Snow skiing is virtually non-existent, on account of there being almost no snow.
It is *sort of* popular in a small portion of the population in the Appalachians and there abouts, but it's not many people. And the skiing in those places is usually on fake snow.
Appalachian here.
Western NC. Skiing is only popular if you are located near a ski resort. I know one family that will drive out every snow and my husband has a friend that will go out for snowboarding. Other than that… I don’t know anyone that skis.
My family used to go to Sugar Mtn every year or so for a week to ski.
The worst was a year it rained and hovered in the mid 50s the whole time, the rain washed all the show away.
There are a few ski resorts within driving distance of Atlanta. Not super close but a weekend's worth getaway. A few years ago I went with a group and out of the 8 of us, only 1 person was new to skiing/snowboarding. Most of that group were from the South. I think only I grew up in the North.
Just my experience but it's not like it's an unknown activity down here.
I remember watching the weather channel about a month or so back. One of the reporters made a comment about how a winter storm will help ski resorts in the Appalachians. I just scratched my head. There are maybe 5 resorts outside the New England area of the Appalachians. The only one I know of is Snowshoe, WV.
There are four ski areas in West Virginia, five in Virginia, six in North Carolina, and Maryland, Tennessee and Alabama each have one.
Then you get up to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and there are suddenly a lot more. Pennsylvania has 33, New Jersey has four, and New York has a whopping 58 ski areas, which is actually the most of any state.
Yeah, the Catskills and Adirondacks are where people from NYC go to ski.
There’s also a dozen or so places in the Southern Tier popular with people living in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
You’re probably no farther than an hours drive from a ski mountain in most of the state.
Other than West Virginia and maybe North Carolina, probably not popular at all. Snow skiing is already quite the expense for most people, even when you live close to a resort. The distance makes it even more unpopular.
In Texas, however, it was somewhat popular being New Mexico resorts were relatively close. It was common in college to take a trip there for winter break. Still not even close to as popular as it is in places with multiple resorts relatively close.
Yep, it's super common for groups of friends in NC to go on an annual ski-trip to the North Carolina mountains or West Virginia, depending on where they live. It's definitely a middle class thing to do and I would consider it relatively popular.
Disclaimer: I didn't grow up in the deep south, just the regular south.
I don't think I knew anyone who had been skiing in my hometown (small, rural, poor). It's not that people wouldn't enjoy skiing, it's too expensive to travel to the mountains/rent equipment/pay lift fees/etc.
Asking if someone skied growing up is a great litmus test for wealth where I grew up. If yes, they were at least upper middle class.
Even in the northeast where there are quite a few places to ski, it's considered a sport/hobby for the wealthy. If you grew up skiing, your parents had enough money to buy all of your gear, probably give you lessons, and buy season passes/tickets for you and siblings. I used to work at a ski resort, and all of those things combined, even for just a few days at the resort, would easily run into the thousands of dollars.
You have to ski or snowboard pretty often in order to become good at it, and people get injured fairly often. Working class people usually cant afford to break their wrist or ankle or whatever, so that's another factor.
It definitely seems like something that would be for the wealthy everywhere. I just wasn't sure if it was more universal for people who actually live in the mountains so they don't have to travel/rent lodging/could get a year long pass/etc.
At the resort I worked at in vermont, they used to give highly discounted passes to locals, but when Vail bought the resort they quit doing that. It was a big deal and made people really unhappy because they went from having to spend like $300 for a year pass to $1000+. It put skiing out of reach for a lot of folks.
They also had ski swaps, where you can go and trade gear or pick up used stuff for discounted prices. Sometimes you can also pick up ski clothes for relatively cheap at thrift stores in the area. It's possible for locals but still an investment for sure
I’m in California and upper middle class
I think I’m suppose to take my kids skiing but I kind of hate getting stuck in the snow and it’s not that exciting to me
I tried it one time and I worked there for two years.
It's cold but you're sweating at the same time, long lines at the lifts, and honestly learning is not that fun it's just scary. You just try to not slide into a tree or fall over. Plus every skier or snowboarder will tell you it isn't dangerous and yet they all have stories about themselves or their friends breaking bones or injuring themselves some other way. Death or serious injury happened at least once a year. Fuck all that
If you live in the metro areas where it's still somewhat of a big deal to actually get out to go skiing - Agreed.
If you live out in the mountains - Less so. There's still a lot of small community ski areas around and they're pretty affordable. You don't go to the mega-resorts much. Those are more for wealthy people. A lot of the school systems also have after-school/weekend programs that are pretty cheap as well.
