Last winter, mild fall temperatures prevented area resorts from making snow until mid-December. On Friday morning, the roar of snowguns broke the silence at Snowshoe Mountain Resort, showing that history might not repeat itself this season.

The West Virginia resort is the first resort in the southeast region to begin making snow this season. With an eye towards a Nov. 22 opening date, less than three weeks away, Snowshoe plans to make snow whenever conditions permit. Initial snowmaking operations are being concentrated on four slopes at the main Snowshoe area, making one complete run top to bottom. After a strong base is built up on these trails, snowmaking will quickly expand across the mountain and over the street to the Western Territory. The resort plans to bring the Silver Creek area on-line on Friday, Dec. 13, conditions permitting.

Weather conditions for the near term look ideal for continued snowmaking at Snowshoe. Temperatures at Snowshoe dipped down to 15 degrees overnight Friday, and had only climbed up to 19 degrees by this morning. By then the snowguns had already been running continuously for 24 hours.

With low temperatures and low humidity, Snowshoe’s veteran snowmakers -; with over 300 years of combined experience -; can crank out enough snow each hour to cover four football fields with over a foot of snow. Unlike last year, there is plenty of water in Snowshoe’s lakes to sustain snowmaking operations.

“The summer and fall rains have left Snowshoe Mountain with an ample supply of water for snowmaking purposes,” explained Ed Galford, Snowshoe’s Vice President of Mountain Operations. “Last year was a different story, as we needed rain to fill up our lakes before we could think about snowmaking.”

Snowshoe was unable to open until December 22 last year, with warm weather preventing snowmaking until Dec. 16. Snowshoe appears on track to open Nov. 22, as long as temperatures remain chilly.

Photos courtesy Snowshoe Mountain Resort.