Ski Southeast Messageboard

SWOOP wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:45 am Well the Tale of 2 Resort Prospects is playing out. While no doubt many areas will recover nicely, the damage has been done. Notably at Wintergreen, App, Beech and Sugary and the small areas that shut down.

. . .

The thrivers and survivors seem to be: Snowshoe, Cat, Wisp, Canaan Valley, and Bryce to some extent.
Good news is the picture should drastically improve over the weekend!

SWOOP wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 7:57 am Oops, forgot Massanutten, must be my meds.

Ok, after some consternation, I'm going to put MNUT in the Thriver/Survivor column for a few reasons.
1) Further north than WTG, and a few degrees cooler even though lower elevation
2) Smaller acreage to cover
3) Have to hand it to MNUT management that went all out on the snow making early and opened in November!!! Now that is what we are talking about!

As far as the Shoe trail opening priorities, yes there is definitely a shift in strategy from new mgmt.
Not only was BOTH Cupp and Shay's a priority, but Bearclaw at SC was made a priority, assuming to spread the crowds (and also support the jr racers in lieu of not having Widowmaker open) they made snow where they made the investment in new guns (Shays, Camp, etc)

You have a good point on your comment for holiday traffic flow. They did good to spread the crowd by getting Camp and J-Hook open early as well as Bearclaw and Fox Chase at SC, but missed the boat on Moonshine and Ballhooter. Super surprised about Moonshine as it is a traffic flow run from the easy part of the mountain (North) to Ballhooter-maybe that was on purpose. Also, by not having BH run open, the only way to go left off BH lift is the easy trail and back to BH. The problem is that BH run (and Knot Bumper) do not have much for snow guns and investment here is badly needed. Skippy is a well traveled run and I enjoy it. Choker is not a high traffic run, but I am encouraging an improvement on Choker when the new lift goes in. Open the area to skier's left at the top of the lift by installing a bridge and tunnel for Choker and Heisler. This will extend to steep part of Choker and spread the bottle neck from always getting off the lift and going left with the bottleneck. This is a small investment for a big gain. Further SS could put a nice moniker on the tunnel for some advertising benefit to pay for the tunnel (I got it, just ask me

Well, temps dipped lower than expected last night on the east slope resorts and VA resorts are making snow so good deal-this could save them from the impending thaw coming up-cross your fingers.