Another WV Ski Resort To Open This Week

Charleston, WV – The mountains of West Virginia will be receiving more natural snow in the next couple of days, as two more resorts, Winterplace in Raleigh County and Timberline Resort in Tucker County open for the season recently. Timberline began offering skiing and snowboarding last Friday and Winterplace opened on Sunday. Canaan Valley Resort, also in Tucker County, is scheduled to open for the season on December 29.

In addition to this week’s natural snow, the temperatures in the higher elevations are now very good for snowmaking operations, allowing the resort’s to cover the slopes as quick as possible. The snowmakers at all of the resorts are working around the clock to provide the holiday skiers and snowboarders as much open terrain as possible. When snowmaking conditions were at their best this week (in the teens), over 20,000 tons of snow was being produced in West Virginia per hour, that’s enough snow to cover 20 football fields with a foot of snow made each hour.

West Virginia is offereing the most open terrain in the region. “It’s great to get open and operating for the season,” says Terry Pfeiffer, President of Winterplace and the West Virginia Ski Areas Association. “If the current weather conditions continue, we will be in very good shape for the upcoming critical holiday season.” The top states providing skiers and snowboarders to West Virginia slopes are Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida.

The ski and snowboard season traditionally, weather permitting, continues through early April. The five-month long ski season in West Virginia has an estimated economic impact of over $250 million and 5,000 jobs at the resorts and other related companies.