Hit Snowshoe Saturday & Sunday. 13 trails including one black (grabhammer) and a couple blues. Three lifts including the bunny. Recieved 18 inches from the storm Thursday-Sunday. Excellent snow quality and coverage. Very tempting opportunities to get first powder tracks on closed trails. A bit crowded from noon on. They were hitting everything, including Cupp Run, hard with the guns. Grabhammer was extended to the top - adding some verticle and length. Skip Jack also extended higher. Powder Ridge widened. New demo shop right next to main Ballhooter lift. They should be 75% open this weekend. Free lift tickets with two nights lodging until 12/11.

I got there Friday afternoon and wasn't able to ski opening day (Fri) because I am coordinating the last stages of the remodeling of my condo there. But the snow kept on falling. Saturday was snowy, Sunday it snowed until after noon. The resort says it got 18 inches from Sat and Sun. I gather there is a lot more on the ground as it started snowing Thursday.

Agree with DWW on the conditions. Grabhammer is now accessible from the Ballhooter lift and was the only diamond open. The good side is that one can take Grabhammer straight from the top instead of having to find the entrance at the side of Ballhooter trail, better for speed and for judging technique once the moguls appear soon. The bad side is that since it is now accessible from the top, this means more snow-plowers on a high-speed black run and the accompanying decrease in safety and enjoyment. Got icy towards Sunday afternoon (so what's new?).

The resort has added no new runs but there has been significant improvement on the layout of the basin, clearing a significant amount of terrain to widen the existing trails as well to increase visibility and safety. The opportunity for tree skiing was quite high and was evident by the many fresh tracks on unopened trails as well as the trees.

The bad side was the food service. Even with small opening crowds, there were only two eateries open, Foxfire and Junction, leading to waits.

Grabhammer was always accessible from Ballhooter chair. The previous access point on the map is from Ballhooter trail on the left side.

From Grabhammer chair you had to either swing below the top terminus of Ballhooter or illegaly go down under the Grabhammer lift... which was a lot of fun.

The bottom half of the Choker run was also extended by the trail widening. The basin side of the shoe is going to ski much better. I can't wait until they start clearing additional trails on the western side. Then we can have a cookout serving up cheat mountian salimanders and flying squirrels. Go loggers!

Send them loggers over to porte crayon I'd like to taste some of those varmits too!!

According to the Snowshoe ten year plan (and I think we are into year 5 or 6) new slopes are already planned for the opposite side of the basin (from the present slopes, across the lake). Next time anybody is at the SHOE just go in the condo office and check out the future plans, including new Western slope runs also.
The Colonel

canaan, the access to Grabhammer is now changed. The old way going down ballhooter and then turning left is now blocked by trees. The new way is an immediate right turn of the high-speed and you can now proceed down the grabhammer from the top.

Apparently the master plan calls for new trails on the northern side, and then to the south around the bowl.