Cheat Mountain was logged from 1901 to 1960, with timber and men hauled in on Shay and Heisler steam locomotives running up the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River. The nearby company town of Cass housed the workers in dozens of nearly identical houses, many of which still stand. When the mill closed in 1960, the area was largely forgotten - until Thomas "Doc" Brigham, a dentist from North Carolina who had already built Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain in Boone, rediscovered the cut-over slopes and decided they would make a ski resort. Snowshoe opened in 1974. Silver Creek opened as a separate resort in 1983 and merged with Snowshoe in the 1990s. The Village - the on-mountain pedestrian commercial core - was built out in the 1990s and 2000s under the Canadian operator Intrawest. Many of the ski trails and lifts carry the names of the old logging operations: Grab Hammer, J-Hook, Ball Hooter, Skidder, Shay's Revenge, Heisler Way.

Snowshoe is not close to anything. The drive up Cheat Mountain on WV-66 takes about 15 minutes from the bottom, but getting to the bottom of WV-66 is a journey on its own. By car, the access roads are US-219 or WV-92 - both two-lane mountain highways. The closest commercial airports are Greenbrier Valley (KLWB) at Lewisburg, about an hour and a half away by car with limited United service, and North Central West Virginia (KCKB) at Clarksburg, two and a half hours away. Larger airports at Charleston and Roanoke are three hours each. Amtrak's Cardinal stops at White Sulphur Springs three days a week, 70 miles south - the closest rail service, useful if you can arrange a rental car or shuttle for the last leg. Bring a vehicle prepared for winter driving. Four-wheel drive is not required but is helpful when snow is falling.

Lift tickets at Snowshoe are sold on dynamic pricing - the price rises as more tickets sell for a given day, and as the date approaches. The cheapest tickets are bought online weeks ahead; same-day at-the-window tickets are the most expensive. All tickets are good for the entire day across all three ski areas: Snowshoe Basin (the main face), Silver Creek (a smaller area about half a mile away with night skiing), and Western Territory (which contains the steepest runs and the World Cup mountain bike track in summer). Two trails, Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge on the Western Territory, have a 1,500-foot vertical drop. Children 6 and under and seniors 75 and over pay a flat $10. Military discounts run 20 percent on weekends, 40 percent midweek. Snowshoe is on the Ikon Pass, which makes it accessible to skiers who already hold the multi-resort pass for trips elsewhere.

The summer season at Snowshoe is busier than the winter at many smaller resorts. The Snowshoe Bike Park is one of the largest and most challenging downhill mountain bike facilities in the world, hosting a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup race most years. The downhill track includes a notorious obstacle called "Threading the Needle," where riders must thread a narrow gap between two trees at speed. A Gary Player-designed golf course operates June through October, with prices that drop substantially after noon during high season. Climbing, lake activities at Shavers Lake, and chairlift sightseeing fill out the summer activities pass. The Mountain Adventure Pass at $249 per person bundles unlimited summer activities for three days, plus a day at Bike Park 101 or a bike rental.

Because cell service is so limited, walkie-talkies are surprisingly useful at Snowshoe. The resort recommends Family Radio Service handhelds, which require no license. If you are using higher-power GMRS radios without a GMRS license, the law requires you to stick to channels 8-14, or to use channels 1-7 and 9-22 only in medium or low power mode - rules that reflect the Radio Quiet Zone's restrictions. In practice, a pair of FRS radios will reach reliably from the top of a run to the bottom in line of sight, and across the Village from end to end. Phones that support Wi-Fi calling can make calls from lodgings or the Village (most of which have Wi-Fi), but not on the slopes. The Village has free public Wi-Fi at Starbucks, the Big Top, and Shavers Center. Landlines exist in all lodgings - the old way of communicating still works here, because the new way mostly does not.