See the link below - $199 UNLIMITED SEASON PASS.

FYI - they have a resort swap program with Wisp, Hidden Valley and 7S. Read the details on the swap program but you can get one free ticket + 50% off subsequent visits(some limits) to those 3 resorts.

IMO, that makes it a little more attractive to those of us who frequent those 3 resorts.

Heck - seems like a no brainer to me.

SNOWSHOE SEASON PASS DEAL

Can you say Pass War?

Seriously, that is one of the best deals I've ever seen from one of the big players in our region. Unlimited too. Go one weekend this spring and all next season is gravy.

Can you day-trip from your place?

I haven't even been to Snowshoe yet, but I am seriously contemplating taking advantage of the season pass deal. Too bad Timberline won't get even close to the Snowshoe deal on their season passes since the Valley is a whole hour closer for me and seems to (at least according to this board) get a little more snow than Snowshoe. I could go to Snowshoe next weekend and then one or two weekends next year and the pass is paid for.

Not exactly. I have a flex schedule on Fridays so I have managed to go down a couple Thu nights, ski on Fri and head home Fri night. It's about 4 hrs each way.

We try to use our condo 2 weekends a season and rent it the rest of the time.

I mostly ski with my son who is entering college in the fall. Our schedules will become more flexible to take advantage of some mid weeks at SS next season during his breaks.

Easy day trips to HV, 7S and Wisp so the resort swap feature of the pass is huge to us.

This is an enticing deal. My main expense would be in lodging. That said, what reasonable lodging exists in the SS area?

It has been several years since I have been there, and I recall that lodging was expensive. I normally go to Canaan valley for my WV trips (living in Columbus, OH).

If I can solve the lodging issue, I might have to change up my plans for the 2013/2014 season.

The best deal Snowshoe ever offered indeed! A source said that they want a quick cash infusion.

skidding: These are some of the cheaper places I found in Snowshoe area

http://www.bearcreekwv.com/web/ ($90 a night in Cass during winter non-holiday, 20-30 min drive to the top of mountain)

http://www.firsttracts.com/rental-124-72-12.html ($125 a night during winter non-holiday, Studio near the golf course sleeps 4)

http://www.firsttracts.com/rental-109-72-12.html ($150 a night during winter non-holiday, Studio at Silver Creek)

Skidding - it depends on how you define reasonable.

Here's a recent thread regarding planning a trip to Snowshoe. There are some lodging options in there that may help..

Snowshoe Thread

Here is my suggestion, go down there and ski this coming Saturday. Ski to the bottom and stand in line at the ballhooter lift for 45 minutes waiting to load, check out all the yahoos running into each other or possibly you like guided missles a lot of them and then let me know if you still think this is such a good deal. Snowshoe is a wonderful place to ski on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday morning, Sunday afternoon and Monday. If that's when you are able to ski...................

There is a way to work around this on Saturday/Sunday's morning. Get there very early when the resort opens and hit the basin for a few hours before the crowds come then move to the Soaring Eagle lift and stay there for an hour before heading to the Western Territory (catching a bus is probably faster and go down the mountain and wait for the lift, although it can be crowded on the slope there, the lift line almost never exist) then head to Silver Creek in the afternoon / late afternoon -- Silver Creek is never crowded!

If you know where to be, it is not that bad. On Saturday, Timberline 's slow lift, poor customer service and sub par food could be worse.. (but they do have great terrains and glades to make up)

^^FOLLOW THAT^^ Plan your work, then work your plan.

Ballhooter does get very crowded on Saturdays but snowglobe hit the nail on the head.

This is indeed ridiculously fantastic deal indeed. I still couldn't believe that they came out with this.. The next best thing to this is the Baker's dozen which cost around $400 and you have to get 12 people to buy it!

