Opening day at Snowshoe. Photo provided by Snowshoe Mountain Resort.

The lifts started running this morning at Snowshoe Mountain Resort as the West Virginia resort captured the earliest 1998/99 season opening date for Mid-Atlantic ski areas. At 8:30 a.m., skiers and snowboarders at the Snowshoe and Silver Creek areas were treated to top-to-bottom skiing and boarding. Limited terrain is open, and the resort warns that slopes may be crowded over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Snowshoe Mountain Resort had hoped to open earlier in November, but was plagued by inconsistent snowmaking conditions. A break came this weekend when temperatures stayed in the twenties.

“This past weekend’s cold temperatures gave us 40 hours to make snow to open top to bottom terrain at both areas,” said Ed Galford, Vice President of Operations for the resort. “Our new snowmaking system allowed us to turn more snow guns on at one time than anytime before,” he added.

Steve Rice, President of Snowshoe, commended the resort’s snowmaking team.

“We are the only resort with snow right now south of New York, and that’s due to the efforts of our snowmakers,” he explained.

Snowshoe will continue to make snow whenever conditions permit, although a warming trend in midweek has temporarily halted snowmaking.

A base depth ranging from 6-20” covers a total of 7 trails, served by 3 lifts. Conditions are groomed loose granular. At the Snowshoe area, Skidder, Cross Cut, Gandy, and Powder Monkey are open, connecting to form a top-to-bottom run. At the neighboring Silver Creek area, Can’t Hook, Green Horn, and Lower Mountaineer connect to offer top-to-bottom skiing. Two lifts are operating at the Snowshoe area, and one lift is operating at the Silver Creek area. The tubing hill at Silver Creek is not yet open. All open trails have some thin areas, and Thanksgiving crowds are expected to be heavy.