Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 15, 1993 TAG: 9303150592
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Paul Calhoun
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SNOW HAS BEEN ICING ON WEDDING CAKE
THE BUYOUT of Silver Creek by Snowshoe has been called an acquisition, a wedding, even a shotgun wedding. What ever the case, it has gone over as quietly as the wispy snow that has fallen on lofty Cheat Mountain in West Virginia.\ For nearly a decade, Snowshoe Mountain Resort and Silver Creek Resort coexisted in a state of David-and-Goliath uneasiness as the two distinctly different ski areas shared the same mountain in Pocahontas County, W.Va.
Snowshoe was the long-established king of Cheat Mountain; Silver Creek was the upstart newcomer.
Their mutual goal was getting new skiers into the sport and luring others away from distant areas to the 4,000-foot elevations of Cheat. This made them as much mutual beneficiaries of their separate advertising campaigns as true competitors. Even so, it was said within the ski industry that the managers of both resorts kept a wary eye on each other.
Last fall the tenuous relationship came to an abrupt end. In a decided victory for the giant, the decision makers of Snowshoe engineered the purchase of the resort's junior neighbor.
The brass tacks of the deal were easy to grasp: It put 50 slopes and trails - a domain of some 200 skiable acres - under the control of one ownership and within reach of one lift ticket.
The implications were another matter entirely. Buyouts and business mergers may be old news in the banking industry, but a hostile takeover by a ski resort?
It raised questions about the fate of Silver Creek's popular beginner and intermediate slopes, and about possible price increases at Snowshoe, the Southeast's premier ski facility.
If skiers were upset, however, their concerns apparently were buried under the same blanket of snow that has produced one of the best ski seasons on record. Just about all the reports from Snowshoe/Silver Creek have been positive.
By early March, Snowshoe slopes had logged 287,000 skiers and Silver Creek 57,000, numbers that are in line with record years at both resorts, said Joe Stevens, public relations and promotions manager.
"I haven't heard one negative comment," said Cara Hefner, director of the Pocahontas County Tourism Commission. Along with skier number, lodging also is up, she said.
"Almost every weekend just about everything in the county has been booked solid."
Sam Walters, a former Roanoke Valley resident who now lives in eastern Virginia, is typical of the more than 300,000 visitors who have skied Snowshoe/Silver Creek this season. Walters spent a week's vacation on the mountain, as has been his tradition for a number of years.
Did he see any dramatic changes as the result of the buyout?
"Not really," he said. "On Sunday afternoon we skied Silver Creek to get warmed up, like we always do, then went over to Snowshoe on Monday. Snowshoe was packed, as usual, and Silver Creek was pretty much empty."
With one lift ticket for two resorts, and a bus to shuttle skiers back and forth between them, prices had been standardized - the lower Silver Creek figures raised to the higher Snowshoe rates - but that seemed the extent of the changes.
For Walters, and others like him, the new arrangement is a trade-off. Using Silver Creek as a warm-up area costs a few bucks more than it used to, but the shuttle bus is more convenient than loading everyone and everything into a car and driving up and down the mountain.
Skiers will have to wait until next year to see if Snowshoe management holds the line on prices and services, but overall, the general opinion seems to be "so far, so good."
And that is without considering what may be the greatest benefit of the purchase, that if the deal had not taken place the slopes of Silver Creek may not have opened at all this year.
The ski business in the Southeast, with its erratic weather and short season, is, at best, fraught with peril. Most ski areas, including Snowshoe, suffered serious financial problems until they found solid footing.
As did Silver Creek.
Snowshoe opened in December 1974 and was an industry giant by the time Silver Creek came on the scene in December 1983. Given Snowshoe's reputation for the best and most challenging skiing in the Southeast, the plan to build a second ski area only a mile down the road seemed a bold - but questionable - pursuit.
That skepticism seemed especially well founded in Silver Creek's early years. The resort's innovative all-under-one-roof hotel/ski center wasn't ready for its first season, for example, and the ski lifts were reportedly powered by auxiliary generators because electrical lines were not yet connected.
In its second year, when Silver Creek's lending institution folded and the FSLIC foreclosed, it became obvious the resort's biggest uphill battle involved much more than its down-the-mountain location from Snowshoe.
Resurrected by a coalition of determined West Virginia businessmen, Silver Creek stirred from the ashes of that inauspicious beginning and became one of the region's most popular ski resorts. With excellent beginner-to-intermediate terrain, the convenience of the now finished hotel complex and lower rates than next-door Snowshoe, it drew more than 60,000 skiers to its slopes during the 1991-92 season.
Even that success and the growth of its summer-fall general tourism business apparently couldn't carry the resort.
Last summer and early fall there were reportedly a number of negotiations between Silver Creek management and would-be buyers and investors. There were also reports that without a transfusion of outside capital, Silver Creek would not survive.
In retrospect, Snowshoe's purchase may have been equal parts hostile takeover and salvation.
Skiers might not be all that concerned with behind-the-scenes dealings, but they can enjoy the results well into spring.
Given the depth and excellent condition of the man-made snow base, and the abundance of natural snow, which has continued to fall into mid-March, the projected closing dates are March 21 for Silver Creek facilities and April 4 for Snowshoe.
And those dates, Stevens said, are based mainly on declining skier interest, not necessarily deteriorating ski conditions.
"If the crowds dictate it, we'll stay open," he said. "The slopes are in unbelieveable shape. Snowmakers who have been here since the resort opened in 1974 say they have never seen this much snow on the mountain this late in the season.
"We won't do it, of course, but given the conditions we could ski to mid-May or early June."
The resort has had all 50 of its slopes in operation throughout the late season, and that has included Cubb Run, the new ultra-beginner facility built by Silver Creek but lacking snowmaking equipment. Natural snow has kept it open the past several weeks.
When warm weather eventually does arrive, Snowshoe/Silver Creek will be unveiling its next big attraction, golf. A new Gary Player-designed course is scheduled to open by midsummer, and could go a long way toward giving the resort true four-season status.
\ AUTHOR Paul Calhoun lives in the Roanoke Valley and writes about outdoor activities for a number of publications.