Jimmy, the thing is if I go down there to see how horrible the ballhooter lift lines are this coming Saturday and ski I am already in it for some $70 (would be more except that I am military), and given the four hour drive/8 hour round trip I am going to want to stay to ski Sunday and then I am in for $140 in lift tickets. All I have to do is go back to see how bad the ballhooter lift lines are one weekend next year and the pass will have paid for itself. Usually I ski weekends with the occasional monday or friday tacked on. Incidentally Sunday afternoon is the best thing going in mid atlantic weekend skiing, got to love how things clear out by oneish with people heading home early.
Actually though I do like Timberline and CV a lot, I have to agree with Snowglobe the hordes of boy scouts and slow lifts can lead to some pretty long lift lines at T-Line at least on their main lift. And Timbers during the day is crowded with slow mediocre food. (Though I have no idea the quality of the chow at Snowshoe) I do however dig the terrain at Timberline, the lack of crowds at CV, the overall vibe of the valley, with places like Siriannis, Boomtown Java, the Trail Mix, and the fact that Corridor H should be done up to Davis by this fall making the drive from Arlington easy probably will be able to do it in 2:45 or less. I'd love to be able to by a SkitheValley Season pass and make at least three or four weekend trips to the the valley a season, however since season passes to T-line are like $350 if you buy as early as possible and don't include access to CV or a free ticket to Wisp a $199 Snowshoe pass for a few trips and maybe a day at Wisp is pretty tempting.

Just busting on you a little bit, but seriously this is a good deal, if I thought I'd be able to get to snowshoe for four or five days i'd consider one myself. Even if you only get to ski four days there you are ahead. My point was that you get what you pay for. If you don't think a Timberline season pass for $350 is a good value beacuse you have to stand in line two Saturdays a year and the lodge is a dump, by all means give the shoe a try. You'll be back.

For those wondering about lodging keep in mind the snowshoe season pass comes with the perk of 20-25% off all lodging booked through snowshoe. Anyone planning at least one weekend to snowshoe next year would be crazy not to buy this.

...early, massive pre-season pass sales is a great way to avoid having to borrow a bunch of money the next season to get things going (have to run the numbers to see but maybe avoiding having to pay the interest on borrowing recoups the discounted pass prices), plus definetily going to get more pass sales out of it...for customers this $199 is a GREAT deal, pays for itself fast w/ just a few trips...guarantee this is sending shockwaves through the managements at other Mid-A resorts as we speak...also like the idea of this being reciprical...agree that the best move the valley resorts could make is a "ski the valley" season pass that includes Tline, CVR, and maybe even whitegrass...

I am sure I will be back to the Valley and T-line, probably at least a couple times a year for as long as I live in the DC area. I plan to take a trip out there to sample the fly fishing in the spring and maybe down to Seneca for some rock climbing in the summer. If I knew for certain I was going to be staying in the area for the long term I'd probably try to buy a place in the Valley and make it there every other weekend for the season, but with some luck I'll wind up out west somewhere. I am not saying $350 for a T-line pass is a bad deal, though because I am military I have to get at least 7 days of skiing there to pay for it. I am saying a T-line pass would be a better deal/no brainer for $200 or perhaps if it included CV, or a couple days at the snow time resorts for easy (sick) day trips. Unfortunately T-slime is not offering a $200 pass and Slowshoe is, therefore I am probably going to make the extra drive a few times over the next year. If I don't like it, I'll have to come back to T-line dragging my tail between my legs...

For those of us who are lucky to be within a day trip of HV, 7S and Wisp, I can easily justify this pass by following this model.
(reorder 2 - 4 as you see fit)

1 Buy the pass for 199

2 Go to Wisp one Sunday and get a FREE reciprocal ticket ($60)

3 Go to HV one Sunday and get a FREE reciprocal ticket ($52)

4 Go to 7S one Sunday and get a FREE reciprocal ticket ($68)

5 Ski one weekend in Snowshoe (Sat and Sun)

199 - 60 - 52 - 68 = 19

Now you have a season pass for Snowshoe the rest of this season and all of next season for 19 bucks.

If you end up hating Snowshoe b/c of the drive, Ballhooter lines, costly lodging, etc.... don't fret. You skied 4 resorts for 5 days for 200 in lift tickets. Plus you still get 50% HV, 7S and Wisp on subsequent visits.

