Whether you're skiing, snowboarding or just looking for a place to play, winter at Snowshoe Mountain is the real deal.

Good for the east coast

I have been coming to ski snowshoe with my wife and family every season for 5 years. We are all expert skiers and have skied everywhere from the Poconos, to Appalachia, to the Rockies, and beyond. Let me tell anyone interested that Snowshoe is a great place to visit and ski, probably the best on the east coast (unless you hit the best spots in Vermont for comparison).

Terrain and Trails: Great variety of trails, long winding trails, massive challenging drops, easier slops for the beginners and intermediates, and a couple of fantastic double blacks on the western territories that will get even an expert's thighs burning. Everything is spread out over a huge territory, it must be 800-1,000 acres of ski-able terrain (that's a lot, especially for the east coast).

Crowds: yes, it can get very crowded, and lift lines at 2 pm on a Saturday can be very long. If you make the most out of each run and enjoy it, the lift line at the bottom shouldn't be too much to tolerate. Get out early a.m. for first tracks, go on a weekday, and just deal with it. Lines are just as bad or worse at smaller resorts with a lot shorter trails, so at least you're in a great place and your next run will be a good long one once you do finally get back to the top.

Activities: we never did a whole lot of the night life but I know there are some restaurants and bars. There is also multiple pools and hot tubs to take advantage of. Non-skiers can probably entertain themselves.

Accomodations: we've stayed everywhere from the hotel-style lodging at Eagles Swoop, to various condos and townhomes in other areas - things have varied in terms of how up-to-date the decor and amenities were (old carpeting, out-dated kitchen cabinets, small showers, etc...) but considering the place has been in operation for a few years, that's to be expected. Everything can't be a four-star luxury hotel, right? We've never had any MAJOR problems. If luxury is a deal-breaker, somewhere else might be for you, or ask for the newest most expensive lodging they have.

Weather: almost every time I've been to snowshoe (usually early february) we have gotten at least a few inches of fresh powder during our 3-4 day trip. Getting out for first tracks in the morning on that new snow - there's just no comparison! (especially for this region)

So, long story short, go check it out and don't listen to the haters - often people have things to complain about no matter what their experience. If you are a serious skier, if you are looking forward to a fun trip with family or friends, and you don't want to drop 3-4 times more $$ on a trip to Tahoe or Sun Valley - Snowshoe is a GREAT resort and you will have a GREAT time.

Now hit that pow!

TC in Cville
home slope: wintergreen
gear: (skis) dynastar 172s with dalbello boots
(board) burton bullet 160 with K2 autobindings and northwave boots
Going to snowshoe in a couple weeks and can't wait!

Very disappointed with Snowshoe. Went up for a 3 day ski trip. The entire mountain lost power for about 3 hours last night so we did not have any dinner and then when power came back up, all the restuarants decided to not serve any food. Then the next morning, over 3/4 of the resort was closed b/c the lifts were inoperable. This created croweded and dangerous conditions on the only skiable part of the mountain. The price for this trip was very high and with basically a wasted day of skiing today and the loss of power last night, it turned out to be a total ripoff. They should have refunded at least a portion of the lift ticket since the lifts were not working. All this happens at a time when conditions are the best in recent memory. Very poor operations management.