The Most Challenging Ski Areas in the Southeast
The Southeast US is not exactly a hotbed for skiing activity. For a region of the US that has many states rarely experience winter seasons and is generally not known for its mountains, it has more than you think.
Usually we’d show the top 25 difficult skiing areas here, but there happens to be only 16 ski resorts in the whole Southeast US. North Carolina has the most ski resorts in the region, with West Virginia and Virginia tied for second place.
Explaining our Criteria
Here at Parks & Trips, we created a proprietary Difficulty Score thats generated by combining a number of metrics for each resort. Primarily, we look at the count of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then gives each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Canaan Valley: The Most Difficult Ski Resort in the Southeast
Canaan Valley, WV wins the prize as the most challenging ski resort in the Southeast US. While it doesn’t have the highest vertical drop or highest summit, it has the most expert-level trails of any in the list.
Wintergreen and Massanutten, both in Virginia, come in second and third place, respectfully. Both have over a 1,000 ft vertical drop, and around 40% of their acreage dedicated to expert-level runs.
Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia rounds out the top four, mainly due to the fact that it has the steepest vertical of any resort in the list. What drops its difficulty score is the fact that only about a quarter of its trails are rate “advanced”.
Top Most Challenging Southeast Ski Resorts
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Vertical Drop | Expert Trails | Difficulty ScoreTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Canaan Valley (WV) | 4,280 ft | 850 ft | 44% | 48.0% |
| #2 | Wintergreen (VA) | 3,515 ft | 1,003 ft | 42% | 48.0% |
| #3 | Massanutten (VA) | 2,925 ft | 1,175 ft | 35% | 45.0% |
| #4 | Snowshoe Mountain (WV) | 4,848 ft | 1,500 ft | 27% | 42.3% |
| #5 | Beech Mountain (NC) | 5,505 ft | 830 ft | 30% | 39.3% |
| #6 | Timberline Four Seasons (WV) | 4,268 ft | 1,000 ft | 32% | 36.4% |
| #7 | Ober Gatlinburg (TN) | 3,300 ft | 600 ft | 20% | 35.6% |
| #8 | Appalachian (NC) | 4,000 ft | 365 ft | 34% | 35.3% |
| #9 | Sugar Mountain (NC) | 5,300 ft | 1,200 ft | 14% | 34.4% |
| #10 | Winterplace (WV) | 3,600 ft | 603 ft | 23% | 32.2% |
| #11 | The Omni Homestead (VA) | 3,200 ft | 700 ft | 11% | 29.4% |
| #12 | Cataloochee (NC) | 5,400 ft | 740 ft | 17% | 29.2% |
| #13 | Wolf Ridge (NC) | 4,700 ft | 700 ft | 7% | 29.0% |
| #14 | Bryce Resort (VA) | 1,750 ft | 500 ft | 12% | 26.3% |
| #15 | Sapphire Valley (NC) | 3,450 ft | 250 ft | 0% | 15.6% |
| #16 | Cloudmont (AL) | 1,800 ft | 150 ft | 0% | 14.5% |
