Get Winter News In The Mountains Of West Virginia

Charleston, WV – Old Man Winter began the New Year with fresh snow for West Virginia Ski Resorts. 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 all received a couple of inches of new snow and more is in the forecast. The recent natural snow has continued to improve the conditions at the state’s cross-country areas, White Grass Touring in Tucker County and Elk River Touring Center in Pocahontas County, both of which rely on natural snowfall.

The first day of 2012 finds West Virginia Ski Resorts providing the most open terrain of any state in the southeast or mid-Atlantic regions. “After a soft opening to the season the current weather is perfect for all of the resorts snowmakers to work with and cover additional terrain,” says Terry Pfeiffer, President of the West Virginia Ski Areas Association and President of Winterplace Ski Resort. “It’s great to start off the new year with fresh snow, especially in our market area that stretches from Florida to Maryland.” While the natural snow is always welcomed by the resorts, the consistent cold temperatures continue to allow the resorts’ snowmakers to work around the clock, adding to the slopes’ base depths and open additional terrain.

The resort’s 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.

The West Virginia ski and snowboard season traditionally, weather permitting, continues through early April. The 2011/2012 holiday season finished strong for West Virginia’s resorts as conditions improved as the critical three-week period concludes this week.