CHARLESTON, W.Va. — You won’t have to wait for a white Christmas in West Virginia.
With help from the weather, Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Pocahontas County is offering a white Thankgiving to skiers and snowboarders looking to make their first turns of the season.
Trails open to the public at Snowshoe this Friday, Nov. 22 at 9 a.m.
“It’s been a really cold November. It’s been the coldest November we’ve had in quite some time, so snowmaking has been very successful this year and we’re feeling really good about opening up this week,” said Shawn Cassell, Snowshoe’s public relations manager.
Typically, the goal has been to launch the ski and snowboard season at Snowshoe on the day before Thanksgiving, if the weather allows for it.
“This year, Thanksgiving was a little late, so we decided to bump it up to the Friday before,” Cassell said. “It’s a little bit of a gamble when you make that call in August, but now we’re looking good.”
Snowshoe will start the season just a few days after the scheduled sale of another ski resort in West Virginia, Timberline Four Seasons Resort in Tucker County.
Timberline won’t be opening for the season.
A Tuesday auction had been planned in Philadelphia, Pa. with a minimum bid of $2.5 million set for the Timberline ski area and the resort’s real estate development.
The auction date followed a previous order from U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Last year’s ski season at Timberline abruptly ended in February.
In April, Timberline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
On Wednesday, Judge Jean K. FitzSimon, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Philadelphia, will consider a motion to convert the case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Nearby in Tucker County, Opening Day for skiing and snowboarding was planned for Dec. 14 at Canaan Valley Resort.
Nine fan guns, four tower guns and five moveable guns have been added to the snowmaking arsenal at Canaan along with more water pumps, resort officials said, to assist with faster snowmaking at longer durations as conditions allow.
Parking has been expanded and there are additional lift ticket purchase locations at the Davis site.
At Winterplace Resort in Raleigh County, snowmaking operations were underway last week ahead of a projected opening date in the middle of December.
Resort officials indicated that date could be moved up, weather permitting.
Snowshoe’s Silver Creek Area was also tentatively scheduled for a Dec. 13 opening.
The ski and snowboard season usually continues into March in West Virginia.