First Trax :: Daily News

WHEN SNOW FALLS AND YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE, DOES IT COUNT?

12.27.12 07:30 AM

I couldn't think of a better way to express my frustration with the fact that when I KNOW that snow has fallen at a ski resort and don't see ANYTHING on their website OR anywhere else about it - I go a little nuts.  That IS the main drawing card that every resort has to attract the masses to go and play there. That IS the most asked question via my INBOX - "Can you tell me where we can go and see some snow?"

So it snows and then I go to websites and other resources and see NO MENTION OF IT. That slows my process because then I have to call the resorts and too often get someone who doesn't know how much snow fell. Good grief!

I'm LOVING the temperatures out there this morning with a lot of low 20s! SNOW AND SNOWMAKING! Woohoo!
 

Since SNOW IS the TOP draw for a ski, board and snow website, I'm going to just tell you where and how much fell and go play in it!

WISP - 8" / 63" on the season!

SNOWSHOE - 11" / 61.5" on the season!
TIMBERLINE - 7" / 48" on the season!
WINTERPLACE - 2"

APPALACHIAN - Reports new natural snow but calls it -0". They received about an inch or officially .7"

BEECH MOUNTAIN - 3" of New Snow! Talia will tell you when it snow! Beech is also showing 17° this morning so bundle up!

CATALOOCHEE - They do their report the night before so there's no word from Tammy Brown just yet on how much snow fell. So I hopped over to the Haywood County Tourism pages and Twitter to see how much they are reporting and they are reporting 14"! Problem is their MOST RECENT report was back in 2011!

Officially according to CocoRahs they saw .7"

SUGAR MOUNTAIN - 3" of snow at Sugar Mountain. Powder baby!

WOLF RIDGE - .5" (They are reporting 5" on the season but they've had 11.2" on the season officially.)

BRYCE RESORT - 3.5" (It was snowing hard in VA when we were driving through!)

MASSANUTTEN - 2" of new snow

HOMESTEAD - 5" in last two days. 1-2" since yesterday!

WINTERGREEN - 3"

Most resorts are standing "pat" on the trails they had open on Wednesday. Everyone is making snow so take your goggles with you!

WISP - 8 of 32 (Tubing, Ice Skating Open)

SNOWSHOE - 31 of 60 (Making snow on Cupp!)
TIMBERLINE - 7 of 40
WINTERPLACE - 15 of 27 (Tubing open)

APP - 9 of 12 (Ice skating open)
BEECH - 7 of 15 ( Ice skating open)
CAT - 10 of 17
SAPPHIRE - 2 of 2
SUGAR - 9 of 20 (Ice skating & Tubing open)
WOLF - 4 of 22 (Tubing open)

BRYCE - 4 of 8 (Tubing open)
MASSANUTTEN - 2 of 14 (Tubing open) (They had not updated as of 8am)
HOMESTEAD - 2 of 10
WINTERGREEN - 1 of 26 (More coming soon!)

OBER - 3 of 9 (Tubing open)

WOW YOU GUYS DO READ THIS STUFF!

Before I wrap up let me say that it was cool to see Brad representin' SkiNC/SkiSoutheast wearing that old-school SkiNC tee. Brad we'll get you a new one!  Also sorry to hear he was under the weather a bit on Christmas day; but glad he was doing better on Wednesday.

Brad will provide another video forecast on Friday AM and it is also looking snowy!

Be sure to check it out at: http://www.skisoutheast.com/video-forecast.php

ON TO TODAY...

Thanks for all of the very kind emails in response to my novel on Wednesday. It was LONG is all I can say about it - but it kind of had to be, to accomplish what I felt was needed yesterday. The weather was a crazy strange beast yesterday. I left Banner Elk at 8am headed to West Virginia and when I left we were seeing light rain - after rain had fallen all night. I saw Tweets from Watauga Roads talking about some reports of light snow, sleet and some slick roads. As I got into Virginia, around Damascus, the roads became slushy wet with snow, but quickly switched back to light rain once I got to I-81. The temps were around 40° until the first tunnel on I-77 and then we were seeing sleet, slick roads and white ground.

Just past the second tunnel headed north, things changed to snow and the interstate was slowed to 30 mph and we saw the after-effects of nine accidents from vehicles that had lost control and left the highway.

About ten miles north of Princeton, WV the roads cleared even though the temps were hovering around 32°. Lewisburg was relatively mild at 35° with some clearing skies. About 20 miles from Snowshoe, things went to all snow and relatively deep snow on each side of Hwy 219.

At the base of Snowshoe it was back to being a mix of light rain and snow and 33°. Halfway up Snowshoe Drive it went to all snow and 28° and it has done nothing but snow the whole time we've been here so far.

Upon waking this morning I see that 11" of powder has been dumped on the mountain. So AWAY I go. Photos, videos and updates later!

TIME TO GO DO SOME PRODUCT EVALUATING!

To really be the best reporter that I can be - I MUST leave you now and do some product evaluation! I am staying Highland House in that LONE condo that has the huge deck/balcony that is right on the slopes. Watching the snowmobiles and groomers pass by all evening has me ready to hit the slopes.

Therefore this report will be shorter than the novel that I wrote on Wednesday. If you missed it and need to burn some daylight, remember that you can ALWAYS see all of the blogs/updates archived for about 6-8 years or so at: http://www.skisoutheast.com/articles_4071_WINTER-SAVING-WEATHER-WHETHER-THE-WEATHER-WILL-COOPERATE.html?archived=false&type=all&subtype=firsttrax

Email me your thoughts and reactions at: mike@skisoutheast.com

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