Wild, Wonderful West Virginia Ski Industry Celebrates Learn To Ski And Snowboard Month With #SkiSeasonReboot

New GoToWV pocket guide highlights winter activities throughout the state

For immediate Release
Contact: Joe Stevens 304-382-1133
Thursday, January 7, 2016

(Ghent, West Virginia) – Wild, Wonderful West Virginia, in collaboration with the West Virginia Ski Areas Association, kicked off Learn To Ski and Snowboard Month by rebooting the 2015-2016 ski season.  While unseasonably warm temperatures in November and December caused some of the state’s ski resorts to suspend on-slope operations, the recent drop in temperatures have allowed the resort’s snowmakers to once again cover the state’s slopes providing the most acreage in the region for skiing and snowboarding.

Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month (LSSM), started by a group of industry officials in 2007, encourages children and adults to try to ski and snowboard if they never have done so and also encourages those already involved to try a new way of having fun on the slopes.  This year all of the resorts participating in LSSM will attempt to conduct the largest ski and snowboard lessons in one day which will be included in the Guinness World Book of Records tomorrow (Friday). All lessons will happen at 10 a.m. at each area. Trained instructors will teach ski and snowboard lessons in separate classes. The lessons are for beginners,

To encourage visitation to our ski areas and other destinations throughout the state, Wild, Wonderful West Virginia has released its new Winter Guide, a passport style pocket guide highlighting winter activities throughout the Mountain State. The guide features a section in which travelers can collect six different activity stickers from winter destinations around the state. For a list of participating destinations visit GoToWV.com/stickers. To participate, visit GoToWV.com/sticker/application/. Participating locations feature a special web listing icon on GoToWV.com. To order a winter guide, visit GoToWV.com/get-a-wv-winter-guide or call an Adventure Adviser at 800.225.5982.

Annually the association’s five alpine resorts, Canaan Valley and Timberline in Tucker County, Oglebay Resort in Ohio County, Snowshoe Mountain in Pocahontas County and Winterplace in Raleigh County, and the association’s two nordic areas, White Grass in Tucker County and Elk River in Pocahontas County, experience nearly a million skier visits.  The economic impact from the five-month-long industry is over $250 million, employing 5,000 on and off the resort properties.

The 2015-2016 season is being rebooted by the ski resorts and since the weather is allowing for snowmaking to take place, the remainder of the season will provide lots of on-slope fun for skiers and snowboarders from throughout the southeast region.  West Virginia Ski Resorts have invested millions of dollars in snowmaking equipment which assures skiers and snowboarders in the region reliable conditions through the end of March into early April.

To find out more about West Virginia winter sports programs go to www.goskiwv.com and click on a resort link.  For more winter inspiration, visit GoToWV.com/winter.

This post was last updated on January 7, 2016