Nearing the end . . . .
March 1, 2006
Snowshoe will close in April with 100% trail coverage. They routinly close with 100% not due to conditions, but because there's no business. I've been alone on Cupp on closing day - somewhat depressing.
t-line will close on April 2nd with all trails very skiable. If the past two seasons are any indication, expect a BIG pow pow day close to the closing date!
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The shoe will go at least another week. Most VA areas will last until the end of march or until the snow goes away.
Jim, do the three Snowtime resorts typically all close the same weekend, or is one known to stay open a week or two longer than the others? If so, which?
Thanks.
April 8 - 9, 2006
Last Hurrah Weekend
We're going out with a bang! Celebrate the last hurrah to the winter season with fun and games, live entertainment, our 4th Annual Pond Skimming Extravaganza and much more.
Don't forget, when you book three or more nights lodging over our Last Hurrah Weekend, you'll receive free lift tickets for the length of your stay.
P.S. - I still have an old Killington lift ticket from April 15th!
JimK - generally, Liberty and Whitetail close first. Usually because of lack of skier visits versus snow coverage, although it could be a toss up for reasons this season. Roundtop tends to stay open an extra weekend. Windham stays a weekend or two beyond Roundtop. I don't know what will happen know with Windham being owned by another corporate entity.
Personally, I'll be up at Liberty this Friday, and again the weekend of the 18th if they make it that far. In between, I'll be heading to Keystone, CO for a work conference (really!).
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. In between, I'll be heading to Keystone, CO for a work conference (really!).
Will family accompany? An office mate went to Keystone weekend of Feb 11. He had a fine time. Don't know current exact conditions, but this has to be one of the best years in a while for skiing in the state of Colorado.
Conversely, it's been quite poor for southern Rockies. AZ Snowbowl never opened! Ski Santa Fe only 40% open at this time. Not so good at Taos and Purgatory/Durango either. Last year it was PNW with extraordinarly poor snow.
One thing about mid-Atlantic snowmaking, it takes the total disaster season out of play.
Nearing the end my foot... Been at Snowshoe for over two weeks now following my time at Whistler. The temperatures have been well below freezing, over the past week it got down as low as 7 degrees at my condo. And snowing. This AM we woke up to 5 inches that fell overnight. Even with a warmup towards the weekend, the rest of the week will bring falling temps.
Conditions were excellent today.
Unfortunately, people in DC/Balt/Richmond and everywhere South and West, that tend to be the SShoe clientele, flip a switch around the 1st of April and don;t want to hear about snow. So like Rich said, one can be alone at Cupp with gobs of snow on the 1st of April.
I agree with lbotta. It is a shame that the WV resorts have to shut down when they do. Snowshoe typically has almost everything skiable when they shut down. I skied cannan on closing day about 6 years ago and they had 9" fresh and 100% open. With everyone closing though, i've always wondered if Snowshoe could profit by staying open as late as possible with limited operations, they could shut down some of their low key bars, cut some of their staff, etc, or even reopen just on weekends until they run out of snow. If they were the only provider in teh area they might get by, and pad their reputation by offering one of the longer seasons in the east. My guess is that if they maximized all their snowmaking efforts in march and maybe hit a day or two in april when it got cold enough, they might be able to make it to May in good years. It would be cool if they offered late season ski/golf packages like they do at other resorts like killington. Plus killington often stays open well into may, sometimes June with just one trail, which they blast with their snowguns almost excessively making a riduculous base that would last well into the warming months. Think of hte base snowshoe could have if they concentrated all their firepower on say ballhooter, grabhammer, and spruce glades...plus if they managed to keep that park open, my guess is a lot of the young crowd will keep showing up. So they cut their operations down to just 3-5 trails on the ballhooter lift with like 25-30 dolla lift tickets in a perfect world and we ski WV till May....any takers?
I think that would be a great idea as well. At one time, before big corporate ownership, the shoe would keep Cupp open on weekends and sell a $10 or $15 lift ticket. The only place open for food/drink was Yodlers at Whistlepunk. We skiied until the snow was gone....even had to cross some "straw snow" to make it to the lift some days and skiied the over/under on a 2' wide ribbon to get to the lift. Ahhhh the good old days!!!
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I would go back to the shoe if they were to do something similar.
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Unfortunately, people in DC/Balt/Richmond and everywhere South and West, that tend to be the SShoe clientele, flip a switch around the 1st of April and don;t want to hear about snow. So like Rich said, one can be alone at Cupp with gobs of snow on the 1st of April.
I also have to agree.
Last year, I managed to catch The Shoe on April 12th - the very last day they were opened for the season (the last place in the mid-atlantic that was still opened). It was warm that day (probably hit hit upper 70's), but most of the runs where still very skiable, including Cupp's Run. Shay's pretty much was melted away, thus it was not opened. There was hardly anybody there, and pretty much had Cupp Run to myself. It was mostly me and this one older guy that was skiing it together until he had to leave. To bad I cannot remember the guy's name but he was a trip. Most likely, I'll do it again this year.
Along the lines of "flipping the switch", I mentioned to some guys at work that I was planning on going over to Snow Shoe to ski that weekend and everybody was like "Skiing?!? There is still snow?"
And for what its worth, Massanutten typically stays open until right around the beginning of spring, which is usually the third weekend of March (the 19th this year).
Whitetail has enough snow to last through the 26th. With the temps warming up, the crowds will be gone by the 19th. That's my bet for Whitetail and Liberty.