With all this lousy weather Snowshoe managed to get Cupp Run opened today. I had given up on skiing until the new year. It maybe time for a quick trip on Sunday.
Hopefully the weather gods are turning in our favor.
I saw that today. Pretty impressive to say the least.
Have they figured out how to make snow in 40-50 degree weather or what?
With their impressive snow making system and aggressive snow making policy I suspect they have been making piles of snow whenever possible on Cupp and decided the time was right to spread it out!
Anyone have any idea how many acres are over at Silver Creek? Could there be about 100 acres? I'm wondering if it's in the same ballpark as CV or Tline by itself. They have about 90 skiable acreas when all trails are open.
Going to WV Jan. 5-6. Trying to decide whether to do a day at Snowshoe and then Tline, or just CV and Tline. Starting from Mnut and staying at the CV Lodge Monday night. I've been to SS before but not CV or Tline. My friend going with me has never skied outside VA. Seems like SS would be more fun than CV. Comments?
Silver Creek is not larger than Canaan Valley or Timberline. SC may have more acerage open when you are there. The verticle drop isn't as large at SC as it is at CV or TL either. In years past it seems like most of SC is set up as a terrain park. I have not been there this year, so this may not be true.
The real advantage at SS is Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge. 1500 Feet of vert is awesome. Outside of that Timberline is comparible and wins on the smaller crowd numbers (And tree skiing if you are into that).
It's been a few years since I've been to Snowshoe. Perhaps Silver Creek is closer to Massanutten in acreage, which is about 75 acres. I agree that SC has less vertical than Tline. CV is about 850' vertical so that's harder to say. That's about the same as Lift 6 at Mnut, out of a total of 1100'.
If we were going later in the season, it would be an easier decision. If CV doesn't make a lot of snow in the next week, not going to be much open. My friend is more comfortable on blues at this point, so we wouldn't be spending a lot of time on the Western Territory side. I already skied a week in the northeast and am heading to Utah in late Jan, so don't have that much need for harder terrain in the southeast.
Snowshoe gets you quantity of vertical. Timberline is all about the quality of vertical.
This assuming both places are in mid-winter condition.
Spending a day to check out Timberline for the first time is a given.
The other consideration is what the roads will be like in a week. With clear roads, doing a loop that starts with skiing at Snowshoe would be a no brainer. But with the current forecast for next Sunday/Monday, Jan. 4-5, I'm still on the fence. I've driven my minivan around Snowshoe with snow on the roads. Not an experience I'm looking to repeat next week. Already drove enough on snow up in Lake Placid at Thanksgiving and NH/ME in early Dec.
marzNC wrote:
It's been a few years since I've been to Snowshoe. Perhaps Silver Creek is closer to Massanutten in acreage, which is about 75 acres. I agree that SC has less vertical than Tline. CV is about 850' vertical so that's harder to say. That's about the same as Lift 6 at Mnut, out of a total of 1100'.
If we were going later in the season, it would be an easier decision. If CV doesn't make a lot of snow in the next week, not going to be much open. My friend is more comfortable on blues at this point, so we wouldn't be spending a lot of time on the Western Territory side. I already skied a week in the northeast and am heading to Utah in late Jan, so don't have that much need for harder terrain in the southeast.
The front side of SS has very little vertical, in fact SS isn't worth the drive if the backside isn't open. SS claims that there is 800' of vertical on the front side, which I think is a stretch. The backside of SS is decent, if you like long groomers. SS doesn't list the vertical for SC on their website, but if I recall its around 650'. CVR has more vertical than the front side of SS and the trails have more character. SS is nice if you want that resorty feel.
Tline has more trails with a min of 1000' vertical than SS. When Tline is full on with natural snow and a base in the woods, it blows SS away. Plus the Fun Police aren't out slashing tickets like they do at SS.
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From Skilifts.org North American Lift Installation Survey
SC
Basin
Western
Western Express 1460 feet. Note the old fixed lift was listed as 1495 feet.
TL's lifts are not in there, but somehwhere I have 969 and 883 feet respectively, could just be from Google Earth.
Agree on the quality versus quantity about TL v. SS.
You can compare 7.5 USGS maps to aerial photos at www.caltopo.com
There are different kinds of skiers. For some, the resort experience is the top priority. For others terrain is top priority. This is an over simplification of course. There is snow, challenge, price, crowdedness, etc. in my view SSranks higher on the resort experience and TL ranks higher on terrain. Its about what matters to you.
They are who we thought they are. I think we all know exactly what the shoe and timberline are. This is a bad snow year, so far, and snowmaking might be the trump card. We just need to blend the terrain of tline with the machinery of snowshoe with the staff and food of Whitegrass and we would have ... the impossible. sigh. Might be a good year to look (far) west, again.
btw, i notice that google maps now recommends a corridor H route bringing the trip time down below 6 hours from Durham to Davis, which is about the same as snowshoe.
All depends on what someone is looking for. When I was at Snowshoe with my daughter (age 6-9), she didn't ski the Western Territory so those trails made no difference to her. On the other hand, Silver Creek was a great option for the afternoon when the main area had long lines. An intermediate who has only skied in VA or NC could find the frontside of SS pretty entertaining. Especially midweek when there aren't long lift lines.
One reason for my friend to take time off to explore new ski areas is to get experience on new terrain. I think the blues at Snowshoe would be fit well. I don't care if I'm not skiing harder terrain the day we are not at Tline. If CV only has two ways down, SS wins for what we want to do in early Jan.
I never make it over to SC when I am at SS. I always look for a place in village and spend time on front and western territories. SC is a step down in almost every way and not worth the shuttle ride for me. When things get crowded I keep moving to another lift and seems to work. All in all agree with Denis, Tline has more terrain challenges. SS has a better resort experience. I like both, but if staying overnight would lean toward SS. Same day drive is probably Tline.
