Ah, Spring in the Mountains – Cold will return this Weekend!

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Ah, Spring is such a wonderful time. Even though the morning air is still a bit crisp, you can feel the warmth of a coming summer and temps today will warm to nearly 70°! Wildflowers are blooming. Ahhhh, the beauty of Spring!

Spring skiing is a wonderful time to still enjoy some pretty decent skiing as Appalachian, Cataloochee and Sugar Mountain still have some good, skiable terrain to play on. Spring is a great time of the year to ski because you don’t have to bundle up in those heavy parkas and the snow is soft and easier to learn on.

[ENTER THE THEME MUSIC TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE…]

I am certain that there are some people who will read the first couple of sentences and think that we’ve had some sort of server crash and the stories have all posted back to late last March or early April. The only thing not true about the first couple of sentences is the remark about the wildflowers blooming, but with temps reaching what could be a record 70° or so today…it would not take much to see some blooms beginning to open!

COME ON GOD, GIVE US SOME SNOW – OR AT LEAST SOME CONSISTENT COLD WEATHER…. (please – I state meekly so as not to r-e-a-l-l-y anger Him.)

We continued to post some numbers for you guys to see on the slope conditions page that reflects the amount of base depth lost at the resorts who are good about updating daily. I wished ALL resorts would be more forthcoming about true base depths every day. Many only change them after several days with some corrective moves. It just looks strange to those of us that monitor it every single day to see some base depths stay the same for two weeks after mild temps and/or rain and then drop 12" in one night.

Hats off to the likes of Appalachian and Sugar Mountain who have really done the best job of that over the last few years. Cataloochee deserves an honorable mention "atta girl or boy or both" and Kathy up at Ober does a great job of daily base depth movement…but they have yet to get open for this season.

One look at the base depth data that we have documented shows figures like Appalachian’s three day loss of 12" of base and Sugar Mountains 14" downward trend. They are holding up with AMAZING COVERAGE considering the weather so far. Certainly Appalachian offers the best of the three North Carolina resorts open today. One look at their live camera will bring a smile to your face. Sugar looks the sketchiest of the three although they are open with 4 trails and fighting the fight. (We are pulling for you Gunther.)

Cataloochee looks okay this morning via their live cam, but that camera tends to put a haze on any image almost like one of those movie camera filters that takes almost all of the freckles off of Lindsey Lohan’s face. Anyway The Cat looks decent and will offer some good turns for skiing and riding today from 1pm-10pm.

COLD WEATHER RETURNING…

I will skip right over the ridiculous weather that will dominate Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and go right to the weekend when the temperatures will more accurately reflect Winter.

Thankfully, Friday will get back to normal with lows dropping teasingly close to snowmaking quality at 31°. Then Saturday gets serious with highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s with some wintry mix thrown in. Sunday and Monday looks cold with highs in the 20s and lows in the teems. Yahoooooo, snowmaking!

ENJOY YOUR DAY, HIT THE TERRAIN THAT’S OPEN and look forward to the weekend!

Until Next Time…Send your comments, photos and videos to: [email protected]

Also visit www.SkiSoutheast.com  for more news from the rest of the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic.

See You On The Slopes!

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