Ghent, W.V. (WVNS) – Winterplace Ski Resort remains closed after unseasonably warm weather melted most of their snow last week.
You may not think about it immediately, but Winterplace ski resort shutting down has a serious ripple effect on local hotels, restaurants and more.
Businesses that share crossover customers with Winterplace like the Ski Barn in Ghent, say Winterplace closing the week between Christmas and New Year’s couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
“Mother Nature was not kind to us,” said Ski Barn Manager Morgan Long. “You know, the Mountain Ops team did as much as they possibly could but unfortunately the world just wasn’t working with us. Typically it’s our busiest week of the year. With the circumstances, I know they did everything they could, but it just didn’t pan out for us.”
Winterplace staff began making snow again Monday afternoon, and Executive Vice President Tom Wagner says they hope to have the mountain reopened before the end of the week if the weather cooperates.
“The positive thing about that is we’ve heavily invested into snow making,” explained Winterplace Executive Vice President Tom Wagner. “So we can get back and cover the slopes as quickly as possible. We’re getting a slight trace of snow, actually maybe an inch or two right now naturally, but we haven’t had any really big natural snows to date.”
Employees at the Ski Barn are hopeful that recent winter weather is a sign of things to come, so they can try to recoup some of the business they lost later in the season
“It’s detrimental to our business but thankfully we have really good customers who will turn up in January, February and the first of March,” said Long. “So I have faith in the rest of this season. We just need to keep hoping for good weather and our Mountain Ops team is awesome here so they’ll definitely make this thing turn around for us.”