{"id":95685,"date":"2026-01-24T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95685\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:49:12","slug":"epic-snowstorm-could-jumpstart-a-sluggish-ski-season-in-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95685\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic snowstorm could jumpstart a sluggish ski season in Pa."},"content":{"rendered":"

The ski season has been sluggish so far this year. Ski resorts across Pennsylvania have seized a few stretches of cold weather to make snow but then have watched warm weather days decimate snowy terrain.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all likely about to change. <\/p>\n

If the impending winter storm <\/a>about to grip the mid-Atlantic this weekend delivers on the historic amounts of snow forecasted, skiing in Pennsylvania could turn overnight from anemic to epic.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service is calling for as much as 18 inches in parts of Pennsylvania. That level of snow fall \u2014 especially if powdery \u2014 is poised to revive snow-starved ski resorts.<\/p>\n

Veteran ski experts like Donna Himes, a spokeswoman for Blue Knob, a popular Altoona-area ski resort, like to exercise a little restraint, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it\u2019s groomed, packed powder,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really don\u2019t have anything loose on the top, and it\u2019s not quite enough to do any tree skiing in the woods yet. So we\u2019re hoping we get significant snowfall so people can come up and ski.\u201d<\/p>\n

The snowfall, in fact, is forecast to be continuous, which means resorts can\u2019t groom trails as much, but the ski action is non-stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it snows that much, they\u2019re going to get to ski some good powder,\u201d Himes said.<\/p>\n

A destination for skiers as far south as Virginia and west of Pittsburgh, Blue Knob management has seen the anticipation f<\/a>or epic skiing light up on social media in the past few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been non-stop,\u201d Himes said. \u201cWhat\u2019s going to be open? Is the whole mountain going to be open? Are we going to be able to ski this slope or that one? I appreciate everybody\u2019s enthusiasm. It\u2019s awesome. But it\u2019s kind of like you have to sort of take the stance of, well, let\u2019s wait until it\u2019s on the ground before, we tell people we\u2019re going to do any particular. But you know, if we can, we\u2019ll definitely open it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is home to several well-known ski resorts, including Seven Springs in the west, Ski Roundtop, Ski Liberty, Whitetail in the central region and Camelback and Blue Mountain, in the Poconos, to name a few. The latter boasts the biggest vertical drop in the state.<\/p>\n

Most have limped through what Himes called a \u201cweird\u201d season so far this winter but now are hoping for big numbers from the coming storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did get six inches this past Wednesday and that helped a bunch and some really cold weather,\u201d Himes said. <\/p>\n

That will allow Blue Knob to open new terrain this weekend, but what happens after Saturday night (when the brunt of the storm is expected to arrive), Himes prefers to \u201cwait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, depending on how much there is, we can open more terrain,\u201d she said. \u201cObviously, a lot of the slopes don\u2019t have any base on them, so it\u2019s got to be a pretty significant snowfall in order to really open up a lot of terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

A sizable snowfall will allow the resort to open up terrain not in service at the moment because they don\u2019t have snow-making capabilities, such as tree trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a big snowfall, we\u2019re able to open all that up for tree skiing,\u201d Himes said. \u201cAnd some of the slopes that aren\u2019t served by snowmaking. We can open them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania ski resorts have largely in recent years dealt with recurring cycles of warm and cold conditions; with warm, rainy stretches being the most detrimental for ski resorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really haven\u2019t had that this year, just a couple of times,\u201d Himes said. \u201cAnd not to any great lengths, but there\u2019s been some years in the past where we\u2019ve had warm temperatures and rain every day. And that\u2019s not good at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freezing rain, she said, tends to make a crust on top of snow and can hold the base as long as cold conditions prevail.<\/p>\n

Even if the snowstorm delivers a wallop in terms of snow, that\u2019s still not a guarantee for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how quickly snow can melt,\u201d Himes said. \u201cEven a significant snowfall, if you have days upon days of really warm weather, it makes a big difference.<\/p>\n

Himes said in recent years, she has seen winter temperatures reach into the 50s, even the 60s.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, if we can stay around freezing or a little more, we can hold it longer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another consideration for ski resorts with regards to this weekend\u2019s snowstorm are the bone-chilling temperatures <\/a>forecast to accompany the winter precipitation.<\/p>\n

AccuWeather forecasts a low of 6 degrees tonight, 12 degrees Saturday, and 14 degrees Sunday (with a high of 18). On Monday, the low temperature falls to -3 and increases to just 4 degrees on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Himes isn\u2019t as concerned with the temperatures as she is with the winds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s too cold to ski, but riding the lift can be very challenging. The chairs swing back and forth. You don\u2019t want them to swing into a tower. So we\u2019ve actually had more problems with extreme wind this year than we have with super cold temperatures,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also very challenging for our outdoor employees too. Our lift operators who have to be out in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Himes said the ski resort has only ever closed a few times as a result of extreme cold. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be really, really extreme to where it can be dangerous to be outside,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Himes said the resort is prepared to provide overnight accommodation for any staff members who can\u2019t get home and back to work the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we have lift operators and employees, there\u2019ll be people here to ski. I guarantee,\u201d Himes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ski season has been sluggish so far this year. Ski resorts across Pennsylvania have seized a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46976,46977,46978,46979,35032,9750,46980,46981,46982,46983,46984,46985,33594,46986,46987,46988,46989,296,46990,539,28,30,29,10526,46991,46992,46993,46994,46995,46996,27388,726],"class_list":["post-95685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-46976","tag-1223-roundtop-4-dcg","tag-46978","tag-46979","tag-35032","tag-and","tag-archive","tag-course","tag-dan","tag-dan-gleiter","tag-dcg","tag-drum","tag-fe","tag-fife","tag-fife-and-drum-course","tag-gleiter","tag-lewisberry","tag-local","tag-local-processing","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pn","tag-pn-fe-20021223","tag-portfolio","tag-processing","tag-roundtop","tag-ski","tag-ski-roundtop","tag-skiing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}