Snowshoe Ski Resort

Snowshoe Ski Resort West Virginia

Located in the Monongahela National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, Snowshoe Mountain Resort has a total eleven thousand acres of land and a mountain elevation of 4,848 feet, making it ideal for winter sports of all kinds. In these parts of the Allegheny Mountains, winter lasts as long as six months, with the first significant snowfall hitting in October.

Snowshoe Mountain is actually a bowl-like convergence of two different mountains, the Cheat and the Black Allegheny, at the head of Shaver’s Fork. The mountains have a total of 57 slopes and trails and average about fifteen feet of snowfall each winter. At one of the highest elevations in West Virginia, Snowshoe Mountain also lays claim the mountain’s south-face highest vertical drop – a whopping 1500 feet. The resort also has fourteen modern lifts, including three high-speed detachable quad lifts. Average temperatures at this high altitude rage from about 28 degrees F in January to 68 degrees F in July, making it considerably cooler than most of the nearby areas, and a favorite winter as well as summer getaway for many.

Advertisements

Lodging In Snowshoe Ski Resort

This resort is unusual among other ski destinations because its village is located at the mountain’s summit rather than at the base. The village contains two state of the art lodges, restaurants, coffee shops, retail operations, and rental and repair facilities. This area also has several beautiful and affordable lodging facilities including a one hundred-unit complex complete with state of the art rental shop and another upscale facility with private terraces and incredibly western views.

Snowshoe Mountain

With a nationally recognized golf course, an outdoor adventure program and extensive mountain biking terrain, Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort is truly a four season destination. Off-season summer and fall activities also include a chili cook-off and a wine and jazz festival, as well as many others. Recent additions to the resort include the new high-speed chair lifts which will reduce lift ride from ten minutes to less than three minutes. This new lift can also sustain an uphill capacity of over 2,400 skiers per hour, whereas the old lifts could only handle around 1,500 skiers per hour.

Snowshoe Mountain Resort is truly an asset to Pocahontas County and has been for more than 30 years now. A logging area from 1905 to 1960, the mountain was rediscovered by North Carolina dentist Thomas “Doc” Brigham, who believed it would make a good location for a ski resort and who worked to build it up and open it to the public in 1974. Today, Snowshoe Mountain employs over 500 people year-round and more than 1,400 during the busy winter months.