I went up to Snowshoe on Tuesday and the skiing was unbelievable. It was at least 75 degrees with crystal clear blue skies. The snow was soft and plentiful. With the rain/snow over the weekend and the warm weather on Monday, I expected a lot of bare spots and thin cover. This was not the case. The snow cover was phenomenal and rarely did you have to change your line to avoid any bare spots. Knot Bumper had one small bare spot in a trough on the upper steep and another small spot on the next steep. There was a larger bare spot on Choker, but it was easily avoidable. Most of the bare spots were well marked. We spent a large portion of the day on Shay's which was in great shape. Upper Shay's was groomed and was getting a little thin in one spot near the top. Lower Shay's was bumped up quite nicely and actually stayed fairly firm for the first half of the day. The bumps were almost effortless with all the "Hero" snow. There was a large bare spot at the bottom of Lower Shay's near the lift, so they'll have to do some grooming to give you access to the lift. We did a couple of runs on Cupp which was groomed. All of the cruisers were groomed and had lots of cover. We made a number of runs in the terrain park which was in great shape. I don't remember seeing any bare spots in the terrain park.

There were no lift lines at all. We didn't keep track of the number of runs we did, but we believe we got over 30 runs in. $0.50/run isn't a bad deal at all.

There were people skiing in shorts, shirtless, and yes there was at least one young lady wearing a bikini top.

I don't know if it was the weather, but the people working at Snowshoe were quite friendly. From Ms Tennessee at Arbuckles, the Manager (?) at Starbucks, Mr Clean at Fox Fire, and the Patroller from Warrenton, they were all smiles and should be commended.

For early April, I was quite amazed with the conditions. Don't hesitate, call in sick and go skiing.

Sounds like a blast. Glad you had such a great time and its hard to believe there's quality skiing to be had top to bottom on Cupp AND Shay in April. That spot right before the lift on Shay was getting pretty dang thin when I was there after some of the decent snowstorms leading up the the big ones. I guess everyone has to come to a screaching hault at that one spot and the sun shines pretty good there so it gets thin easy. I wish I could make it this weekend but gotta go house hunting with the wife. Its a terrible life I live

JR,
I know what you mean. I was informed in no uncertain terms that the ski season was over when we got home from Whistler-Blackcomb (on the slopes for 7 days and got about 3 feet while we were there!! ). I tell ya, I have it so tough

-Warren-

heh. I know what you guys mean. I figured after skiing all that powder in Tahoe this weekend that I would be sated for the season, but whaddya know, I'm sorta itching for one last trip to Snowshoe this weekend. But I know that I would never be able to sell that idea to my wife, not to mention my softball coach

Shay appear to be closed as off today on the website, but i am going to try to day trip from pittsburgh this sunday anyway. Weather scared us last time, i think this time it should be beutiful.

Yeah, they said Shay was closed today because they couldn't groom. The temps are supposed to drop over the nights so hopefully they'll be able to clean it up and get it open for you this weekend. They're calling for rain Friday night with lows of 34 so there may be some snow for ya if you're luck.

Much to my surprise my wife didn't complain much when I told her that I wanted to get out one more time. My trip on Tuesday came after I skied 11 out of 14 days in late March, so I was quite pleased when she didn't bitch much. I think the thing that allowed me to go is that I promised not to ask to go skiing again for another 8 monthes. Hopefuly, she doesn't remember the actual date when I promised this because it could ruin my first turns in early December.

Ouch, 8 monthes, 240 days and counting!