SNOWSHOE, W.Va. — A handful of trails reopened to skiers and snowboarders at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Pocahontas County on Saturday for the first time since Christmas when snow operations were suspended due to unseasonably warm weather.
Those out found themselves making turns in dense clouds of snow as snowmaking operations continued in earnest, helped along by colder temperatures to start 2016.
“Every drop of water we can possibly pump up the hill, we’re pumping right now,” Shawn Cassell, spokesperson for Snowshoe Mountain Resort, reported on Saturday morning.
“The temperatures have been great. In the nighttime, it’s almost perfect and the early part of next week looks even better, so the guns are being more productive than they have been yet this season and we’re hoping we can expand terrain quickly.”
Snowshoe’s Silver Creek Area was scheduled to open at 12 p.m. Sunday.
With temperatures in the 20s, snow guns were also going Saturday at Winterplace Resort in Raleigh County and at Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline Resort in Tucker County.
Timberline kept a few trails open to skiers and snowboarders throughout the warm temperatures of December, but both Canaan Valley and Winterplace were forced to shut down lifts and await January’s colder temperatures.
As of Saturday, Canaan Valley was tentatively scheduled to reopen its trails on Jan. 6.
No reopening date had yet been announced for Winterplace.
“It’s been a December to forget, that’s for sure. But 2016’s been good to us so far,” Cassell said. “We’re excited. We’re not looking back.”