Skiing in the southeast

[hokiegirl]

My hubby has never skiied and I'd like to relax in the warmth while he does that. We live in raleigh and so I don't know what kind of skiing is good around there - I heard Snowshoe in W. VA is nice, but I don't know enough about ski lifts for novices with nice amenities and decent priced. Any suggestions of areas, lodges? TIA!

[ManteoChik]

I've skiied quite a bit on the east coast since I'm also in NC.

Some of the places I've been are:
Snowshoe (W.VA)
Wintergreen (VA) www.wintergreenresort.com It's about 4 hrs from Raleigh
Ski Beach (NC) www.skibeach.com Also about 4 hrs from Raleigh
Winterplace (W.VA) www.winterplace.com Also about 4 hrs from Raleigh
Seven Springa (PA) www.7springs.com About 7.5 hrs from Raleigh
Timberline (W.VA) www.timberlineresort.com About 6-7 hours from Raleigh

I've been to more but I can't seem to remember them all. It's been a long time since I've skiied there and I remember having a good time but they are smaller mountains so it is good for a beginner. You'll notice that the scale system seems a lot different from other places. At most of these places, what is considered intermediate would be a beginner slope at other places.

If you aren't opposed to going a little farther away, my most favorite place to ski on the east coast is Killington.....located in Killington, VT. It's too far to drive (in my opinion, about 13 hours) but its a pretty short flight into Burlington, VT where you can scheduel a car service or rent a car to take you to the resort.

Honestly, its hard to go skiing for a reasonable price because lift tickets are expensive and so are rentals. We have our own stuff so I'm not sure of the rental price these days. Also, prices around the resorts and lodges are always inflated. Things like lunch cost a fortune to eat at the lodge.

Normally when we go on a ski vacation we rent a condo (when its just the two of us) or a house (when there is a group) on the side of the mountain where we can easily ski down to a chair lift. We fly into the airport and get a car service to our condo. We always stop at the grocery store and buy all the things we will need during our stay for things like breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks, ect.. and head on to the condo. Once there we pretty much never have to leave. Last time we were on a pretty quite side of the mountain and right near our condo was a chair lift we could ski to in minutes. From there it would take us to the top of the mountain and we could ski anywhere in the resort and over to the main are and lodge if we wanted to. It was soooo nice not to have to deal with driving around. We usually cooked dinner each night and relaxed by the fire and watch TV. A few times we went down to the small lodge on our side of the mountain and went ice skating or swimming in the pool or hot tub.

ETA: You can expect to pay between $110-150 for a three day lift ticket (assuming he'll be skiing more than one day) you can also buy them for just a day....and probably around $80-100 for a three day ski rental. Than again, that can change depending on where you go and all the resort websites have that info on them.

[ManteoChik]

www.skinorthcarolina.com

[TriSigmaNC]

I'd say look in the Boone or Asheville areas. There are some amazing places. I don't know any to name, but I bet our NC favs would absolutely have great suggestions.

[tgal]

We live in North Western, VA and Manteo hit most of the good ones. These are our annual semi-local trips. We like doing these because most places around here have fewer runs and this way you can do different resorts different days.

A couple things about snowshoe, they run some really good long weekend lodging/lift ticket deals throughout the winter, so keep your eyes out. Just don't bank on holiday weekends. We've done holiday weekends and they are miserable for an advanced skier let alone a novice. Basically, you get a ton of people on the slopes there that don't know how to ski and most of them don't stick to the bunny slopes like they should. I'm guessing this happens everywhere, but if you are familiar with Snowshoe the runs aren't as wide as many of the other resorts. This is a good ski locale overall. Also, fun staying slope side here.

If you want to spend the time driving, we really like 7 springs. Holiday valley is near by if you want a change of pace at a smaller resort for a day. Then there is also Blue Knob on your way home off the PA turnpike up 99 a little way, that is if you want to hit a few places.

We also do Timberline once a year and stay at Black Waterfalls state park. It is still a little drive to the slopes, but it is dirt cheap and they have kick butt cabins. Also, Canaan is also there, so we do one resort one day and the other the next.

You may want to avoid Roundtop, Liberty and Whitetail, as these are places DC folks like to do for day trips and they get rather crowded as well.

Two others really not really worth your drive up this way, Wisp and Massanutten.

[ManteoChik]

Two others really not really worth your drive up this way, Wisp and Massanutten.

Ditto...I really didn't like Massanutten either.

[hokiegirl]

Ditto...I really didn't like Massanutten either.

When I lived in VA growing up we'd call it Mass of Nothing, because that's what skiing was like. Thanks for all the suggestions girls - we're postponing the trip until feb so I'll have lots of time to go through these links. Thanks again!