Our second trip to Snowshoe was enjoyable as well. The post about our first Snowshoe trip can be viewed here. It was snowing all 3 days of our stay at the resort. My husband and I took a long weekend trip with some friends, and had a great experience. Snowshoe has wonderful trails for every skill level, good natural snowfall and snowmaking and about 6 large terrain parks. The lodging at the resort is nice, as almost every residence is situated as a ski-in, ski-out location. This time we rented a condo right on the edge of the Main Village. We had a choice to take a shuttle to the different ski areas, or just walk up long steep stairs and start skiing from the top of the Basin. Dave was snowboarding and I was skiing. It was nice to ski/snowboard on fresh powder. It takes about 4,5 hour to get there, but it is worth it. You can’t find another place with such a big drop and long runs anywhere near what Snowshoe has.
Snowshoe is home to 251 acres of ski-able terrain with an elevation of 4848’, 1500 vertical feet, 60 trails and the best snow around. The three ski areas include the Snowshoe Basin, Western Territory and Silver Creek. Plenty of room to roam.
from jamesniehues.com
It is quite a nice ride from the DC area to Snowshoe. Every time we try to take a slightly different route to see the surroundings. West Virginia is mostly rural and absolutely beautiful. This time the Blue Ridge Mountains seemed dark blue from the window of our car.
Here is a really cute village in a valley surrounded by mountains.
A beautiful Mountain view from the balcony of our rental condo near Snowshoe Village.
First things first, we headed to the Depot to get our season passes. By the way, it was such a good deal on season passes. Each pass, costing $199 is valid through the end of this season and next year as well. We couldn’t pass this deal up.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort is a four-season mountain playground. While the area is still best known for winter activities, today the resort has extensive mountain biking trails, a popular golf course, wedding and convention areas, a number of summer outdoor activities, and also hosts a Grand National Cross Country racing event. About 480,000 skiers visit the area each year, primarily from West Virginia and the larger cities of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast (from wikipedia).
Photo taken by Josh
There is a nice mix of straight top to bottom Atlantic type runs and the more New England style winding trails. The Snowshoe management are trying to update the lifts to make them faster – the high speed lifts do help the crowds. We did experience some waits at the bottom of the hill. It is better off going during the week, if possible.
Photo taken by William
Snowshoe has several commercial areas, with the most prominent being The Village at Snowshoe, located at the summit of the mountain which includes shops, restaurants and hotel-style condos. Snowshoe Mountain ski resort is owned by IntraWest, the folks behind Tremblant, Steamboat and formerly Whistler-Blackcomb. Intrawest built a nice cobblestone village plaza in 1999.
The Uncle Cracker outdoor concert was organized at the Village at night. It was pretty chili, so we didn’t spend much time there.
Everything was covered in snow at the time we were leaving Snowshoe.
We had a chance to see deer right on the edge of the road, while driving home.
We stopped at the Top of the World (the Snowshoe Basin area) parking lot to take a glimpse at the mountains.
The winter is almost over, but we will be back at Snowshoe next week. Hopefully, it won’t be too warm. 🙂