[quote=“ZombieLew, post:20, topic:28157”]The only real downside to Canaan is that it doesn’t look very beginner-friendly. Lots of blue and black, little green.
That being said, it’s also right on my way back to DC from Huntington. So… it’s pretty much a wash.[/quote]I promise Canaan is not as hard as it looks. Several of the blues should really be greens. I’ve only been skiing 4 times in my life and I do the blacks at Canaan with little problem. There are only 2-3 runs at Canaan that I won’t do and that is only because they’re through the woods on narrow paths and I don’t feel comfortable navigating narrow turns through trees.
Sorry to keep bumping this, but I think Canaan might be our best option.
A season pass to Canaan if you have a student ID is only $235. A 3 day lift pass on a weekend is only $113. A 2 day pass at Snowshoe is almost $200. Equipment rentals are also much less expensive.
A 2 bedroom cabin rental is only $139/night on weekends (sleeps 6) and includes a fireplace with wood.
It really seems like the most economical choice. We can ski all day and just load the place up with alcohol and drink by the fire all night.
It is 6 hours from Charlotte, but you can get far more skiing in there than at other resorts because there are almost never any lines at Canaan.
Canaan has far fewer bells and whistles than Snowshoe, but the lack of lines and low cost kinda make up for it.
Snowshoe’s longest run has a vertical drop of 1500 feet, and it is an advanced slope. Timberline’s longest has a vertical of about 1,000 feet and that run is a very easy green. Winterplace’s longest consists of roughly 400 feet of vertical and is also an easy green. With that said, both Snowshoe and Winterplace are way too crowded on a weekend.
I recommend Canaan Valley and Timberline, which are only a couple miles apart. They are not nearly as crowded, but they are also about an hour farther from Charlotte than Snowshoe. If you are at Snowshoe on a Saturday, I recommend skiing at Silver Creek to dodge the crowds (Silver Creek is owned by Snowshoe and a shuttle bus runs between the 2 locations).
From the mid 80s through the early 2000s, I used to get in at least 14 days a year at Snowshoe and was a ski patroller up there a few of those years, so I know the mountain well. With that said, the place is now overpriced and way too crowded. I still get in at least 20 days on the slopes a year, but very few of those are at Snowshoe.
However… Another important factor to consider… Snowshoe has the best bars.
Something else you may want to keep in mind is the option of skiing Wintergreen in Virginia when we play at ODU.
Snowshoe’s longest run has a vertical drop of 1500 feet, and it is an advanced slope. Timberline’s longest has a vertical of about 1,000 feet and that run is a very easy green. Winterplace’s longest consists of roughly 400 feet of vertical and is also an easy green. With that said, both Snowshoe and Winterplace are way too crowded on a weekend.
I recommend Canaan Valley and Timberline, which are only a couple miles apart. They are not nearly as crowded, but they are also about an hour farther from Charlotte than Snowshoe. If you are at Snowshoe on a Saturday, I recommend skiing at Silver Creek to dodge the crowds (Silver Creek is owned by Snowshoe and a shuttle bus runs between the 2 locations).
From the mid 80s through the early 2000s, I used to get in at least 14 days a year at Snowshoe and was a ski patroller up there a few of those years, so I know the mountain well. With that said, the place is now overpriced and way too crowded. I still get in at least 20 days on the slopes a year, but very few of those are at Snowshoe.
However… Another important factor to consider… Snowshoe has the best bars.
Something else you may want to keep in mind is the option of skiing Wintergreen in Virginia when we play at ODU.[/quote]ODU is probably as far from Wintergreen as Charlotte isn’t it? The snow in Canaan / Snowshoe is just far superior to anything else you can get in the SE.
I’m pretty confident I’m just going to get season passes to Canaan. It is nice and relaxed. ALthough I like the variety and the village at Snowshoe, the accommodations are significantly more expensive and its not uncommon to wait 15+ minutes to get on a lift.
Snowshoe’s longest run has a vertical drop of 1500 feet, and it is an advanced slope. Timberline’s longest has a vertical of about 1,000 feet and that run is a very easy green. Winterplace’s longest consists of roughly 400 feet of vertical and is also an easy green. With that said, both Snowshoe and Winterplace are way too crowded on a weekend.
I recommend Canaan Valley and Timberline, which are only a couple miles apart. They are not nearly as crowded, but they are also about an hour farther from Charlotte than Snowshoe. If you are at Snowshoe on a Saturday, I recommend skiing at Silver Creek to dodge the crowds (Silver Creek is owned by Snowshoe and a shuttle bus runs between the 2 locations).
From the mid 80s through the early 2000s, I used to get in at least 14 days a year at Snowshoe and was a ski patroller up there a few of those years, so I know the mountain well. With that said, the place is now overpriced and way too crowded. I still get in at least 20 days on the slopes a year, but very few of those are at Snowshoe.
However… Another important factor to consider… Snowshoe has the best bars.
Something else you may want to keep in mind is the option of skiing Wintergreen in Virginia when we play at ODU.[/quote]ODU is probably as far from Wintergreen as Charlotte isn’t it? The snow in Canaan / Snowshoe is just far superior to anything else you can get in the SE.
I’m pretty confident I’m just going to get season passes to Canaan. It is nice and relaxed. ALthough I like the variety and the village at Snowshoe, the accommodations are significantly more expensive and its not uncommon to wait 15+ minutes to get on a lift.[/quote]
Yes, the snow in Canaan and Snowshoe is superior to the rest of the southeast. As a matter of fact, IMO it is often better than what you get in the northeast because of the low altitude of New England resorts. A season ticket is the way to go if you plan on skiing a lot. I have had a season pass to Vail Resorts for 5 years in a row now. That’s good for Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapaho Basin, The Canyons (UT), Brighton (UT), Heavenly (Tahoe), Kirkwood (Tahoe), and North Star (Tahoe).
My girlfriend and I may go ski the Tatras in Southern Poland / Northern Slovakia this winter. Can’t find any views like this on the east coast:
She has family and friends there, so our costs would be mostly limited to flight and lift tickets, but they’re very cheap there since Poland is not on the Euro.
