Snowshoe 1-13-25 to 1-17-25

[Ride Delaware ?]

It took me awhile to get to this, but I figured it’s better late than never.  

I hadn’t been to Snowshoe since 2004 when I was a senior in high school, so when my parents, who have an affinity for WV, offered to take us on a trip there, we jumped on it.  When we last went, they hadn’t finished Corridor H or Snowshoe Drive over the backside of the mountain, so the trip was much shorter this time.  It would have been about 7 hours without any extra stops, but they are tough to avoid when you have extra people, so it took us about 8.  The last hour or so on the winding WV roads were partially snow covered too, which added to the adventure.  

It’s been difficult to justify going to WV when the drive to Southern VT is the same distance and has much more consistent snow, but we just got really lucky this time.  Outside of days in the northeast where I’ve gotten free refills all day, this was probably top 3 in terms of pure snow conditions.  They hadn’t experienced a freeze thaw event in almost a month, snow guns were constantly going, and they had received 6 feet of snow in the previous two weeks.  We stayed ski in/ski out at the top of the mountain.  We got into our accommodations at 3 on Monday, got an hour or so the first day, went bell to bell with some stops Tuesday-Thursday, and then did another hour in the morning Friday before we left.  We got a couple inches of fresh snow Tuesday night and a couple more Thursday night, so in addition to the snowmaking, there were some little refreshes in there.

Overall, the mountain is relatively mellow, but has some great cruisers.  It’s also a top/down mountain which is unique.  There are 3 distinct mountain areas.  The main mountain is where most of the lodging and village are located.  Silver Creek is a little smaller, has the night skiing, and you have to take a shuttle to it.  The Western Territory is where they have “4” runs that are the full 1,500’ vert, and they are fast, open, and really make the mountain ride/ski a lot bigger than the stats show.  Those runs compete with some of the runs up in VT, but there aren’t many of them.  They were also blowing snow on open terrain which you don’t see too much of south of NY, so that was cool to see too.  There’s plenty of high speed lifts, so you can cover the mountain quickly and really rack up some runs. 

Most of the trip was spent at the main area.  All the trails were packed powder.  There wasn’t any ice.  It was incredible.  The main HSQ in the middle of the mountain, Ballhooter, was by far the busiest lift, sometimes having a 5 minute lift line, but every other lift was ski on/off.  I spent most of my time on the Soaring Eagle and Powder Monkey lifts.  Since I was there last, they also added some glade skiing.  They were cut well, but even with all the natural they had gotten, there were still obstacles and they could have used another foot in there.  On Thursday we took the opportunity to go to the Western Territory by walking across the road at the top of the Powder Monkey lift.  It’s about a 100 yard walk.  I knocked out 7 or 8 runs in about an hour and 15 minutes.  There were some hard pack spots over there due to the sun exposure, but all in all, nothing to complain about.  The view there is very reminiscent of out west minus the lack of above tree line views.  

The amenities are really nice.  We stayed at the Mountain Lodge, which has a great location, but being one of the first lodges built in the late 70’s/early 80’s, is very dated.  The village is great.  Nice mix of shops and food.  There is a small grocer at the top, which comes in handy for overpriced necessities, but make sure you bring what you need since Snowshoe is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  There’s a Dollar General at the base, but if you can’t find it there, you’re traveling an hour plus for a real grocery store or a Wal-Mart.

Great trip overall.  I’d go back, but you just don’t get that lucky on conditions that often.  When we were there, they had more snowfall for the year than Sugarbush had.  Sometimes you just get lucky.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report!! Did you have any issues with altitude sickness I heard if ears pop chew gum or pop in a Zyn