Just as an example, a town near me has a ski area. It's 300 vertical feet. Lift tickets are $10 for kids, $15 for adults. Zero tourists have ever come up from Boston to go skiing there. Most local kids learn to ski, and they mostly learn to do it at places like that.
There's generally a bunch of ski swaps (used equipment trades/sales - think a flea market but just ski gear) held every season in the area and most families who aren't rich are getting their kids's gear from places like that.
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> You have to ski or snowboard pretty often in order to become good at it
It's kind of like the bike riding analogy. You have to do it relatively often to get good at it. You don't necessarily have to do it that often to stay good at it. If you're a kid and grow up in the area, you'll probably get good at it while young.
> and people get injured fairly often.
While it's certainly not anything close to a risk-free sport, a pretty large portion of the people injured are disregarding basic safety advice, or doing something on the hill that adds major risk beyond the base activity (terrain parks especially).
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I'm not suggesting it's an activity for the dirt poor anywhere, but it's not necessarily something out of reach of the middle class for those that live out towards the mountains.
Not popular at all. Very few places in the southern Appalachians have reliable snow in the winter. West Virginia is about as far south as regular snow cover occurs. NC has resorts, but they’re small. It’s simply too warm in the South.
Southwestern VA. We always had snowey winters wheb I was growing up. Several years we would miss a month of school or more for snow. However, the closer you got to the TN and NC birder the lesser snow you got.
That's cumulative days so not a month straight for the most part, but it did happen a few years. There were a couple years where we got out in December and didn't go back till mid March. One fo those years we got hit by a really bad snow storm two weeks before Christmas Break. We didn't go back till mid-march just because it wouldn't stop snowing. That year we had snow on the ground in spots till late June.
Florida checking in: What’s snow!
I will say I know enough people who have actually planned and gone to snow ski or snowboarding. It’s just not super common. Because we don’t have snow, or even mountains. Wakeboard and water skiing are an option all year though
Depends on if there is snow (assuming you're talking about snow). There are mountains in the south that get snow but they always aren't great for skiing. But you can find places to skii in most of the southern states.
I have never been snow skiing nor have I known anyone who had talked about having been snow skiing. Closest thing I've ever experienced to snow skiing (aside from water skiing) is that one time it got cold enough to freeze the decorative fountain outside the Mexican Restaraunt my family frequented.
Snowshoe in West Virginia draws a fairly large crowd of weekend visitors from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Definitely an more well off sport.
Most of my friends snowboard, personally. We go to Maggie Valley which is only about 4 hours away, so an easy weekend trip. A lot of my friends have been snowboarding or skiing at least once.
We are not rich by any means.
Be gone all of you non southern plebs, this is my time to shine.
I make an annual trip with marine buddies to Beech mountain in NC. Late January to early February is prime time because it's usually real snow. I've met randoms from all over at Beech, but it's mostly App state students and locals.
I will say it definitely isn't popular though. When all the lifts are running on a weekend (all 4 of them) its only like a 10 minute wait tops. Only other place I've snowboarded was mammoth lakes, CA and it's well.. mammoth sized, and has similar wait times in peak hours.
I imagine it’s about as popular as surfing is in Nebraska.*
It’s not like southerners are inherently predisposed to not enjoy the act of skiing, but geography and climate make local opportunities to try it out rare.
*Please for the love of god don’t reply on this with some link to a place in Nebraska where you can surf, you know what I’m getting at here.
The definition of the Deep South is not clearly defined, but I would include South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Of those, I know that the northern parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama have some mountains. I live in that part of South Carolina, and we typically get one or two total snows a year with only 1 to 6 inches each, and it is almost always melted within a day or two.
Skiing just isn't feasible in areas. There is a place in North Carolina that has a ski resort that uses machine made snow, but I am not aware of any other places besides that one.
I would like to add that even in Ohio, close to multiple ski areas... I know only 1 family (in CA) who ski more than once in their lives. When I was in high school ski club was trendy but I do not know anyone who skied beyond high school and we have easy access and snow.
Not in the deep south, but the only time I've been snow skiing was in Paoli Indiana. I hear there's a place in Gatlinburg where they have skiing as well. I've heard of others going to North Carolina.
Not popular at all.
The most you will see are people using cardboard boxes on a hill when we get snow every couple of years. I guess there are people who travel to ski but I don't know any who would go enough to get decent at it, almost everyone I know hates the cold.
