Wow, what an exciting week it has been! Winter really kicked into high gear over the past 7-8 days and it shows on this morning's ski report. Base depths are looking good (some being a little exaggerated) and we finally have some resorts that are 100% open! I can't remember if that happened at all last season. I want to say it did for a brief period, but I could be wrong. Anyways, Bryce and Massanutten in Virginia have been able to lay down some serious snow all week and both are proudly proclaiming on their snow report about having the mountains fully open. Kudos to both places!
EDIT: I completely forgot about Sapphire Valley, which has been open on both trails for the past few days. Sorry guys!
The wintry weather has continued this morning as most of the region is seeing snow. Here in North Carolina, it's a mixed bag of precip. I was driving into the office this morning and I went through snow, then sleet, then freezing rain, and then snow again. My windshield was 2/3 covered in ice for a period of my drive. Fun stuff!
While it's a mixed bag of precip down this way, the Virginia and West Virginia ski areas are seeing all snow right now. I'm looking through all the cams right now and it's cool to see the flakes flying. The Virginia resorts won't see a ton of snow, but an inch or two isn't out of the question. As is the norm, the West Virginia resorts and Wisp look to see the best out of this storm. Herb Stevens posted his latest weather forecast for the Mountaineer State and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.
Here's the jist of what he is thinking…snow through Saturday with 4-8” across West Virginia. Even better, this snow will be extremely low density with liquid ratios of 15-20:1. That's blower pow folks.
Not only will the WV ski areas see snow today, they already saw 7-8” yesterday. Messageboard member brookbarrel posted a sweet trip report from yesterday at Snowshoe and man does it look good up there! If you haven't seen it yet, head on over to the messageboard and check it out. That guy always finds the pow up there!
Yesterday looked pretty fantastic at Snowshoe. Here's brookbarrel finding freshies.
Ed Schneider from Snowshoe posted a video yesterday as well. You can see that over on the VIDEOS PAGE.
While I'm still on the topic of weather, Brad Panovich also posted his latest weather forecast. He reiterates Herb's forecast of a good snow event for West Virginia and also talks about continued cold and snowmaking through the weekend for everyone. It looks like a brief warmup is in store for next week before cold air and an active pattern returns. CLICK HERE to watch it.
The weekend is shaping up nicely and I'm expecting to see additional terrain opening up across the region. I know Beech opened Upper White Lightning today for the first time in 2 years. Cataloochee is only one trail way from being 100% open. Wintergreen has said all week they plan on opening additional terrain this weekend. Obviously, all of the West Virginia resorts and Wisp will probably have more trail openings with this snowfall. Basically what I'm saying is, it's going to be a great weekend for skiing and snowboarding! Get out there if you can!
Finally, this is just a reminder about the annual Ski Southeast Summit at Snowshoe Mountain. I have been on the phone with the people at Snowshoe this morning and they told me we should have everything set up and ready to go this afternoon. The dates are going to be March 1-3 and it looks like attendees will be getting 20-25% off lodging for the weekend and a buy one get one free lift ticket deal. I should have more details about this later today and I'll make an announcement on the home page as well as on the messageboard. Start planning now and make sure to join us! It's always a good time.
That's it for now. Check out the SNOW REPORTS PAGE to see a complete listing of open trails, base depths, and what not. Tonette and Mike have you covered this weekend and next week. I'm headed out west to get Utahrded. Everyone enjoy the sweet conditions and think snow!
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