Time for a road trip: Snowshoe

[Greg]

Here's a list of the latest goings-on at Snowshoe, West Virginia:

• Last snow measurement took place at 10am Tuesday
• 13” of new snow overnight Monday into Tuesday morning
• 21” of snow since Saturday night
• Snowmaking equipment has been on around the clock since Saturday night
• An additional 12” of natural snow possible before Wednesday
• Snow showers in the National Weather Service forecast through Friday
• Snowmaking conditions around the clock at least through the weekend
• Opening Day of the 2008-2009 Season is scheduled for Wednesday, November 26
• Snowshoe plans to have at least 10 slopes and 39 acres of terrain open on Opening Day
• The resort has now received more than 30” of snow since the first flakes of the season in late October
• Opening Day conditions should be some of the best on record at Snowshoe
• Snowshoe has made 3-4 feet of snow on nearly 32 acres, with scattered snowmaking coverage on additional acreage across the mountain

Me thinks some of our southern brethren should take a road trip!

 

[2knees]

snowshoe has always intrigued me. It seems like the only place on the east coast worth driving south for.

If i remember correctly, they average like 200" of snow a year.

 

[thetrailboss]

How close is this to Carlisle, PA????

 

[bvibert]

Someone needs to go and post a TR!

 

[deadheadskier]

How close is this to Carlisle, PA????

I'd say about 4-5 hours

 

[Tin Woodsman]

snowshoe has always intrigued me. It seems like the only place on the east coast worth driving south for.

If i remember correctly, they average like 200" of snow a year.

I think Snowshoe is a bit of Fool's Gold for New England skiers. They claim 180" per year and it's probably accurate. But the problem is the vertical and the types of skiers you're going to run into. The claimed 1500' vertical is deceiving b/c that's only for the two trails on the west side of the mountain. If the Western Express isn't open, most of the challenging terrain isn't available to you. The vast majority of the terrain is located in the basin on the east side of the mountain which supports only about 800' vertical. In addition, since Snowshoe is preceived to be the mecca of skiing in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic, every hick in a hunting outfit is there wiping out in front of you. Sort of like the "Dude, I skied Outer Limits!! It's wicked!" effect at the Boston office water cooler, as seen through the eyes of Jeff Foxworthy.

So ultimately, you'd be driving a really long way for a ski area with 180" of snow, 800' vertical, and a lot of gomers in your way. That's like making a long road trip to Balsam's Wilderness but with 20x more people. No thanks.

 

[bvibert]

How close is this to Carlisle, PA????

Looks like about 5 hours:
http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=S...,-79.996948&sspn=0.008204,0.01914&ie=UTF8&z=7

 

[fixedgrip16]

Yeah for such little vert and perhaps not that steep anyway, tough to justify a trip. I live at Sugarloaf so I'd never bother anyway but all that snow is impressisve. Hard to believe it looks like that there right now and with the exception of what we're making snow on, there's but a dusting on the rest of the mountain. No bitchin' here though. I'll be psyched for the one WROD come friday. Might be a storm brewing for the east coast monday.

 

[deadheadskier]

I think Snowshoe is a bit of Fool's Gold for New England skiers. They claim 180" per year and it's probably accurate. But the problem is the vertical and the types of skiers you're going to run into. The claimed 1500' vertical is deceiving b/c that's only for the two trails on the west side of the mountain. If the Western Express isn't open, most of the challenging terrain isn't available to you. The vast majority of the terrain is located in the basin on the east side of the mountain which supports only about 800' vertical. In addition, since Snowshoe is preceived to be the mecca of skiing in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic, every hick in a hunting outfit is there wiping out in front of you. Sort of like the "Dude, I skied Outer Limits!! It's wicked!" effect at the Boston office water cooler, as seen through the eyes of Jeff Foxworthy.

So ultimately, you'd be driving a really long way for a ski area with 180" of snow, 800' vertical, and a lot of gomers in your way. That's like making a long road trip to Balsam's Wilderness but with 20x more people. No thanks.

:lol:

You nailed it, only I'd put the vert closer to 600 on the front side. Snowshoe maybe the most crowded ski area in the country as well. They see in excess of 500K skier visits on about 200 acres of terrain. Oddly, it's never crowded on the Western Territory where the good skiing is. It's busy all week long too, not just weekends as it's much more a destination resort than those in the northeast. HUGE amounts of bus groups coming up from Georgia and Bama.

 

[2knees]

alrighty then. i can cross snowshoe off of my bucket list.

 

[deadheadskier]

I never got a chance to ski there, but Timberline apparently has more interesting terrain than the shoe. Right next to it is Whitegrass cross country area, which a lot of tele skiers in the area raved about

 

[cbcbd]

I think Snowshoe is a bit of Fool's Gold for New England skiers. They claim 180" per year and it's probably accurate. But the problem is the vertical and the types of skiers you're going to run into. The claimed 1500' vertical is deceiving b/c that's only for the two trails on the west side of the mountain. If the Western Express isn't open, most of the challenging terrain isn't available to you. The vast majority of the terrain is located in the basin on the east side of the mountain which supports only about 800' vertical. In addition, since Snowshoe is preceived to be the mecca of skiing in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic, every hick in a hunting outfit is there wiping out in front of you. Sort of like the "Dude, I skied Outer Limits!! It's wicked!" effect at the Boston office water cooler, as seen through the eyes of Jeff Foxworthy.

So ultimately, you'd be driving a really long way for a ski area with 180" of snow, 800' vertical, and a lot of gomers in your way. That's like making a long road trip to Balsam's Wilderness but with 20x more people. No thanks.

Interesting, but yeah, it seems like if you're even driving time between Snowshoe and Northern VT... or even if Snowshoe were an hour closer to you than... Stowe? I'd still pick Northern VT
...you know, like if you lived near Allentown, PA, anywhere in Jersey... etc

 

[Glenn]

That's a helluva lot of snow for opening day! We need something like that here in New England. What a way to kick start the season.

 

[Greg]

Early opening on Friday:

http://news.alpinezone.com/42004/