By Eric J. Wallace
Kenny Hess, director of sports and safety at Virginia’s Massanutten Resort, watches the weather closely over Thanksgiving weekend. Warm November conditions have made it impossible to make snow for ski slopes. He hopes five nights of projected below-freezing temperatures a requisite for snowmaking will let him open lifts to skiers and snowboarders in time for the first weekend in December.
With most visits and related spending occurring Friday through Sunday, “getting an extra weekend or two is huge,” says Hess. That’s because Southeast ski seasons are much shorter than those in the western U.S. For instance, while California’s Mammoth Resort saw 260 ski days in the 2018-2019 season, Massanutten had just 105. And that was a good year.