Christian Davies reports from Ski Beech:
You guys can expect a lot of reports from me the rest of the season as I’m just been released from recuperating from knee surgery. I did my first turns in more than a year last night at Beech and boy was it nice to be on the slopes again! I’ll be gunning for the top reporter honors for the rest of the season. I’m retired and I’ll be skiing somewhere nearly every decent day the rest of the season if the knee holds out! Anyway, I actually skied a few times down Lower Shawneehaw with my kids because I wanted to test the knee on skis and the conditions on that trails, all the way down both the right side to the double lift, and down the left side over to Powder Bowl were great skiing. I them did Southern Star from the Quad and SS was pretty icy from top to bottom. There were a few areas where conditions were decent on it, but overall it was icy as heck. Upper Shawneehaw was very nice so I stayed on that a good bit. I did venture down White Lightning and it was pretty good in most places, a bit icy in others. I also went into the halfpipe area and it was pretty good, but the landing areas where the hits had been built up were very hard packed and of course I wasn’t going to try those anyway. Not yet! The night was very nice, there were no lift lines at all. There was a decent crowd but well dispersed.
Tom Barnett skied Sugar:
Boys, yesterday was a very nice day to ski. The weather could not have been much better and neither could the conditions. It would have been nice to see some powder of course, but I was pleasantly surprised to see very nice conditions from top to bottom. There were some thin spots along the sides of a few trails, but the main trail surface was really good. I’d rate the slopes an 8 out of 10. (I like SkiNCs idea to number rate them instead of all the base nonsense!) Anyway, I’ll be skiing at Wintergreen this weekend and will send some pics then.
Barbara Lindsee reports from Snowshoe:
Wednesday was a stellar day to be on the slopes. I just love it here and everytime I come i wonder why I play anywhere else. Of course we all like a little diversity I guess. I didn’t ski it, but I was told that part of Shays Revenge was closed. People coming from Cupp told me it was in great shape earlier in the day and a little icy later. I skied mostly within the Northern Territory side of things and the conditions there were top notch all day. The lift lines were non-existent. I expect with the party crowd coming on Friday things will get busy. Snowshoe was excellent today!
Don Comer reported from Timberline:
The slope conditions were decent today, but I really need to complain about Timberline’s lack of staffing. First I checked the snow report and it had not been updated since Monday so I asked someone at the ticket counter and of course they didn’t know what to tell me. I asked for the mountain manager and he wasn’t available. So I went and skied. Again the terrain was good. It needed a little TLC (maintenance) in some areas, but after about an hour I skied over to another lift and lo and behold there was the mountain manager holding lifts for people. Someone should tell the owner that it might save them a few bucks to have the MM holding chairs, but it doesn’t look good. Get some help TL!
Sammi Thompson reports from Wintergreen:
It was a great day at Timberline today. Not nearly as good as when I skied here in mid-December, but pretty awesone considering the recent January thaw. They had may a lot of snow over the 25-27th timeframe and it was holding up well. It was a bit crowded for a weekday, due to a few busloads of kids that showed up. The Highlands was nice. There are still a few bare areas and I hit some rocks around on the Highlands, but these areas were minor compared to all the great snow.
On-Snow Reporters:
We will keep a log of the best reporter’s submission, photos and reports. Trust us it is way to time consuming to post every pic…but send them…because we are tallying the scores. The winner of the Best On Snow Reporter for 2005-2006 will win $1000 in cash, a FREE Getaway Vacation and more. The contest will run from now through March 1st and we will choose the winner. Our choice will be based on the following and IN THE ORDER of importance.
Quality of Photos
Quality of Reports (well written, informative, unbiased)
Number of Photo Submissions
Number of Reports
Extra points will be given for getting smiling faces in the photos and including names and cities where you can.
Extra points will be awarded for creative ideas.
We will choose the winner based on how helpful and informative the reports have been.
As of 02/2/2006 here are the top vote getters. (We will only document the top three to five here throughout the season…and we may begin posting the top ten, depending on how close results are.)
1. Mark McKelvy
2. Lorrie Tomlinson
3. Kent Jackson
4. Gresham Barker
5. Joe Harmon