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WV ski resorts raking in the dough with heavy snow

Whitegrass
WV Commerce
Whitegrass in Tucker County hasn't had to resort to snow farming to attract cross country skiers to its trails.

By Jessica Y. Lilly

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January 5, 2010 · The record snowfall is bringing lots of business to ski resorts in West Virginia and giving one ski resort a big break.

Whitegrass  is a cross-country ski resort in Tucker County with a unique technique for maintaining business.

 

Chip Chase is the owner and manager of Whitegrass.

 

"Canaan Valley is the land of horizontal snow," Chase said. "We put up snow fences and we move them around. We actually at times shovel snow to catch large amounts."

Those fences can turn a three inch snow into two feet of packed ski trails with the right windy conditions.

"We probably do more snow farming than anybody in the world," he said. "For the first few years we hated the wind now we've learned how to harness it."

But this year, storms dropped more than two feet of snow on the trails, so Chase put most snow harvesting on hold.

"The snow farm that we're talking about, we're saving it for rainy days," Chase said. "We're saving it for a sunny day. We're saving it for when the wind stops blowing."

Chase says the storms brought in more than 1,000 skiers, it's been 30 years since Whitegrass greeted so many.

Other resorts didn't break records like Whitegrass, but all welcomed an increase in the number of visitors from last season.

Joe Stevens is spokesman for the West Virginia Ski Areas Association.

"The snow fall that started in the first weekend of December and has basically been with us since that time on a consistent basis, has just created extraordinary conditions for the first week of January," Stevens said.

"The early part of the season we had passable conditions but as the snow fall came and as the cold temperatures came, we were able to make snow we were able to get natural snow on top of that."

 

Timberline and Showshoe resorts were booked to capacity over the holidays while Canaan Valley doubled its amount of visitors from last year.

Stevens says it's not just West Virginia's weather helping to increase the number of skiers.

 

"The important thing is not only are we getting snow in the mountains of West Virginia for the ski resorts, we're getting snow in metropolitan areas that we draw from," he said.

"Charlotte in North Carolina, Roanoke and Richmond to D.C. to Columbus Ohio, they're getting snow. So when people are looking out of their windows and see the snow they're thinking about playing in it instead of wondering if there's snow on the mountains."

Things are looking good for the next holiday weekend ... Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Chip Chase at Whitegrass considers it a good year if you have good numbers during the holiday weekends such as Christmas, New Year's, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the weekend of George Washington's birthday ... and so far so good.

"When the going's good the good get going," he said.

"When the snow is there it's gotta get used."
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