NOVEMBER 22, 2019 UPDATE: Timberline saved? West Virginia ski area purchased, may return for 2020-2021 season
Bankrupt Timberline ski area purchased by Indiana state senator that wanted to remove child labor laws
OCTOBER 2019 UPDATE: Timberline sale expected by late November– Charleston Gazette-Mail
JULY 2019 UPDATE: Timberline Four Seasons Resort in Bankruptcy, Owners Plan to Sell Ski Operation – Ski Area Management Magazine
After months of woes, Timberline closes for the season – Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail
The chronic impending disaster of West Virginia’s Timberline Ski Resort is no longer…impending. It’s closed for the season and for the foreseeable future too. The resort, its utility and real estate operation are under receivership. Years of operational shortcomings, tax problems and an investor being charged with running a pill mill have has ended snow sports there for a long time, maybe forever.
Over the years and this season in particular, Timberline gossip has been all over DCski, Ski Southeast and PugSki; it’s gotten heated with moderators getting frustrated with the vitriol of some posters. It’s all such a damn shame, but 4,000 feet of elevation at the summit cannot overcome bad management – Mid-Atlantic skiing is diminished due to it.
Back in 2013, I skied Timberline and while I had fun, I noted:
I see great potential there to be a great ski resort. I don’t know the economics the resort faces, but as a skier, I’d love to see them invest in more snow-making so that they could have more of the mountain open. I feel like Timberline is falling short of its potential. I really want to love Timberline, but the long drive and operations discourage me from doing it again anytime soon.
US 48, the four-lane Corridor H highway, even comes within 10 miles of the ski area. That hasn’t helped and at this point Mid-Atlantic skiers can only hope that a tax sale is to somebody like Peak Resorts (who bought the Snowtime resorts). The possibility of being able to buy a season pass or package that included Timberline with Whitetail, Liberty and Roundtop is enticing to Washingtonian skiers, but that’s years away and likely a long-shot. I don’t know that I agree with Ski Southeast that Timberline’s value isn’t as a ski resort. Then again, in a Times profile, winter sports are barely acknowledged. Timberline seems destined to become another entry in DCSki’s Lost Ski Areas.