Weekend Getaway Get Your Snow on at Winterplace

Having the Mid-Winter ‘Blahs’?

Winterplace Ski Resort Provides a Lift

by Lori Helms photographs courtesy Winterplace Resort

The variety of terrain at Winterplace Ski Resort offers not just miles of skiing and snowboarding slopes, but the best snowtubing park in the South.

Let’s face it. With all the Lake Norman region has to offer, there are just sometimes when you’ve got to get away for a little change of scenery.

A run south to Charleston or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is always an option. It’s not a terrible drive and both places offer a lot to do and see. But mid-winter is not necessarily beach weather, and wandering through Charleston’s Battery Park along the harbor or strolling the more than mile-long boardwalk and promenade at Myrtle in the February wind doesn’t exactly entice one to want to pack up the family truckster and go. The leaf-peeping options in the western North Carolina mountains are a distant memory by now, and rolling the dice on whether the unpredictable local wintertime weather would yield the opportunity for a decent day on the lake is a bet most bookies wouldn’t take.

There is, however, a great option if you turn your sights to the north. A straight shot up I-77 for about three hours, and you can be at Winterplace Ski Resort in Ghent, West Virginia — known as the top-rated resort in the South for beginning skiers. It’s a tourism badge of honor that Winterplace General Manager Josh Faber wears with particular pride.

“We’ve got a killer mountain here,” Faber says about its location on Flat Top Mountain at 3,600 feet elevation. “It’s 600 vertical feet and we’ve got a perfect mixed bag (of terrains). For our beginners, we’ve probably got one of the better beginning terrains that I’ve ever seen… and I’ve skied all over the world,” he says.

With only about 14 percent of its terrain committed to the advanced schusser, the remainder of the nearly 30 runs are split between slopes catering to novice or outright beginner skiers and snowboarders. Faber says he sees Winterplace’s part in the ski industry’s “food chain” of developing competent skiers as the perfect first step in that progression.

“We get a lot of first timers coming out of the South, which is really cool,” says Faber. “Let’s be real … for a lot of our guests, this is the first time they’ve seen snow.”

In only his second year as general manager, Faber says it’s his team’s mission to provide a very family-focused experience for their guests. He says they’ve completely remodeled the entire equipment rental process to make it more negotiable for families experiencing their first ski trip together, and anyone who has ever tried to get more than themselves ready for a day on the mountain can attest to just what a challenge that can be.

Faber is sympathetic to that plight — he’s the father of three young girls who are all great skiers in their own right, but he says even when the kids know “the drill” and the fact that all their equipment is right there in his office, it’s never a simple evolution. But he wouldn’t trade it for the world and enjoying the mountain with one’s kids is an experience he hopes to provide for other families.

“It’s the most rewarding thing I do, and it’s what I want others to experience and enjoy,” Faber says. And there’s the added bonus that those who learn to ski when they’re young will likely end up staying on skis well into adulthood.

“It’s a sport you can do your entire life,” he says. “I’ve seen older gentlemen that ski better than they walk. I hope to be one of those guys someday.” Winterplace’s season runs typically from mid-December to midMarch, thanks to its extensive snowmaking capacity. Faber says the mountain’s elevation and naturally low humidity climate definitely help that process, along with its impressive ability to pump about 7,200 gallons of water per minute through its dozens of snowmaking guns covering all 90 acres of terrain. That includes the longest snowtubing park in the state with more than a dozen tubing lanes.

The resort is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year — a celebration they enjoy having survived a global pandemic from which many businesses, particularly those in the hospitality and tourism industry, never recovered.

“The only good thing that came of COVID was the outdoor industry as a whole exploded,” says Farber. “It got people outside, because families were looking for something to do to get out of the house … It actually brought a lot of people back out to the slopes. We saw a lot of people that hadn’t skied in many years that got back out, dusted the skis off. COVID was actually kind of a positive for the ski industry in that sense,” he says.

As far as accommodations for your trek north, The Resort at Glade Springs is just a few miles from the mountain in Daniels and offers a wide variety of room options and dining experiences. If skiing isn’t in the cards, all manner of recreational activities is available for resort guests, ranging from swimming to bowling to escape rooms to laser tag to basketball to golf to … well, you get it. You won’t be bored.

Faber says there is no official relationship between Winterplace and The Resort at Glade Springs, but there’s no denying the convenience of the two being so close to each other.

“It makes a nice little package for our guests who stay there,” he says. “They’re just a good neighbor down the street.”

Check out what’s just up the “street” from Lake Norman at Winterplace Ski Resort by visiting www.winterplace.com and The Resort at Glade Springs at www.gladesprings.com.