Yesterday we hiked from my Summit condo place along the ridge hiking trail all around the Snowshoe Bowl, to the fire tower directly opposite the resort, down to the lake so my Black Lab Thunder could get an hour of swimming, and then proceeded up the new trails, one of which has already been cut and is being finalized. The other seems to be about 75 percent done.

The new trails are to the south side of Widowmaker and are much narrower and exciting than Widowmaker. Solid blue category, especially at the top, where a (more or less) 40 degree slope curves into a steep run, becoming less pronounced towards the end where both new trails meet.

To get to the trails, they are directly under the new Soaring Eagle high-speed detachable quad, making a sharp right turn away from Widowmaker and then choosing one of the two new runs. No interference with other runs such as Widowmaker, where one has to watch out for slower skiers on the left coming out of J-Hook and the Lower Hootenanny.

I am quite impressed with the new runs. I can't wait to try them. I think Snowshoe has made a wonderful investment. The two new trails are extremely well designed and offer incredible views as well as potentially superb skiing. Kudos to the operations folks at the resort. They get a 10.

I took several pix but I don't think I can download pix on this site. Help?

Hopefully someone more savy than I will give you advice on how to download the pictures. I can not wait to see them. The trails sound great. Were the snow guns in place?
Think snow,
The Colonel

You first need to host your picture on a site such as Photobucket, Webshots, Biglines, ect...

After you pictures are hosted all you need to do is to use the image icon in the message posting form and copy the link to your hosted picture (given by the site). I am not the most IT savy, but I hope that helps some.

I was there yesterday as well. I did not go down the trails, but stayed near the entrance to them and filmed a little.

I didnt see snowmaking towers yet in place, but the piping was already in, and a few spare pipe sections were laying at the top of widowmaker. I could be wrong on this, as i did not go all the way down the slopes. From the top I was pleased with the overall feel of the slope, narrow, nice fall line, and a good slope.

Only an hour of swimming for your lab, Lou? What are you, some kind of task master?

One thing I noticed with a lot of the runs in the Bowl is that there are many intersections. Kind of havoc-like on the weekends, I'd imagine. Are these new runs more fall-line-oriented with fewer intersections, or do they tend to bump into each other?

<<Only an hour of swimming for your lab, Lou? What are you, some kind of task master? >>

I was actually starting to worry about him, Roger. I was with two friends and they thought it was funny to take the "chuck-it" and send the ball literally to the middle of the lake. Which of course, with the weekend's heat and the dog happily swimming to the middle of the lake, I was visualizing a dog with cramps and his dad having to swim after him...

About the runs: This will be a first at Snowshoe's Eastern side. Both runs are built like Cupp and Shays, long, relatively narrow, and not a break nor an intersection from top to bottom. I will try to do an experiment and see if I can link the pix I took to this site. Especially in the beginning, it is quite a drop. These runs will be the best runs of the resort fersure.

I'm happy to break some news related to Snowshoe's trail expansion. Although Snowshoe has not officially announced this yet, they have given me permission to report that a third trail is being added on the Soaring Eagle side this summer. Here is the forthcoming trail map:



You'll notice that the new trails now have names, and a Glades area is being added next to Sawmill. Glade runs are relatively uncommon in the mid-Atlantic, and with Snowshoe's healthy natural snowfall, I think the new glade run will be a hit with advanced skiers, especially on powder days. This is looking like a great expansion!

Score. That is one of the better ideas Snowshoe has done in reguards to trails. Its placement couldnt be better. Tucked away so mom and dad dont take their kids through it. And with its northeast exposure, it should hold powder well.

That is awesome! I am so glad Shoe has added more slopes to make the widowmaker side of the mountain worth traversing the green trails that often look like a battlefield!

Thanks for sharing!

Wonderful...can not wait to try them out!!
The Colonel

Three new trails and a new lift altogether! Awesome!

I can now confirm because of a little walk i took yesterday, that the glade is an actual glade. No snowcat getting through there. And snowmaking would be futile, as it would all stick to the trees. Theres about 5-15 feet of space between the trees. The underlying soil is somewhat soft, with ground moss abundant. And as for width, I would say an average of 20-25 yards wide. If it were a trail, I would relate it to Skip Jack for steepness and width.