West Virginia Ski Resorts Ranked & Mapped
West Virginia may not be the first state you’d think of when planning a ski trip. If you are a professional-level skier, this is probably not the state to head to in the winter. There are, however, plenty of great options for the occasional skier or one that hasn’t yet been spoiled by the massive slopes in Tahoe or Colorado.
All West Virginia Ski Resorts
There are 4 ski resorts located in the state of West Virginia. All are located inside the Allegheny Mountains, which itself a part of the Appalachian Mountain Range that stretches from Alabama to Maine. Three of the four resorts also reside in the Monongahela National Forest.
The ‘Pass’ column below identifies if the resort is associated with one of the two major ski passes in the country. IKON and EPIC each have dozens of slopes in their system that will allow you to ski at any one of them if you hold it.
| Resort | Pass | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Canaan Valley | INDY | Davis, WV, 26260 |
| Snowshoe Mountain | IKON | Snowshoe, WV, 26209 |
| Timberline Four Seasons | Davis, WV, 26260 | |
| Winterplace | INDY | Ghent, WV, 25843 |
Here is a map we created to help show where each ski resort is within the state. As you can see, two are located in the same resort town of Davis, WV, while the other two are scattered further down the eastern side of the state.
Most Difficult West Virginia Ski Resorts
These rankings are based on our proprietary Difficulty Score, which is generated by looking at the number of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort.
Our scoring 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 Ski Resort comes out on top with the highest Difficulty Score of all four West Virginian ski resorts. This is a result of Canaan having the most Expert and Advanced trails of all the resorts in WV, as well as a respectable vertical drop of 850 feet.
| Rank | Resort | Green Trails | Blue Trails | Black Trails | Difficulty Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Canaan Valley | 20% | 36% | 44% | 48% |
| #2 | Timberline Four Seasons | 50% | 18% | 32% | 36% |
| #3 | Snowshoe Mountain | 40% | 33% | 27% | 42% |
| #4 | Winterplace | 37% | 40% | 23% | 32% |
The Largest West Virginia Ski Resorts
Snowshoe Mountain is the largest WV ski resort, topping out with the highest elevation in the state by almost 600 ft. Because it has the highest summit, it also has the largest vertical drop of any of the ski resorts in the state as well. Completing the trifecta, Showshoe Mountain also has the most skiable acres, with over 2.5 times the amount of its closest competitor.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elevation | Base Elevation | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Snowshoe Mountain | 4,848 ft | 3,348 ft | 1,500 ft | 257 | 61 |
| #2 | Timberline Four Seasons | 4,268 ft | 3,268 ft | 1,000 ft | 100 | 22 |
| #3 | Canaan Valley | 4,280 ft | 3,430 ft | 850 ft | 91 | 47 |
| #4 | Winterplace | 3,600 ft | 2,997 ft | 603 ft | 90 | 28 |
