“My dad always says that if owning a ski resort was easy, everyone would do it.”- Paige Perfect, Marketing Manager of Timberline Mountain.

In 2019, the future of Timberline Mountain in West Virginia looked bleak. Their lifts and facilities were decrepit, as one of their chairlifts even malfunctioned with people on it, leading to injuries. The mountain entered bankruptcy and then was sent to auction.

Enter the Perfect family, which owns Perfect North Slopes in Indiana. After winning Timberline at the auction in November 2019, they kept the mountain closed for a year to spend millions to revitalize the mountain. Timberline Mountain reopened in December 2020 and has been impressing guests ever since.

Northern Virginia Magazine spoke with Paige Perfect, whose family has transformed Timberline Mountain into one of the top skiing destinations in the Southeast. She described her dad’s (Chip Perfect) reasoning for rescuing Timberline:

“My dad loves the ski industry — he can take one look at a ski area and instantly know what it would take to make it work. Our family had been coming to Timberline for years, so Dad had his eye on it prior to the auction. The terrain is spectacular, and he knew that with the proper investment, Timberline could be incredible. People have loved this mountain for decades, so it was heartbreaking to see it in decline.”

After buying the mountain, the Perfect family immediately invested $15 million in various enhancements. The new lift additions include a fixed-grip quad chairlift and the first high-speed Doppelmayr six-pack in West Virginia. They expanded and renovated the Timberline base lodge, and upgraded their snowmaking network. The ultimate result is one of the best ski resorts in the Southeast.

Their other big addition of this past offseason is night skiing. On weekends, they will have the quad chairlift open, which gives skiers access from mid-mountain to the base area. They’re hoping to open the whole mountain for night skiing in the coming years.

Thanks to these added snowmaking improvements, Timberline had its earliest opening ever this week. Timberline Mountain had its Sneak Peek Day on Wednesday, was closed on Thanksgiving,  and is having its Preview Weekend from Friday thru Sunday. Their official opening day will be weather dependent.

Mountain Stats:

Trails: 22

Lifts: 3

Summit Elevation: 4268′

Vertical Drop: 1000′

Average Snowfall: 170″

The old 2016 trail map shows what the lift and trail network used to look like.

Image Credits: Timberline Mountain, Skimap.org

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