I'm probably going to pull the trigger on this myself as Snowshoe usually has the best early and late season conditions in the area. I could see making the cost of the pass back with a weekend late March and a weekend next November/December.

I think the wait time is about the same at Ballhooter (due to the crowds) and the orange lift at Timberline (due to capacity) on Saturday during winter.

How do Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge compare to White Lightning and Off the Wall at Timberline? Obviously more vert, but what about in terms of consistent pitch, width, groomed or not groomed, moguls vs whales? Any other "challenging" terrain worth skiing at the shoe? What about the glades? Everytime I look at Snowshoe's website the glades are closed, do they ever open them up?

Upper/Lower Cupp Run and Upper Shay's are really great groomed runs. It's the closest thing to the west you can get in WV. It's really fun if you like long (1.5 mile) groomed Black run (probably a blue trail out west). Nothing else in mid-A compares to it.

Lower Shay's is usually left ungroomed. It can be icy though as it is in the lower elevation and doesn't get as much snow as the basin side.

OK. So for all the Showshoe bashers who continuously whine about Snowshoe being expensive. Eat your hearts out. I just bought 5 of the ski passes for my family and I. I'll ski the longest timeframe at the Shoe under the best deal going this year.

This is really a heck of a deal. My question is WHY. Is Snowshoe struggling? Snow has been pretty good most of the season, no? Shouldn't they be at the peak of their cash inflows for the year right now? There is only one reason economically to offer this kind of a deal, and that's b/c you need to raise cash quickly. WHY?

Norsk, I wondered the same thing.

I can't imagine they are hard up this year. Our GM said that Mtn Lodge has been 95% booked every weekend since Christmas.

Resorts need cash or lines of credit to cover costs during the off season.

IMO, they can borrow from the banks and pay interest or they can borrow from all of us interest free in the form of a discount pass.

Plus - the bank won't come ski next year and spend $$ to rent a room from Snowshoe, buy their burgers, hot dogs and beers ...... but a lot of pass holders will.

Hopefully that is the reason.

Not necessarily, there are several other possibilities.

Get people down to Snowshoe this year (slow season starting soon) and spending money at resort-owned functions (lodging, food, rentals, gift stores, etc. - not sure what Intrawest owns down there.)

Poach customers who may go to other areas instead. With an already paid for season pass, vacationers are much more likely to choose Snowshoe over other destinations. Poach some skier visits from frequent skiers at other areas. Toss out a large sale, and casual customers snap at it. The Black Friday syndrome.

In both cases, the season pass acts as a loss leader for other revenue. Also, the typical Snowshoe visitor may only go there one trip a year, so with a package deal they may only be paying $199 for lift tickets anyway.

Personally, I think $199 is a fair market price for what you're getting at Snowshoe.

maybe it's Intra west that needs the cash?

The resort is obviously wanting to fund improvements. This is not an Intrawest-wide initiative, as you can go to the other (Tremblant, Copper, Stratton, etc., and they don't have this deal nor anything close to that). I don't think there's a conspiracy or a hidden agenda. Frankly, if they take customers from other areas and favor Snowshoe, that will lower prices for the entire ski population and get a larger share of the market. The rentals at Snowshoe this year - as BueDon said, have been well above expectations. My own rental manager wanted to know if I wanted to cut my vacation short so they could rent my condo.

It's a great move on all angles. If they can capture customer loyalty in areas that include infrastructure, length of ski season and conditions, Snowshoe will be able to parlay that into future improvements and income. Free enterprise at work.

-Sell more "I'm from Georgia but I snow ski at Snowshoe" t-shirts?
-Sell more Coronas to college students?
-More business for recently acquired Pocahontas County Trauma Center?
-Tax break given by the state of West Virginia (paid for by new speed trap manned by WV's finest)?
-Saw Andy's long range forecast or read "An Inconvenient Truth"?

...same thing as summit county buddy pass in the late 90's...and similar deals everywher else out west...its a numbers game..someone in the mid-a is finally doing some math...hey, look, I am quoting myself---is that obnoxious or what...

