As of 3:30pm on Dec 23

Snowshoe: LOTS of folks sliding, good coverage, snowing

Bryce: ok coverage, few folks skiing

Wintergreen: coverage looks ok, cannot see skiers

Homestead: narrow coverage, skiers present, snowing

Canaan: narrow coverage, some skiers, snowing

Timberline: snowing, coverage looks ok but where are the skiers?

Looking forward to reports about the recovery & conditions.

The Colonel

Timberline skiers showing on camera at 3:50; must have been slowly riding lift when I checked earlier!

The Colonel

I see people sledding on the Canaan Valley Web Cam now.  Looks like fun.

More people showed up at Mnut after the rain stopped in the afternoon.  Plenty of people on snow tubing hill.  More people afternoon under the lights than during the day.  The big terrain park melted off pretty bad.  The trails that had a solid base from several weeks ago stayed open through the hot temps over the weekend.  Snowmaking temps may return tonight.  Should be back in shape by Christmas Day when the slopes won't open until the afternoon.

Mnut snow guns went on around midnight Mon.  Blowing all over the slopes this morning. :-)

Timberline observations over the past few days: When conditions suck, the webcam is broke

It's not broke they just unplug it when they don't want you to see what's going on. Sound like all those mounted polecat snowguns around the base area are now rendered useless because they cannot run them with the ZIPLINE in the way. Every good three ring sircus needs a high wire.

Every good three ring sircus needs a high wire.

And a bunch of clowns!

JohnL wrote:

Every good three ring sircus needs a high wire.

And a bunch of clowns!

It keeps getting better.

You gentlemen cannot be serious - "zipline negatively impacts snowmaking at base area" ??!!

The Colonel

The Colonel wrote:

You gentlemen cannot be serious - "zipline negatively impacts snowmaking at base area" ??!!

The Colonel

Please don't call us gentlemen. ;)

Unfortunately, we are serious. Fixed snowguns at T-Line base ice up zipline above. Ice on zipline bad. Snowguns not turned on even worse...

Is Zipline fully installed and operational?  Or can this disaster be postponed until spring time when the whole picture can be modified (move/reorient snowmaking towers).

The Colonel

Mnut waited until after closing time tonight to turn on the snowguns.  The edges were looking brown again after a couple warmer days and nights too warm for snowmaking.  Should stay cold enough for a while to keep slopes white side-to-side.  Even the possibility of snow showers by the end of the week.

jimmy wrote:

 Sound like all those mounted polecat snowguns around the base area are now rendered useless because they cannot run them with the ZIPLINE in the way.

Do we know for a fact that TLine cannot actually run those snowguns now?

wgo wrote:

jimmy wrote:

 Sound like all those mounted polecat snowguns around the base area are now rendered useless because they cannot run them with the ZIPLINE in the way.

Do we know for a fact that TLine cannot actually run those snowguns now?

Define fact. Technically they can run the snowguns, but they aren't. And they haven't. And appears that they won't. Per someone who knows the head snowmaker well.

Tline ran all the base guns most of the morning today Zipline be damned.  No massive icicles like last time so maybe they adjusted the direction.  They are also blowing heavy on upper Almost Heaven which looks like the next run they want to open.

TomH wrote:

Tline ran all the base guns most of the morning today Zipline be damned.  No massive icicles like last time so maybe they adjusted the direction.  They are also blowing heavy on upper Almost Heaven which looks like the next run they want to open.

Wonder if there was a revolt? Wouldn't surprise me.

Good to know about upper AH. I was wondering if they would keep it natural like last year or blow snow.

Whitetail has 100% of their trails open - and has for a while now. Given the cold December, there is no excuse for T-Line not having The Drop, Upper AH, Upper Thunder and Twister open by now.

And back to the OP, T-Line's web cam is still down.

I've been here for 12 days and Tline has blown at every opportunity they have had during that period.  Whitetail has impressive snowmaking and does a good job of getting their whole mountain open asap.  Tline on the other hand seems to have a different philosophy which is to blow a very deep base on a trail before moving on to the next trail.  Fewer trails early but less chance of losing trails later. 

TomH wrote:

I've been here for 12 days and Tline has blown at every opportunity they have had during that period.  Whitetail has impressive snowmaking and does a good job of getting their whole mountain open asap.  Tline on the other hand seems to have a different philosophy which is to blow a very deep base on a trail before moving on to the next trail.  Fewer trails early but less chance of losing trails later. 

From what I can tell, they missed lots of opportunities to blow in early/mid December (once they had enough to snow open up for the snowmobile races.) So they are playing catch-up.

Perhaps, but there has been plenty of terrain open given the crowds that have been skiing.  I haven't waited in a real line all X-mas.  Obviously, I personally would have prefered more terrain open versus a snow mobile race.  But if DC folks don't really start showing up out here until New Years it might be a smart business move to do what they did.  Either way, there is alot to criticize about Tline but snow surface isn't one of them in my opinion.

TomH wrote:

Perhaps, but there has been plenty of terrain open given the crowds that have been skiing.  I haven't waited in a real line all X-mas.  Obviously, I personally would have prefered more terrain open versus a snow mobile race.  But if DC folks don't really start showing up out here until New Years it might be a smart business move to do what they did.  Either way, there is alot to criticize about Tline but snow surface isn't one of them in my opinion.

How would you compare the crowds this year over Xmas week compared to last year? (I had the flu last Xmas and I know you were sick a few days, but I thought you still skied a bit.) I was surprised how empty the place was on Saturday for a holiday period. Sunday, with the rain, was understandably empty. Still, as we talked about, the snow was killer on Sunday.

With work coverage, mid-week is impossible for me to pull off over Xmas.

I'm wondering if the Snowshoe 200 season pass is taking customers away from T-Line?

It would be nice to see all of this via the T-Line web cam...

I've spent the X-Mas to New Years Day period here for 7 or 8 years and it is always quiet until X-Mas passes.  Depending on when X-Mas falls in the week the place fills up beginning the Sunday after X-Mas (I think most rentals switch on Sundays).  I heard from a reliable source in the Real Estate business that rentals were 47% the week of X-Mas and are at 100% this week in the Valley.  However, weather has been fairly brutal so not alot of folks skiing.  So X-Mas week is a great week to ski if there is good enough coverage.

Now.... the webcam is another matter.  I don't even bother to look anymore it is down so often.  Verbal description - guns are blazing, super windy and cold so not many skiers out.