It has been a busy off-season for all the resorts.
Nearly every resort has worked throughout the off-season improving the skier experience – rather it is new offerings or improving snowmaking capabilities.
Below is a look at what new and exciting things await when the lifts start turning to kickoff the season.
Don’t see your favorite resort? Don’t fret as we will be updating this story (as well as each individual resort page) with additional resorts over the coming weeks.
North Carolina
Beech Mountain Resort
Beech Mountain has made a number of improvements over the offseason.
The resort has added 1,000 gallons per minute pump to the primary pump house and added 1,250 gallons per minute pump to Lake Sanits to improve snowmaking capability. To take advantage of the added capacity, 10 new SMI fan guns have been added to the snowmaking arsenal.
When the season kicks off, Beech will also showcase a new village plaza with walkways, multiple fire pits, and landscaping with ice skating being relocated behind the lodge in the future.
Other improvements for this season include a renovated sports shop with a new rental shop, outdoor speaker system through the resort village, an outdoor snack/shack at the Lodge, a new coffee shop, and retail location named First Chair Coffee, and LED Slope lighting on Southern Star.
Sugar Mountain Resort
It has been a busy summer at Sugar Mountain.
The North Carolina resort is putting the finishing touches on a new 2,000 foot long, fixed-grip chairlift to replace the former triple Green chairlift.
The new lift has been renamed the Big Birch chairlift and will service the Big Birch Slop as well as provide access to Oma’s Meadow.
Sugar has also added a new 600W Piston Bully Winch Cat to the mountain operations fleet, and added five additional, fully automated SMI snow-making machines on Oma’s Meadow.
One of the biggest changes, however, will be noticeable as you pull into the resort as the entrance and parking lots around the base lodge have been paved.
Virginia
Massanutten Resort
Massanutten Resort is celebrating its 50th season in style with a number of upgrades and improvements coming over the next couple of years.
For this season, Massanutten has replaced the last remaining original lift – which was a J-Bar – with a 650-foot carpet lift while transitioning the dedicated terrain park to a beginner’s area.
If you are looking for the terrain park, don’t fret as the mountain operations crews will be moving terrain park features around the mountain – like last season.
This season will also feature new RFID gates making it easier to go from your car to the slopes.
Massanutten has also purchased 50 new automated HTD guns along with four additional automated TA fan guns.
Other improvements on the mountain include expanding the Mid-Mountain grill area – including adding some permanent indoor plumbing – to create another spot to hang out and watch the slopes.
The Omni Homestead Resort
The Omni Homestead Resort is continually making improvements and this past off-season was no different.
The resort has announced a $120 million restoration project for the property – including the addition of new amenities, expansion of guest areas, and refurbishment of all the guest rooms
The Virginia resort has added eBikes and tomahawk throwing as amenities.
As for the slopes, the mountain operations team has relocated some of the tower snow guns to more strategic spots to get the most out of the snowmaking system. Omni Homestead has also added three more snow guns to the inventory.
Wintergreen Resort
Wintergreen Resort has made several enhancements to the snowmaking system and other improvements across the mountain.
As with sister-resort Wisp, Wintergreen is working on a daily basis on also improving the digital experience for skiers and snowboarders.
“We are focused on delivering a better digital customer experience for our guests through the Wintergreen and Wisp mobile apps,” Director of Marketing for PGRI Resorts Lori Zalogi said. “The addition of mobile food ordering last season was a huge hit and we continue to add new features and functionality to provide our guests with the information they need to have a great day on the mountain.”
Wintergreen will unveil a new walkway on the TreeHouse conveyor carpet and also a new drying system for the rental equipment – dry boots are always awesome.
The resort’s mountain operations staff will have some new tools at their disposal including a new Pisten Bully Park Pro groomer and two new snowmobiles.
Wintergreen also has added 14 new TechnoAlpin V3 air/water snowmaking guns and four TechnoAlpin fan guns along with four new portable HKD air/water snowmaking guns to the snowmaking capability for this season.
West Virginia
Canaan Valley
It has been a busy offseason at Canaan Valley.
While most of the work has been maintenance and getting everything ready for the upcoming season, there are some projects that haven’t been announced yet.
“We do have some new projects in the works right now at the ski area,” Canaan Valley Director of Marketing Mark Moody said. “We are in crunch time and as soon as we get closer to the goal line, we will be ready announce what those projects are.”
The resort updated some snowmaking equipment last season and look to take full advantage this season.
Snowshoe Mountain
The mountain operation crews have been busy behind the scenes this season replacing pipes used for snowmaking.
“It’s not the sexiest of capital improvements – the digging up of old snowmaking pipes and putting new ones in,” Snowshoe Mountain Director of PR Shawn Cassell said. “It’s so important because you have all the new guns in the world, but if the pipes underground getting the water and air to them are old, the guns are only going to do so much. I think that is going to make a noticeable difference.”
Snowshoe replaced pipes in both on parts of the mountain.
The mountain operation crews have also found some cool ways to recycle the old pipes in using them in terrain park features.
In addition, Snowshoe has added a brand new snowcat to its arsenal.
Also returning for this season will be a number of events along with some food and beverage changes and the relocation of the family fun center to the Bear’s Den at Silver Creek while the Big Top is transitioned into a rental location.
Winterplace Resort
Winterplace Resort continues to work to deliver the best on-snow experience possible, and they are also making it quicker to get to the slopes.
Winterplace has updated the online ticketing system to make transactions seamless to help visitors do what we all want to do more often – ski.
The resort also made significant enhancements to the snowmaking this offseason.
Maryland
Wisp Resort
Wisp has continued to work and enhance the on-snow experience for its visitors.
Wisp is making a big effort to improve the digital customer experience as well throughout the season.
In addition, Wisp has upgraded the snowmaking system with 2800 feet of new snowmaking pipes on Squirrel Cage – a popular black diamond – along with updating the five SMI polecat snow guns with new TechnoAlpin snowguns.
The resort has also made a big effort in trail trimming on the edges of the trails to keep the tree and shrub growth back.
Tennessee
Ober Gatlinburg
Ober Gatlinburg has had a busy summer getting ready for the 2021-22 season.
The resort did an overhaul on the Red Lift – which serves the beginner area. The refurbishment included replacing all the chairs on that lift.
Ober also invested over $4.5 million on the Aerial Tramway replacing track cables and upgrading to a digital control pad.
In addition, the resort replaced nearly half of the rental inventory of ice skates and increased ski and snowboard boots and rental equipment for this upcoming season.
