Last Weekend Troop 1916 held our 2nd annual 3-day ski trip to Timberline Four Seasons Resort in West Virginia. We had 17 scouts, 1 sibling, and 6 parents on our trip. We also had a few additional parents and siblings who elected for more refined nearby accommodations, but were part of our crew on the mountain nonetheless.
The crew headed out Friday after school for the gorgeous drive through the mountains of West Virginia. With the new WV Corridor H highway (WV-48/93) now complete all the way to Davis WV, it was an easy straight shot west. Folks arrived late afternoon through the evening. Lift tickets, meal tickets, and lesson forms were sorted, rental ski equipment and snowboards were obtained, and we hit the bunks about 11pm the first night.
Saturday started off at a chilly 4 degrees at the mountain but turned into a beautiful blue-sky sunny day. Between the 6” of fresh snow received earlier in the week, and the frigid temps allowing the snowmaking machines to run full tilt, the conditions were great. Saturday was an early morning to ensure 1st timers and merit badge clinic participants could get to their designated lessons on time.
The merit badge participants did their clinic in the morning, and took their exam on the slopes in the afternoon. We had 8 participants and they all received their snow sports merit badges. Congratulation all! After a day of skiing, few were interested in being up past 10pm that day.
Everyone enjoined a slightly later Sunday wakeup time of 7am. Sunday was warmer but overcast most of the day. Everyone enjoyed the long winding green Salamander run, while the more advanced worked up to the black diamond White Lightning run.
Taking advantage of Fairfax County Schools being off Monday, most of the crew stuck around and enjoyed the empty slopes, zero lift lines, and beautiful blue skies Monday. It was truly as if we had the mountain almost to ourselves. Doing continuous runs with no lift lines on day three, most of us were gassed by lunch, enjoyed one last Timberline meal, and headed out for the drive home.
Everyone enjoyed the sparse bunkhouse lodging and cafeteria style meals. We fondly refer to it as slope-side camping. The boys bonded well in the tight bunkhouse setup before lights-out each night.
Looking forward to doing the trip again next year!! The FCPS calendar is a week earlier in 2018, so mark your calendars for January 25th (Thursday evening) through Sunday January 28th. FCPS has that Friday off school. Matt has posted some of the photos and there are more to come. Enjoy.
Mitch Bonanno