Snowshoe Mountain Opens Early

Snowshoe Mountain Resort has announced the resort will open early for the 2008-2009 season on Friday, November 21. Snowshoe has received more than two feet of natural snow since late Saturday and has added several feet of man-made snow with around-the-clock snowmaking operations, allowing the resort to open five days earlier than previously scheduled. With the best early season conditions on record, Snowshoe will open with 6 trails and 2 lifts on Friday. The resort will celebrate this early opening with discounted $29 lift tickets available from Friday, Nov 21 through Tuesday, Nov. 25.

While Snowshoe Mountain will be providing the first alpine action of the season, some folks have already been making tracks in the mountains as cross-country skiers and snowshoers are enjoying the natural snow conditions at White Grass Touring Center in Tucker County.

The announced schedule for the rest of the openings for West Virginia resorts is as follows: Timberline, December 4, Canaan Valley and Winterplace, December 12 and Oglebay later in December. Of course the situation might change as the conditions continue to get better and the cold temperatures remain allowing the snowmakers to work around the clock.

Speaking of snowmaking, when the temperatures dropped into the teens last night in the mountains, over 20 tons of snow was being made at West Virginia resorts when you combine all of the resort’s snowmaking efforts.  That is same as covering a football field with 20 feet of snow in just one hour.