THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090474
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
While skiers out west especially along the Pacific Rim - are begging for snow, the Southeast is seeing some of the best early-season conditions in years.
Winter is here.
All four of Virginia's ski resorts are open or are slated to be in the next few days. Several slopes in North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania are already in operation, with more to come on line this weekend.
And the region's largest resort - Snowshoe in West Virginia - opened its second area, neighboring Silver Creek, on Friday.
With that, Snowshoe has 36 of its 52 slopes and trails available - the most terrain the resort has had open this early in the season in its 22-year history.
``Natural snowfall this November measured 56 inches on top of Snowshoe Mountain,'' resort spokesman Joe Stevens said. That compares with just 3 inches in November 1994. And it is about a third of the resort's normal annual 180-inch snowfall.
``This year's weather conditions have also been very favorable for snowmaking,'' said Danny Seme, Snowshoe's general manager. He believes the resort will have all terrain open before Christmas.
While that translates into a lot of good early-season skiing for winter sports enthusiasts, it's also just plain good business for the ski industry. Snowshoe posted 18,500 skier visits in November, easily a record for that month. The previous high was 10,500 in 1981.
In Hampton Roads, ski shops and tour organizers are also reaping the cold-weather windfall as snow-hungry snowboarders and skiers set out for the slopes.
``Our first two trips sold out and they sold out early,'' said Mike Fitzwater, vice president of Alpine Ski Tours in Chesapeake. ``We've never seen this kind of interest this early in the season. The cold weather has helped us out.''
Fitzwater said that Snowshoe and Seven Springs in Pennsylvania are the hot destinations right now, but that skiers planning trips later in the season are signing up for visits to Virginia's four resorts, too.
``Overnight trips for January and February are booking out,'' he said. ``It just has all the makings of a very good year for us and skiers. The only thing I wish is that we would get more of the white stuff on the slopes in Virginia, but hopefully the storm running through there this evening will help us out a lot.''
Resorts in the Northeast and the Midwest are also doing well, but some of the spots that had the best early-season skiing - indeed, some of the best conditions all year in 1994-95 - are practically barren.
Colorado's resorts are recovering from a warm spell last month that forced several ski areas to do something that seldom happens in the state once resorts open: shut down the lifts. They have recovered nicely in recent weeks, although most still only have less than half their terrain open.
Californians - who saw record snowfalls last year - are having trouble finding even frost outside their refrigerators this year. Only three of the state's resorts are open.
Weather patterns have been persistently steering storms ashore near the Candian-U.S. border instead of further south, as happened last year. Plus, cold air has remained bottled up in Canada with mild weather to the south.
Here is the status of resorts in the Southeast:
Virginia - Massanutten and Wintergreen opened Friday; Bryce is to open today and The Homestead plans to open Tuesday.
North Carolina - Appalachian, Hawksnest, Ski Beech and Sugar Mountain are all open; Sapphire Valley is to open Dec. 15 and Cataloochee on Dec. 16.
Maryland - Wisp is open.
West Virginia - Canaan Valley, Snowshoe-Silver Creek, Timberline and Winterplace are open.
Pennsylvania - Alpine Mountain, Big Boulder, Blue Mountain, Camelback, Montage, Seven Springs, Shawnee Mountain and Ski Sawmill are all open; Hidden Valley, Jack Frost, Tussey Mountain, Ski Denton, Ski Roundtop and Tanglewood plan to open or reopen today; Mt. Airy Lodge and Whitetail plan to open Dec. 15.
Georgia - Sky Valley Resort plans to open Dec. 16. MEMO: For the latest slope conditions, call INFOLINE at 640-5555 and enter
category 7669 (SNOW). ILLUSTRATION: Chart
Slope report: good in the East
by CNB