickly grew and I felt I was getting back to regular form.  

Besides being the first day of skiing this season for me, it was also my first day on one of my ski swap finds this year.  I decided to take out the Salomon Lord skis I picked up at one of the DC ski area ski swaps.  I was a bit afraid the Lords wouldn't perform well in the hard snow, but I was pleasantly surprised.  While they are almost as wide as my Rossi E88s, I found them to carve and handle the hard snow much better than the E88s ever did.  While they are not as fast as my skinny carving skis, they felt stable at speed and lively under foot.  I picked them up mainly for bumps and trees, but it was nice to find out they they will be fun no matter where I take them on the slopes.  And since they are twin tips, I may even try venturing in the park once or twice this season.

The conditions at Canaan got worse during the day, with fog rolling in that covered half the half top of the mountain, greatly reducing visibility.  While I was still having fun, around 1pm it felt like time to stop.  I had already gotten in the best skiing that was going to be had today and I knew my wife wanted some time to explore the shops in Davis after I got back from skiing.

We were originally going to stay two nights at Canaan, but with the weather looking dicey for Sunday, we decided to leave Canaan early and head back home.  A bit of snow doesn't bother me, but it looked like the roads may be icy if we waited till tomorrow to leave, since the forcast said the snow would change to freezing rain in the early afternoon.   So we are now back home, and I can say that I have my first day of skiing for the season under my belt.

Nice post...uhh...Canaan just layed down 4 inches in 3 hrs this morn...could have been nice for ya..safety 1st though!...will get nasty from now on with warmer air moving in aloft and colder temps keeping it frzy for awhile down below...

12/08/2013 1111 am

Thomas, Tucker County.

Snow 6.0 inch, reported by public.

Thanks for the report Keith.

I wasn't going to mess with the roads today. Sleet/freezing rain already inside the Beltway, so if you had left at noon today, it would have been a miserable drive back to the lowlands. (Best case.) Hope we don't lose power.

I think some outer DC burbs have already gotten 6" or so, so it's not just the Alpps.

8" at Harpers Ferry, trying to change to sleet.  Tuning, drinking beer, and prepping gear today.