I think you're (literally) right on the money.

I wonder how many of these 199 passes will be purchased. Any one care to offer an educated estimate?

My official confirmed count is 12

Lou 5
Me 3
My Neighbor 4

I tried to get online to purchase the passes right here from Snowshoe using my DSL. The system was sloooooowwwwww.... And could not complet my purchase twice. I called the Depot and got through the second time. They had a line out the door and all their lines were jammed. I finally completed the transaction at about 2 PM.

I also ski other Intrawest properties (Tremblant, Stratton, and this year Copper) and it is worth noting that season pass holders have a steep discounts at inter-Intrawest properties.

The other thing about Ballhooter lift. Yes it gets madly crowded despite being a high-speed detachable quad. But lines at the Western Territory are usually non-existent and that's the most fun. And on Silver Creek it sometimes seems like a Buddhist retreat. You can ski literally into the lifts.

If you are also concerned about the lodging price at SS, try some of the non-Snowshoe competitors that include Remax and Misty, or VRBO. They have deals that can literally beat the socks out of the SS rental system. And you usually get a better unit as many of these private concerns don't cater to college kids, thereby preventing damage and excessive wear and tear.

Is Walmart mobbed on Black Friday? McDonald's when they add a new Chicken McNugget?

Ewww.... I have never ever, entered a Wal Mart. Never will. Ever.

QFT

Why miss out on the marvels of humanity...don't you appreciate your fellow earthmates? Or are you too good for the rest of us?

Oh no, Hombrero. I am a frequent visitor to peopleofwalmart.com to see my fellow human beings and the marvels of humanity in action... :-)

Damn, if my sh$t smelled half as good as yours I would be in the perfume business.

I won't engage on a discussion on scatology...

Seems a price war is now in the offing. Camelback is now offering the same deal as Snowshoe except the deal for this season starts on March 1. http://www.skicamelback.com/Tickets-and-Passes/Spring-Pass-Sale.aspx

Ibotta, I'm with you, peopleofwalmart.com is one of my favorite resources for doing a little ground breaking anthropological research... However I do occasionally make a personal expedition to Walmart to increase my contextual understanding of my anthropological findings. (and buy $15 jeans) Hopefully the price war becomes more wide spread and Timberline feels the need to follow suit.

Ibot,
It is ok to be an elitist...just be honest with yourself.

Actually, my entire life has been devoted to helping those less fortunate than you and I. I would challenge to compare our credentials in that endeavor, so in that case, I take serious umbrage at your assertion. I don't shop nor enter Wal Mart because it exploits workers and people and is the bane of small town, small business and hard working people, notwithstanding the temporary fun at the anthropologic character of the website. Let's get back to skiing.

hombrerojo69: There are a lot of people who choose to not shop at Walmart because how they treat their employees and consumers and there aren't necessary elites nor do they think that they are better than the rest of us. I know more than a few.

Good, that is a valid reason for boycotting Walmart. You can hate the company but don't disparage the customers.

OK, I too pulled the trigger and bought the $199 (plus tax) pass. Just so happen to be going to SS this Friday-Saturday with some friends.

Hope someone can help me answer a few questions.

I've always been a day skier at Snowshoe, confined to the nether parking spaces over by Soaring Eagle. But now I have to pick up my season's pass when I arrive Friday morning after a long drive ...

1. Is it the Brigham Center (?) I visit to get the pass, and there's no alternative, right?

2. And the only way to avoid the $20 parking fee for us day-visiting riffraff is to park at Soaring Eagle and then ride the shuttle?

3. Then, after getting my mug shot, should I go to the Shaffer Center to boot up and leave my pack?

Thanks for any assistance or advice. I don't know my way around The Village at SS ... but I do know my way down Gandy Dancer and Cupp Run!

See you there,
Woody

Woody - I'm 50 - 50 on being there Fri AM. (Weather permitting)

We pick up our passes at The Depot and get our mug shot there too. Driving up Snowshoe Dr it's on the left before Rimfire Lodge and there is a small bus station there. They have 15 minute parking to load and unload so you may want to try that when grabbing your pass.

