Happy Sunday Everyone!
HERE are the resorts open for skiing and snowboarding today:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 100% Open with all 11 trails (9 slopes + 2 terrain parks)
Bryce Resort – 4 of 8 slopes
Cataloochee Ski Area – 10 of 17 slopes
Liberty Snowflex – Open year round! (8 of 8 slopes)
Sugar Mountain Resort – 9 of 20 slopes
Here are the scheduled resort openings that we have received reports on:
Beech Mountain Resort – Opens November 28th
Canaan Valley Resort – Opens November 29th
Massanutten Resort – Opens November 28th
Snowshoe Mountain – Opens November 26th
Timberline Resort – Opens December 12th
Wintergreen Resort – Opens November 29th
Winterplace Resort – Opens December 12th
These resorts have not said anything just yet, and they will usually just open weather permitting as soon as possible:
Ober Gatlinburg – No announcement yet
Sapphire Valley – No announcement yet
The Homestead – No announcement yet
Wisp Resort – No announcement yet
Wolf Ridge Resort – No announcement yet
SNOW NEWS IS GOOD NEWS DEBUTS TODAY
…and Joe Stevens took the time to consult with several meteorologists in the region to get their take on what this winter holds for us in terms of cold and snow. I won’t give away anything – go check it out.
BLESSED WITH SOME OF THE BEST …and most passionate people in the region.
I’ve been at the helm (or keyboard) of this website for 17 years now and it has been cool to watch my little seed of idea grow. Over the last ten years we’ve been able to add Joe Stevens of the aforementioned “Snow News is Good News” to our editorial contribution team. I’ve said for years – if I had the funds to purchase a ski resort or take over the management of one, that Joe Stevens would be the FIRST person I’d hire. You simply cannot find anyone any more passionate about the industry and particularly as it applies to the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. Joe is simply the biggest voice in the region.
Over the years we’ve had many meteorologists around the region – from Pennsylvania to Baltimore to Washington, D.C. to those of influence in the Charlotte, North Carolina market – to contribute content and weather incite. The two biggest “snow geese” in the region and perhaps the United States are Herb Stevens of the “Skiing Weatherman fame” and Brad Panovich (pictured to the left with his two children) of WCNC News Channel 36 in Charlotte. Brad has volunteered for years now to post studio-quality weather content for our visitors and even though he is an unabashed snow-lover, his forecasts have a uncanny accuracy. He is usually the first to call for snow in our region and others seem to fall in place a day or two later.
Herb Stevens has been reported on this website for years as we’ve followed Herb back when he was posting weekly weather epistles nationally.
Kenny Griffin – aka the KenDog on the messageboard – came on board in 2011 after he graduated from UNC Charlotte in December 2010 with a degree in meteorology. Kenny called me just expressing the desire to contribute to a website that he really liked a lot – and we hired him. Kenny is a member of our IT team as well as the author of FirsTrax news Mondays-Fridays in season. You can often find Kenny tailgating at ski resort parking lots before hitting the snow. Nobody loves being on the snow more than Kenny and he’s added a nice “vibe” to the team.
NEW TO THE TEAM…
In just the last week, we’ve been fortunate enough to recruit a couple of new people to the team and we KNOW that you’re going to love their input.
Will Mauney is as close to being the High Country’s “Bear Grylls” as possible. Will worked for more than a decade as a Sugar Mountain ski instructor. He’s also worked for many of the area’s ski shops. Will has broken about as many bones as is possible doing what he loves to do – from mountain biking, skiing, hiking, rock climbing, grass skating steep mountains in the summer, kayaking and more.
After his last major injuries, he took up photography and the rest – as they say – is history. Will is one of those guys who will hike a mountaintop and sit in zero degree weather to get the perfect image that the rest of us dream about.
Case in point: After joining our team this past week, we assigned him to go up to Beech Mountain and get us some sweet photos and videos for content that we are developing for a new website for Beech. We haven’t seen THOSE images or video just yet, but check out this post from Will from this past Tuesday, November 18th.
“What does -30° look like in North Carolina? It looks amazing! This star trail composite consists of 310 photos taken on November 18th 2014. The temperature was 5 degrees when I left the car at the Land of OZ and headed over to the top of Beech. The wind was still gusting to 30 mph and seemed to be increasing as the sun went down. I can’t help but smile in this weather, partly because it helps feeling return to my face, but also because I absolutely love being out in the absolute worst conditions.”
The photo was of Banner Elk from atop Beech Mountain Ski Resort.
Check out more of his photos and videos all season long…and here are a few to wet your appetite.
The NEWEST member of our team is Jordan Nelson. NO, he’s not the Jordan (or Jordy) Nelson who plays for the Green Bay Packers. However Jordan IS an all-star with a camera of a different sort. Jordan has agreed to come on board and provide us with 6-12 or so high-rex, aerial videos and photography from our ski areas – this season. Jordan has a monster drone camera that makes our own DJI Phantom Vision 2+ look like a toy.
We’ll be sharing his first video from at Appalachian Ski Mountain on Saturday – as early as Monday/Tuesday of this week.
WE’D LIKE TO RECRUIT YOU… (Want to join our team?)
First, if you’re already skiing and/or riding at any of our mountains ANYWAY, we’d like to have you send us photos, videos and reports from your experience on the mountain. If you’re good at it and on the snow quite a bit – we’ll probably recruit you to contribute content. Depending on how often you contribute and how good your content is – we may even pay you!
Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you’re interested.
WE STILL NEED YOU GUYS – (Our readers!)
Without YOU, there is no US. If you like this website, we’d really appreciate it if you would take a moment and email or text a few of your friends to check us out at www.SkiSoutheast.com and www.ResortCams.com. If YOU like our website – chances are some of your friends would as well and we’re wanting to spread our wings just a bit and we need YOU to help us get the word out. We saw nearly 5 Million visitors in the last calendar year and we’d love to double that this season.
Thanks in advance!
That’s about it for me today. If you want to comment – drop me an email at [email protected]