New Snow In The Mountains of West Virginia.

Charleston, WV – This past week’s snow storm came at a critical time for the state’s ski resorts. Nearly a foot of snow fell in the mountains of West Virginia creating excellent conditions at all of the resorts including Canaan Valley and Timberline in Tucker County, Oglebay in Ohio County, Snowshoe in Pocahontas County and Winterplace in Raleigh County. The natural snow has also improved the back country conditions at the state’s cross-country areas, White Grass Touring in Tucker County and Elk River Touring Center in Pocahontas County.

The snowfall and sub-freezing temperatures came as the resorts prepared for one of the busiest weekends of the season as everyone celebrated the Martin Luther King holiday. “Actually it’s the perfect storm, because most of the snow came early so that will give the highway crews plenty of time to clear the roads for the skiers and snowboarders to arrive safely at all of our resorts,” says Terry Pfeiffer, President of the West Virginia Ski Areas Association and President of Winterplace Ski Resort. “Along with the natural snow, the cold temperatures have allowed all of the resorts’ snowmakers to work around the clock to open additional terrain for everyone to enjoy.” The resorts’ snowmakers will use the cold temperatures to create manmade blizzards, producing 20,000 tons of snow per hour when the temperature drops into the teens (when combining all five resort’s snowmaking efforts at once), that’s enough snow to cover 20 football fields with a foot of snow each hour.

For the holiday weekend, West Virginia resorts provided over 100 slopes for skiers and snowboarders, the most open terrain of any state in the region.