DCSki Editorial Overview
The story in brief
Near Banner Elk, North Carolina, Vista — also remembered by developer Bob Ash as Diamond Ridge — was a proposed ski area that never became a public resort. An early 1991 Snow Country article described Ash’s “Ghost Ski Area,” while recollections place the project’s trail work in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The slopes had been cut and carefully groomed, offering a glimpse of what might have been built in the Blue Ridge.
Ash was an inventor, artist, developer, and an important figure in North Carolina skiing, holding several snowmaking patents. One design envisioned a snow gun rising through the snow like a periscope. Kenny Hess, who walked the trails with Ash, believed the project could have become the best skiing south of New York. A mid-1990s aerial image found by a reader also suggests a substantial, thoughtfully laid-out site. The property is now associated with the Diamond Creek golf club, leaving the manicured ski trails as a trace of an ambitious lost-area vision.
Generated from DCSki's historical profile and reader-contributed memories.
Kenny Hess, who served in many roles at Virginia’s Massanutten Resort before retiring in 2024, wrote in with details about a lost ski area in North Carolina.
Kenny shared a link to an article from an early 1991 issue of Snow Country magazine talking about a “Ghost Ski Area” by inventor, artist, and developer Bob Ash.
Kenny writes:
“The article calls it ‘Vista’ but I remember Bob Ash calling it Diamond Ridge or something like that. There is a high end golf club on the property now that [goes by] Diamond Creek. I walked the trails with Bob Ash back sometime in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Many of the trails were cut and very well manicured. Bob Ash held a number of snowmaking patents, one of which was for the snow gun to come up through the snow like a periscope. He was very much involved in the North Carolina ski scene. If this area was developed it could have been the best skiing south of New York.”
Reader Comments