Some of our weather dudes are classifying the rainfall we’ve seen through this morning as a "deluge". Most areas have seen 1" and by late Sunday nearly 2" of rain will have fallen. That is further deteriorating the bases at all of the resorts but some are still holding up pretty decent. We’re seeing some moderate rain right now, so let’s get to the quick tour.
Bryce Resort – 19-38" – 5 trails open for day skiing and will end their season today.
Massanutten Resort – 35° – 36" base – 100% open with all 14 trails and 5 lanes of tubing for day sessions only. They will ski through the 22nd and end their season next Sunday.
The Homestead has two trails open and ends their season today.
Wintergreen Resort – 45° – Reporting 30-60" base but that has not changed in three weeks 🙁 – They will offer 19 slopes today with some bare areas and thin coverage, although there is plenty of good skiable terrain to hit. They have a ton of fun planned for NEXT weekend’s closing days of the 2008-2009 season.
Canaan Valley – 42° – 6-24" base – 19 trails open for day sessions through next weekend. Terrain park and tubing are closed now.
Snowshoe Mountain – 37° – 47" base – 53 trails open with some thin coverage and bare areas as well. The Silver Creek Area will close for the season at 4:30 p.m. There will be NO night skiing this evening. Night skiing is done for the season. The tubing park is now closed for the season as well.
Laura Parquette writes, "If you’re looking for some entertainment after the slopes have closed, check out a moonlit snowmobile tour, or head over to the Big Top for some family fun. There’s only a week left in the season, so be sure to take advantage of our amazing late-season deals and make your last, or first, turns of the season. Next weekend will be a flurry of activity on the mountain, with both our Shades of Cream Champagne and Chocolate Weekend and our Last Hurrah! festivities, so be sure to join us as we close out our very special 35th anniversary season!"
Timberline Resort – 24-48" base – 28 trails open with night skiing available as well.
Winterplace Resort – 32° – 36-76" base – These guys still look PRETTY darn good! Rob Story and Jason Vioral were up there yesterday and sent some photos that showed crazy good conditions despite the wet weather. There was snow in the woods and all! They both reported that the snow was VERY, VERY heavy but that thin coverage areas and bare spots were at a minimum. Winterplace is 100% open with night skiing and tubing as well. (The 4" of snow on Thursday and Friday AM really prettied up the place as they were looking pretty thin early in the week.)
Wisp Resort – 33° – 6-38" base with Spring Conditions and thin cover – 21 trails open for Day skiing only. Tubing and Mountain coaster are open.
Ober Gatlinburg will end their season today at 7pm. They have 6 trails open today.
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 38° – 54-83" – Still looks snowy white with 100% of the mountain open. They must use whiteners to stay looking so pretty.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 49° – 28-56" – 10 of 14 trails open – Still in good shape with plenty of snow and only a few thin coverage areas and bare spots.
Ski Beech – 46° – 12-40" – 6 of 15 trails open – Looking pretty bad and they could not have timed today being the last day of the season any better. Beech has a good season and if the rain would let up some they have some fun planned for today to put a cap on things for 2008-2009. There’s quite a lot of thin coverage and large bare areas.
Sugar Mountain – 42° – 18-65" – 100% open but large areas of thin coverage and bare spots are becoming more prevalent. One of Sugar’s staff told us that with yesterday’s rain (which was heavy at times up there) that there were areas where it appeared that they had set up some late season pond skimming fun! Sugar still looks darn good and even though they didn’t have many skiers on the hill yesterday, we spoke with a couple that really enjoyed themselves. (It IS all about perspective!)
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