Skiing Snowshoe, without the guesswork.

Three areas, one resort

Snowshoe skis as three areas. The Basin is the fan of trails under the Village, with 37 runs, an 800-foot vertical, and the lifts you will ride all day, including Ballhooter and the Soaring Eagle quad. Off to the west, the Western Territory is the steep skiing, with a 1,500-foot vertical of its own. Silver Creek is a separate area down the road, with its own lifts, and that is where the night skiing is. Snowfall averages more than 150 inches, and the mountain makes snow whenever the temperature allows, but check the snow report the morning you go, because what is open changes.

The Soaring Eagle loop

Soaring Eagle is the high-speed quad at the south end of the Basin, on South Mountain. It is an excellent place to play. You ride up, ski one trail back to the same chair, and do it again. That is the loop: a small circuit at the end of the mountain, not a trip down into the Village and back.

The loop covers a green, a blue, and three blacks: Upper Flume into Lower Hootenanny is the easy way around, Skipjack is the blue cruise, and Widowmaker, Camp 99, and Sawmill are the blacks. Hoot's Bar sits right at the lift, so lunch does not mean leaving the circuit, and you can stay on that loop for hours without getting stuck in the traffic around the Village.

The other end of the Basin

The opposite end of the mountain, served by Powder Monkey and Powderidge, is the green-trail side, with a lot of easy skiing and the Basin terrain parks, Progression and Evolution, which have small to medium features. Black Bear 32 and 33 sit beside the Powderidge lift, so this end is also the backyard for those two homes.

Western Territory

The Western Territory is the expert zone west of the Basin. You reach it from the Powder Monkey side and ski it on the Western Express, a high-speed quad, with 1,500 feet of vertical and about a mile and a half of downhill. It is really two trails: Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge. Cupp Run was designed by Olympian Jean-Claude Killy. Shay's Revenge has pitches of 52 percent.

The lower part of Shay's is the hardest hill on the mountain. If you are not ready for that, ski the upper part and cut over to Cupp, and Arbuckle's Cabin is waiting at the bottom, a rustic reward after a black diamond run. This is not a first-day area, so newer skiers belong on the Basin greens or over at Silver Creek.

Silver Creek, when the Basin is packed

Silver Creek is the area locals use when the Basin gets busy. It has its own lifts, 15 trails with 12 of them open for night skiing, and the Coca-Cola Tube Park, eight lanes. Because it sits apart from the Village, the lines stay short even on a day when Ballhooter is a parking lot. Night skiing is a real part of the week here. Which nights, and how late, change with the calendar, so check before you count on it.

How the homes line up

All ten VisitSnowshoe homes are ski-in/ski-out. Loggers Run 4, 12, and 16 open onto Upper Flume, on the Soaring Eagle side, and Black Bear backs onto Powderidge. The Mountain Lodge condos and Seneca 113 are in the Village, so Ballhooter is the first lift and also the one with the longest line. Seneca's porch door opens into the Village itself.