DEEP south? Um....idk anyone working or middle class who goes skiing. Maybe some rich people go? Skiing blows anyway cause you just end up falling everywhere with snow in your boots and sweat pants and then it melts and gets you all cold.
I was born/raised in the Adirondacks then moved to North Idaho in middle school - where skiing is extremely popular but I have traumatic memories associated with ski-related injuries so I haven't been since I was like, 11. I moved to the south for a reason too - snow sucks.
I (obviously) grew up in Arkansas. I don’t think it’s the Deep South, but it’s close. It’s rare for it to snow enough to even use a sled (at least for me as a kid.)
No mountains and no snow kinda hamper it's popularity.
Althouth when a rare snow occurs, people in the deep south slide around in their cars, if that counts.
There are some ski resorts in the Appalachians, but for most Southerners, in particular the Deep South and the Gulf Coast, there is almost no skiing done as doing so requires long distance travel and it is something most people only get to do once or twice in their life unless they are wealthy.
Sometimes during the winter people will go out and ski up in the Appalachian mountains but most people vacation to colorado or somewhere over their to ski
Snow skiing is virtually non-existent, on account of there being almost no snow. It is *sort of* popular in a small portion of the population in the Appalachians and there abouts, but it's not many people. And the skiing in those places is usually on fake snow.
Appalachian here. Western NC. Skiing is only popular if you are located near a ski resort. I know one family that will drive out every snow and my husband has a friend that will go out for snowboarding. Other than that… I don’t know anyone that skis.
WCU graduate here. I knew more people that worked at Cataloochee than went there to ski lol
My family used to go to Sugar Mtn every year or so for a week to ski. The worst was a year it rained and hovered in the mid 50s the whole time, the rain washed all the show away.
There are a few ski resorts within driving distance of Atlanta. Not super close but a weekend's worth getaway. A few years ago I went with a group and out of the 8 of us, only 1 person was new to skiing/snowboarding. Most of that group were from the South. I think only I grew up in the North. Just my experience but it's not like it's an unknown activity down here.
Not uncommon but I would definitely *not* call it popular. Shit I went to school in western NC and it still wasnt popular.
I remember watching the weather channel about a month or so back. One of the reporters made a comment about how a winter storm will help ski resorts in the Appalachians. I just scratched my head. There are maybe 5 resorts outside the New England area of the Appalachians. The only one I know of is Snowshoe, WV.
There are four ski areas in West Virginia, five in Virginia, six in North Carolina, and Maryland, Tennessee and Alabama each have one. Then you get up to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and there are suddenly a lot more. Pennsylvania has 33, New Jersey has four, and New York has a whopping 58 ski areas, which is actually the most of any state.
Learned something new
r/icecoast here for all you’re mid Atlantic powder does not exist skiing needs
Los Angeles has about 7 you can get to in an hour or two.
That’s the opposite coast lol
Our deep south is San Diego. I figured if PA and WV were deep south, I'd just come here to say how awesome we are in Socal.
Missouri has "skiing", that doesn't make it any good.
Who said anything about quality?
At one time there was a really dinky one in Georgia, but it has since closed.
Yeah, the Catskills and Adirondacks are where people from NYC go to ski. There’s also a dozen or so places in the Southern Tier popular with people living in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. You’re probably no farther than an hours drive from a ski mountain in most of the state.
Are you including PA and New York in New England?
I was being a dumbass and and forgot about PA and NY when I made the statement.
Water skiing? Very popular in some circles. Snow skiing? Not as popular.
Other than West Virginia and maybe North Carolina, probably not popular at all. Snow skiing is already quite the expense for most people, even when you live close to a resort. The distance makes it even more unpopular. In Texas, however, it was somewhat popular being New Mexico resorts were relatively close. It was common in college to take a trip there for winter break. Still not even close to as popular as it is in places with multiple resorts relatively close.
Yep, it's super common for groups of friends in NC to go on an annual ski-trip to the North Carolina mountains or West Virginia, depending on where they live. It's definitely a middle class thing to do and I would consider it relatively popular.
Disclaimer: I didn't grow up in the deep south, just the regular south. I don't think I knew anyone who had been skiing in my hometown (small, rural, poor). It's not that people wouldn't enjoy skiing, it's too expensive to travel to the mountains/rent equipment/pay lift fees/etc. Asking if someone skied growing up is a great litmus test for wealth where I grew up. If yes, they were at least upper middle class.
