Ski season at Snowshoe Mountain Resort starts Thanksgiving weekend and runs through the end of March, weather permitting.

The BrazenHead is six miles north of the turnoff to Snowshoe. The drive to the top of the mountain takes about 20 minutes.

Skiing in the Snowshoe Region

West Virginia’s eastern mountains, the central Appalachians, have the highest mean elevation in the East. Snowshoe Mountain Resort was established in the early 1970s by Dr. Tom Brigham, a New England dentist who “discovered” the mountain by flying over it in 1958, as he was scouting for mountains he might develop into ski resorts.

Snowshoe’s Cupp Run has a vertical drop of 1,500 feet, the greatest of any ski area in the mid-Atlantic or South. The top of the mountain resort also offers Silver Creek Ski Area, with good beginners’ terrain, a snowboard park, and snow-tubing run.

Cross country skiing is also popular in the region. Elk River Touring Center grooms several miles of trails in the surrounding Monongahela National Forest.

Cheat Mountain is the historic name of the big ridge that runs from northern Pocahontas County through most of Randolph County. Theories abound as to how Cheat Mountain and Cheat River got their names. Our favorite is that the name derives from the period in the early 18th century when French fur trappers roamed the land alongside Native Americans. We’ve heard there once was a trapper named Cheatte. More than that we do not know, and we’re not sure we know that.