IF there is room, you can pay to park at Mtn Lodge for $10 a day. It is subject to availability.

You could boot up in ML parking lot, lock up the car and walk right onto the slopes between Mtn Lodge and Allegheny Springs.

Here's a link their map which may help make sense of above.

SS MAP PAGE

I anticipate lines so I plan to arrive at The Depot when it opens at 8 AM.

My plans are weather permitting ..... Final decision Thu night at 7 PM

If I go, I'll be in a blue Spyder jacket, black pants, black helmet with small Pittsburgh Steelers sticker on the back ....... Ya I'm a Yinzer.

Thanks!

Much appreciated!

Isn't the big parking lot next to Top of the World free? Can ski over to the main village from there.

Re: Camelback
The deal there isn't *quite* as good as on weekends it's only good after 3pm. The unlimited pass is much more expensive.

If SS/Intrawest's plan is to lure people away from their late season plans, it's working. I'm reconsidering a planned trip to Lake Placid. Whether I do or not, I'm still going to jump on this deal. It pays for itself with 2 visits. I could spend an entire weekend just at Silver Creek and be happy with this deal.

No it isn't. On weekends, there is a guard there that charges you $20 per car. There is very limited parking (and they check on the time you're parking) by the Split Rock Pool, before the Mountain Lodge parking lot which is also pay parking... There is parking for the physically challenged in front of the Depot (across the street). And the parking lots at Stemwinder and Powder Monkey have card-activated bars.

Woody, one other place where you can park is at Silver Creek. They DO have public parking and it is not as much of a madhouse as Top of the World. Silver Creek has lockers on the bottom floor. You can then take the shuttle to the main face or stay at Silver Creek. Actually, on a busy weekend, skiing Silver Creek is a pleasure.

I actually have a timeframe for skiing Snowshoe that works like a champ...

0900-1030: Main face, including Moonshine, Skip Jack, Grabhammer, and Knot Bumper, all terminating at Ballhooter. After 1030, Ballhooter gets worse than an old Soviet toilet paper line.

1030-1200: Make way to Soaring Eagle. You can do the black diamonds of Widowmaker, Camp 99, Saw Mill and (if open) Saw Mill Glades. There are little or no lines at Soaring Eagle.

1200: Take advantage of the lunch lull and make my way down Flume directly to Powder Monkey, taking Powder Monkey to the Western Territory to do Cupp and Shay's. By noon, the sun has also warmed up the terrain in Cupp and Shay's and it gets really nice.

1200-1400: Cupp Run, Upper Shay's to Lower Cupp, Upper and Lower Shays. I usually quit at 1400 because my puppy needs to be taken out and Cupp/Shay's is easy walking distance from my condo.

IF... I still have legs and want to extend the day after taking the pup out, I end up in Silver Creek for a couple more hours as it won't matter the 1630 closing time on the main face.

Very helpful, Blue Don. Thanks for the pointers!

Will watch for your jacket and Steelers stickers when we ski Friday ... and hope for weather good enough that day to lure you onto the slopes. I'll be the bearded guy wearing black pants, red and black jacket, and cherry-red helmet with "Old School" (Gondyline.com) and "Ski the East" stickers.

Woody

General parking at snowshoe has always and continues to be free. The lot at top of the world complex is huge and it does not have a "guard gate". On weekdays you can just roll right up to front of lot, busy weekends they have some people out directing cars but it is still free parking

Oops my bad. Yes you're right. I was thinking about the Shavers Center which is an outrageous price.

Woody - I don't think the weather gods favor us. Looks like some significant ice based on the noaa forecast.

I'm holding out hope but not encouraged.

Lou,

I've followed a few of these practices, but you have Snowshoe down to a science. Thanks for sharing.

Woody

Exactly the same as I usually do. If you ski/board two days, for the second day, I recommend starting at Western territory and then head to Silver Creek in the afternoon. There are two black trails at Silver Creek -- Flying Eagle and Bear claw that don't open at night and usually have great condition when they are open.