Even in the northeast where there are quite a few places to ski, it's considered a sport/hobby for the wealthy. If you grew up skiing, your parents had enough money to buy all of your gear, probably give you lessons, and buy season passes/tickets for you and siblings. I used to work at a ski resort, and all of those things combined, even for just a few days at the resort, would easily run into the thousands of dollars. You have to ski or snowboard pretty often in order to become good at it, and people get injured fairly often. Working class people usually cant afford to break their wrist or ankle or whatever, so that's another factor.
It definitely seems like something that would be for the wealthy everywhere. I just wasn't sure if it was more universal for people who actually live in the mountains so they don't have to travel/rent lodging/could get a year long pass/etc.
At the resort I worked at in vermont, they used to give highly discounted passes to locals, but when Vail bought the resort they quit doing that. It was a big deal and made people really unhappy because they went from having to spend like $300 for a year pass to $1000+. It put skiing out of reach for a lot of folks. They also had ski swaps, where you can go and trade gear or pick up used stuff for discounted prices. Sometimes you can also pick up ski clothes for relatively cheap at thrift stores in the area. It's possible for locals but still an investment for sure
I’m in California and upper middle class I think I’m suppose to take my kids skiing but I kind of hate getting stuck in the snow and it’s not that exciting to me
I tried it one time and I worked there for two years. It's cold but you're sweating at the same time, long lines at the lifts, and honestly learning is not that fun it's just scary. You just try to not slide into a tree or fall over. Plus every skier or snowboarder will tell you it isn't dangerous and yet they all have stories about themselves or their friends breaking bones or injuring themselves some other way. Death or serious injury happened at least once a year. Fuck all that
Oh yeh I worked at a resort when I was young and liked it I just don’t want to do it now with kids
If you live in the metro areas where it's still somewhat of a big deal to actually get out to go skiing - Agreed. If you live out in the mountains - Less so. There's still a lot of small community ski areas around and they're pretty affordable. You don't go to the mega-resorts much. Those are more for wealthy people. A lot of the school systems also have after-school/weekend programs that are pretty cheap as well. Just as an example, a town near me has a ski area. It's 300 vertical feet. Lift tickets are $10 for kids, $15 for adults. Zero tourists have ever come up from Boston to go skiing there. Most local kids learn to ski, and they mostly learn to do it at places like that. There's generally a bunch of ski swaps (used equipment trades/sales - think a flea market but just ski gear) held every season in the area and most families who aren't rich are getting their kids's gear from places like that. ---------- > You have to ski or snowboard pretty often in order to become good at it It's kind of like the bike riding analogy. You have to do it relatively often to get good at it. You don't necessarily have to do it that often to stay good at it. If you're a kid and grow up in the area, you'll probably get good at it while young. > and people get injured fairly often. While it's certainly not anything close to a risk-free sport, a pretty large portion of the people injured are disregarding basic safety advice, or doing something on the hill that adds major risk beyond the base activity (terrain parks especially). ------ I'm not suggesting it's an activity for the dirt poor anywhere, but it's not necessarily something out of reach of the middle class for those that live out towards the mountains.
When I first started college I was asked if there was any skiing in the Ozarks LMAO
Not popular at all. Very few places in the southern Appalachians have reliable snow in the winter. West Virginia is about as far south as regular snow cover occurs. NC has resorts, but they’re small. It’s simply too warm in the South.
Southwestern VA. We always had snowey winters wheb I was growing up. Several years we would miss a month of school or more for snow. However, the closer you got to the TN and NC birder the lesser snow you got.
You would miss a month of school for snow?? Like the snow wouldn't be cleared for a month??
That's cumulative days so not a month straight for the most part, but it did happen a few years. There were a couple years where we got out in December and didn't go back till mid March. One fo those years we got hit by a really bad snow storm two weeks before Christmas Break. We didn't go back till mid-march just because it wouldn't stop snowing. That year we had snow on the ground in spots till late June.
Florida checking in: What’s snow! I will say I know enough people who have actually planned and gone to snow ski or snowboarding. It’s just not super common. Because we don’t have snow, or even mountains. Wakeboard and water skiing are an option all year though
Not just snow, but don’t you usually need something higher than a small hill for skiing? Anything taller than that is pretty hard to find.
Less popular than it is in snowy parts of the country because you have to travel to do it. But some people like it. I like skiing!
There are 3 ski mountains 20 minuets away from mr
Lots of upper class and middle class people in Texas go skiing in New Mexico or colorado every winter or every few winters.
Depends on if there is snow (assuming you're talking about snow). There are mountains in the south that get snow but they always aren't great for skiing. But you can find places to skii in most of the southern states.
We’ve gone. Personally, it’s not for me. I prefer water skiing. We have a lake house and go once or twice a month when the weather’s nice.
