CANAAN VALLEY, W.Va. — This first snowfall that hit the state Thursday is prompting skiers to want to hit the slopes.
West Virginia Ski Area Association’s Joe Stevens said on WCHS’s 580 Live Friday that while the ski resorts aren’t officially open for the season yet, this first snowfall proved very promising for an early opening, and it motivated those seeing the half foot of snow in Tucker County to commence cross country skiing and snowshoeing.
“We do have skiing today in West Virginia,” Stevens said. “The cross-country touring center, White Grass Touring Center in Tucker County is open and there are people out on the fifty kilometers of trails right now having some fun.”
Stevens said there were reports of 6″ of snow in Tucker County as well as 4″ in Pocahontas County and 3″ in Raleigh County atop the ski resort mountains. 
He said this has prompted the two Tucker County ski resorts, Canaan Valley and Timberline, Snowshoe in Pocahontas and Winterplace in Raleigh County to begin making their artificial snow for the slopes.
Stevens said while those in the lower elevations of the region didn’t receive as much snow, even the light snow gets hitting the slopes on everyone’s mind.
“That gets people to thinking, wow, they get this much here, what did the mountains get, and that gets them ringing the phones at all of the resorts,” he said.
He said the precipitation makes the ground cold so that the man-made snow doesn’t go away as fast.
Stevens said skiers can now expect to hear all of the opening dates at the ski resorts be revealed very soon.
He said the ski industry as well as whitewater rafting, hiking, fishing and all other recreational opportunities this state has to offer creates a sort of trickle down effect on the tourism impact as a whole, all of them building off one another’s success.
“It all creates a really cool castle of opportunity when it comes to economic impact,” he said. “For the ski industry, when we’re up and running, especially around the holidays and everything, it’s about a quarter of a billion dollar impacts to the industry.”
Stevens said this is money that’s not only going into the resorts or the industry itself, but it also in turn, goes to the surrounding businesses and local economies.
“That’s the folks coming in from Columbus, Ohio to stop in Parkersburg for gas and be heading over to Canaan Valley or coming up from Virginia Beach and stopping in White Sulphur Springs for gas before heading over to Snowshoe and that sort of thing,” he said.
Stevens said ski season typically runs from late November to the beginning of April.