GHENT, W.Va. — With temperatures getting colder after a strangely mild December, ski resorts are trying to get back on track in the new year.
“The cold weather that moved in was fantastic, because our snowmakers were able to take full advantage of that and turn our entire mountain white,” said Tom Wagner, the Executive Director at Winterplace Resort near Beckley.
Wagner said that cold temperatures are enough to cover the hills, but he certainly wouldn’t mind a real snowstorm.
“We’re not going to complain about that at all. That’s always welcome. We’re glad to see it,” he said. “We anticipate we’re going to see skiers return to West Virginia because we’ve got some of the best snow making capacity in the entire country.”
Wagner said that the warm December hurt not only just ski resorts, but other businesses associated with the resorts that depend on the tourism.
“The holiday season is very important for all of us. Not only is it important for ski resorts, but the hotels, grocery stores; restaurants. All of those folks who work in those industries saw a smaller time during the holidays,” Wagner said.
He said that in a normal year, resorts can depend on the holiday season as a boom, which wasn’t the case in December.
“The first holiday season is really kind of our start up to get rolling through it,” Wagner said. “Now we still have three-quarters of the season left. About 25 percent of what we normally look at was lost due to warm weather.”
With colder January weather here, Winterplace and other ski resorts around the Mountain State are making up for lost time.