- Ski season is here, and one of the newest ski destinations in the state is one of the oldest: Hatley Pointe.

It used to be called Wolf Laurel, but it's been rebranded and refreshed, and it's a lot of fun.

[bright lively orchestral music] - [Jeff] With Hatley Pointe, and kind of one of the great things location-wise is no matter if you're coming for one of, you know, our sports, if you're mountain biking or skiing, or if you just want to come and relax and just experience Western North Carolina and just get back to being outside in this part of the country, this is a great place to home base from.

[bright orchestral music] - The history dates back to 1970 when Wolf Laurel Resort first opened up.

So it got renamed to Wolf Ridge in 2005 when our predecessor Orville English had purchased it.

We met Orville, and we immediately made friends with him, and he started to give us this crazy, whimsical idea of purchasing a ski resort.

Well, the idea started to come around, we started to really fall in love with all the property around it.

And so, the ski industry and the operations seemed a lot more foreign to us, but we decided to bite the bullet in 2023.

We were like, "Well, we've got our work cut out for us," and we started going.

[bright intriguing orchestral music] - I think it's important for people to know that when they step through those doors, they're going to have an experience, and that experience is going to be family and elegance and just awesomeness in general.

[bright intriguing orchestral music] [groovy upbeat music] - I feel like we have really shifted the paradigm for a general-known ski resort landscape.

The lodge interiors have been built to make people feel comfortable and to feel at home.

They're still very, very humble, still very approaching, and then ultimately just getting incredible food and incredible hospitality.

You know, this isn't just a transaction, we wanna be able to be a part of that, but in other ways of not just being, you know, a moment that they had going down the mountain, but also some really great food and beverage moments, really great conversation, you know, around a fire, and just accentuating that whole entire opportunity and experience.

[groovy upbeat music] - It's a southern hospitality mixed with the people that are here.

It's unlike going to another ski resort, because you actually feel super welcome, and they make it like home, or, you know, being in a loved one's house, and then skiing out the back door, and then having great food at the end of the day.

[groovy orchestral upbeat music] - And we are focused completely on the guest experience, and we have this amazing mountain to showcase and with the projects that have been implemented this off season, brand new snowmaking, so that is just top of the line, state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment.

So we're gonna make sure that the ski experience, the snowboard experience on this mountain is just top-notch.

[groovy upbeat music] A really fun thing to launch this year when we transition away from the snow and into mountain biking, you know, all these brand new curated trails top to bottom, whether you're just starting out and trying to learn, being able to take lessons, rent a bike, rent a helmet, do all the stuff that you need if you wanna come out and give mountain biking a shot.

And the terrain is set up, the trails were built specifically to cater to people of all skill levels.

[groovy upbeat music] - So when you come to Hatley Pointe, you can expect a true experience of a 5-star boutique ski resort.

We have multiple outlets to serve and accommodate people from everything from our coffee bar, Steeps, to South Knit, our clothing department, to our guest services, to our sanctuary for our VIP guests, to the grandparents' lounge, to the viewer's lounge, where you can see all the views of the beautiful mountain and all the infrastructure and hard work that's been put in the development of this place.

And, obviously, in my opinion, the crown jewel, which is Smoke and Timber, our beautiful restaurant.

[groovy upbeat music] Some of the iconic dishes that we serve at Smoke and Timber, probably our crown jewel, is the 22-ounce espresso-rubbed ribeye, that one is probably one of our top sellers, as well as my dish, which is a braised short rib ragu.

[groovy upbeat music] I would say that our cuisine is a modern American cuisine with a heavy influence in Italian and Hispanic culture with a little bit of an Appalachian flair.

[groovy upbeat music] - I think the Blue Ridge Mountains, they're known all around the world, and I think that we have a great opportunity to be able to bring people to Madison County and to really shine a light on such a hidden gem.

- Hatley Pointe Mountain Resort is at 578 Valley View Circle in Mars Hill.

To plan your visit, give them a call at 828-689-4111, or visit their website at hatleypointe.com.