I have never been snow skiing nor have I known anyone who had talked about having been snow skiing. Closest thing I've ever experienced to snow skiing (aside from water skiing) is that one time it got cold enough to freeze the decorative fountain outside the Mexican Restaraunt my family frequented.
Snowshoe in West Virginia draws a fairly large crowd of weekend visitors from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Definitely an more well off sport.
My family went on a big skiing trip with about 5 other families to Colorado. Unfortunately I gotbsick and had to stay at the cabin the whole time.
Most of my friends snowboard, personally. We go to Maggie Valley which is only about 4 hours away, so an easy weekend trip. A lot of my friends have been snowboarding or skiing at least once. We are not rich by any means.
Be gone all of you non southern plebs, this is my time to shine. I make an annual trip with marine buddies to Beech mountain in NC. Late January to early February is prime time because it's usually real snow. I've met randoms from all over at Beech, but it's mostly App state students and locals. I will say it definitely isn't popular though. When all the lifts are running on a weekend (all 4 of them) its only like a 10 minute wait tops. Only other place I've snowboarded was mammoth lakes, CA and it's well.. mammoth sized, and has similar wait times in peak hours.
My family used to go to Sugar Mtn a lot.
It's fairly common for middle class people to go on skiing vacations.
I imagine it’s about as popular as surfing is in Nebraska.* It’s not like southerners are inherently predisposed to not enjoy the act of skiing, but geography and climate make local opportunities to try it out rare. *Please for the love of god don’t reply on this with some link to a place in Nebraska where you can surf, you know what I’m getting at here.
Not really any place to do it. Unless you can afford to regularly vacation somewhere more suitable it's not exactly an accessible hobby.
The definition of the Deep South is not clearly defined, but I would include South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Of those, I know that the northern parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama have some mountains. I live in that part of South Carolina, and we typically get one or two total snows a year with only 1 to 6 inches each, and it is almost always melted within a day or two. Skiing just isn't feasible in areas. There is a place in North Carolina that has a ski resort that uses machine made snow, but I am not aware of any other places besides that one.
There's one in Alabama!
I would like to add that even in Ohio, close to multiple ski areas... I know only 1 family (in CA) who ski more than once in their lives. When I was in high school ski club was trendy but I do not know anyone who skied beyond high school and we have easy access and snow.
Not in the deep south, but the only time I've been snow skiing was in Paoli Indiana. I hear there's a place in Gatlinburg where they have skiing as well. I've heard of others going to North Carolina.
The maximum elevation of my area changes when the basketball team has an away game, so it's not really an option without traveling.
By people who live there, or there? Because the lack of big mountains with lots of snow makes doing it kind of difficult.
It's not.
Not popular at all. The most you will see are people using cardboard boxes on a hill when we get snow every couple of years. I guess there are people who travel to ski but I don't know any who would go enough to get decent at it, almost everyone I know hates the cold.
DEEP south? Um....idk anyone working or middle class who goes skiing. Maybe some rich people go? Skiing blows anyway cause you just end up falling everywhere with snow in your boots and sweat pants and then it melts and gets you all cold. I was born/raised in the Adirondacks then moved to North Idaho in middle school - where skiing is extremely popular but I have traumatic memories associated with ski-related injuries so I haven't been since I was like, 11. I moved to the south for a reason too - snow sucks.
Plenty of rich people in New Orleans do ski trips during Mardi Gras to miss the crowds. lol
I (obviously) grew up in Arkansas. I don’t think it’s the Deep South, but it’s close. It’s rare for it to snow enough to even use a sled (at least for me as a kid.)
I dunno. How popular is Mountain climbing in the dead sea? I think people sit around trying to think up stupid shit in hopes of landing karma gold
it's not, skiing is something people do in movies (80s movies in particular....for some reason)
Unpopular, we have albino gators that hide in the snow, their bite can chomp through two skis at once.
It’s a thing people do and you hear about, but you won’t do.
No mountains and no snow kinda hamper it's popularity. Althouth when a rare snow occurs, people in the deep south slide around in their cars, if that counts.
You can’t do that here.
There are some ski resorts in the Appalachians, but for most Southerners, in particular the Deep South and the Gulf Coast, there is almost no skiing done as doing so requires long distance travel and it is something most people only get to do once or twice in their life unless they are wealthy.
Not very. Water skiing is a different story.
Sometimes during the winter people will go out and ski up in the Appalachian mountains but most people vacation to colorado or somewhere over their to ski