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More of West Virginia’s ski resorts beginning to open for the season

GHENT, W. Va. — As West Virginia progresses further into the winter season, more ski resorts begin to open around the state.

Opening days vary year to year based on a number of factors, and officials at Winterplace say the slopes are looking good right now.

“We’re always really excited when mother nature provides the cold temperatures that we’ve had, our snow makers have been hard at it around the clock, our groomers have been out there,” Tom Watson, a ski patrol supervisor at the resort in Ghent said. “The anticipation is just got everybody a little bit, what I call, ‘giddly’ around here because this is a great time of year.”

The resort will welcome skiers and snowboarders this Friday to begin the 2014-2015 season, opening three lifts with 10 trails and expanding on Saturday with an addition lift to the top of the mountain and four more trails.

According to Wagner, a major contributing factor to the resort’s opening has been the weather. If you have cold temperatures, then you have snow.

“Winterplace has got one of the largest, most sophisticated snowmaking systems in the southeast and we’re going to have more snow on the hill right now than many times we’d see later in the year because we’ve had good temperatures,” he said. “We’re seeing that across the region, also. Everybody’s snow makers have been hard at it.”

Snowshoe Mountain in Pocahontas County has been open since November 26, Timberline in Tucker County will open Friday, Canaan Valley in Tucker County will open on December 20 and the slopes at Ogelbay Resort in Ohio County will open when weather and conditions permit.

Wagner observed that they see two main groups of people to the slopes in the opening weeks. Mainly the dedicated enthusiasts trying to get back into shape for the season, but also a demographic on the opposite end of the spectrum.

“The other thing we’re getting is a lot of folks coming out who want to try it out for the first time,” he said. “The season’s just getting started and this is the perfect time for them to test it out, to see if they like it and they’ll continue on with it through the rest of the season.”

To entice some of those new visitors to the mountain, Winterplace is offering free lift tickets for children age 12 and under until December 19.

With the the ski industry drawing an average of 800,000 tourists to the state and employing around 5,000 workers, Wagner is feeling relatively confident about the upcoming holiday results.

“It’s just a huge boon to our overall state economy,” he said. “In Southern West Virginia, it’s very critical. This holiday time is really important because this can make or break your season if you’re going to get the holidays. It looks like right now Mother Nature is provided us everything we need to have a great holiday season.”





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