Let’s get right to it. You guys wanna hear about the snow; where it fell, which resorts have powder, and how much snow fell – right?
Before we get to that let’s also throw in that it IS COLD out this morning! I had to DIG my truck out this morning and pull at least a FOOT of snow off my windshield. Doing that in 13° temperatures and a bit of wind is always fun! However for those digging out up at Beech and Sugar where the temperatures are hovering around 3° this morning has to be brutal. We’ll take the bad with the good and the GREAT news is that the weather gurus were all wrong yesterday. The National Weather Service, Ray Russell, and even our meteorologist buddy Matthew East ALL under-estimated how much snow was going to fall since Sunday morning. All of those just mentioned forecasted 2-4" to no more than 5-7" and I am happy to report that Ski Beech is reporting FIFTEEN INCHES of snow! Gil Adams of Ski Beech is a reporting member of the Community Collaborative Snow Network (they report on rainfall as well) and he has not reported in just yet this AM, but it is a safe bet that once he does report in – that Ski Beech have received MORE SNOW on March 1st, than within the entire month of February (when 14.5" officially fell)! That 15" yesterday (and it is STILL SNOWING by the way!) takes Ski Beech to 67.8" on the season and 85% of their full average season total of 80" and they have a few weeks left!
BIG SNOW HITS THE SOUTHERN TIER OF SKI AREAS
The theme for today could be that the ski areas in Virginia all nearly DOUBLED their seasonal natural snow totals on Sunday! Wintergreen Resort had previously seen only 12" on the season and yesterday received 10" of snow!
FIFTEEN INCHES of snow fell atop Ski Beech’s 5,506′ elevations and Sugar reported 10" one ridge over.
The big buzz of the morning comes from tons of people calling and emailing us that they have snow knee deep at their location. Yes, snow drifts are very deep and there’s no question that we can report some snow drifts more than ARMPIT deep. But the official snow tallies are impressive enough!
The further north we look, the less snowfall came from this system. Actually THAT was the prediction early on, but then all of the weather gurus changed up early on Sunday and the impression was that the West Virginia resorts would again hog all the snow. That’s not what happened as this snow system really dumped on the North Carolina and Virginia resorts. Even Ober Gatlinburg pulled 2" of snow out of the system and that topped any WV report.
Blowing Rock (home to Appalachian Ski Mountain) officially reported 8" of snow according the CoCoRaHS network. One of the official reporting stations is in Mars Hill, home to Wolf Ridge Resort and they are reporting 4" of new snow.
As we mentioned, several of the local and state weather gurus all stuck close to what the NWS was forecasting with Ray Russell of RaysWeather fame forecasted 2-4" early on Sunday morning. Around 11am or so he updated it to forecast MUCH MORE. It was bombing snow by that time! Admit it, we ALL love it when these guys are wrong…
Let’s get to the resort by resort details because we know that’s what you’re here for:
Wisp Resort – 5° – Reporting NO new snow – 29 trails open Until 5pm – Groomed/Granular conditions – 18-57" base and 112" of snow on the season. Wisp is playing host to the Maryland Olympics Winter Games Today.
Canaan Valley – 16° – A TRACE of new snow and 172" on the season! – They have 24 trails open for DAY SKIING only today and great skiing.
Timberline Resort – 16° – No new snow and 172" on the season! – They have 29 trails open for DAY SKIING only today.
Snowshoe Mountain – 3° – 1" of new snow reported and 185" on the season! – They made snow overnight and have 59 trails open for your pleasure!
Winterplace Resort – 10° – 1" of new snow and 73" on the season – They did not make snow but have Groomed / Packed Powder conditions on 100% of their terrain – 28 trails.
Wintergreen Resort – 9° – 10" of new snow and 22" on the season! They nearly doubled their seasonal snowfall in one day. They are reporting 50-70" of base and DAY SKIING ONLY on 25 trails. Anne Marie writes, "Big storm overnight has dropped 10+ inches of snow on our mountain. Skiing and riding conditions will be great today! Big Acorn and all of Highlands were groomed before the snow started providing great powder conditions for advanced skiers and riders. The next 3 weekends are packed full of activities: Slopestyle, Rail Jam and The Slide and Splash Bash! All of the cold weather this winter has allowed us to pile up snow on our core trails in anticipation of skiing and riding all the way through to the Slide and Splash Bash on the 21st of March. If you like skiing and riding in March, Wintergreen will have snow for you! "
Massanutten Resort – 17° – 7" of new snow! That nearly DOUBLES their previous snowfall for the entire season and they have now seen 15" on the season. They are 100% open with all 14 trails.
The Homestead – 18° – 6" of new snow and 22" on the season. They are open with 3 of 5 trails open today.
Bryce Resort – No new snow – no snowmaking but they are 100% open with all 8 trails
Ober Gatlinburg – 19° – 2" of new snow – 6 of 8 trails with Groomed / Powder conditions – 54-82" base and they have now seen 21" of snow on the season. Ober also MADE SNOW which signals that they are planning to remain open for a bit. It is "Ladies Night Tonight" and Ober invites you guys to Join them next Sunday for Spring Fling!
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 18° – 8" of new snow – 80-105" base – 100% open all 8 trails – No Snowmaking – Both terrain parks are open and ice skating. Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 42"
Cataloochee Ski Area – NA° – 6" of new snow – 46-93" base – 100% open for DAY SKIING ONLY on Monday’s with 14 trails – TUBING IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 44"
Ski Beech – 3° – 15" of new snow! – 42-80" base – 13 trails open with POWDER conditions – Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 67.8" You had to like Beech’s tone this morning as they said that the Piston Bullies were smiling going out this morning to groom! S-W-E-E-T!
Wolf Ridge Resort – 6° – 4" of new snow! – 44-68" base – 11 trails open with Powder Conditions! – Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 46" Tubing is reportedly open as well!
Sugar Mountain – Man SOMEONE is really screwing around with these guys as for the second day in the last week, Sugar’s website is now pointing to "Business Ethics" website. I want to go on record to say:
1. I think it is pretty lame that someone is doing this to these guys.
2. We’ve had our issues with the management over there, but I, nor anyone within our organization knows anything about this scenario, nor has had anything to do with it and my entire staff will take a lie detector test to prove it! (Unless they know what’s going on over there, there are probably some that would speculate that we had something to do with this. Not so.)
3. Whomever IS doing this, we invite you to contact us under anonymity as we’d love to hear your story.
According to the NC Ski Areas report, Sugar is reporting 10" of new snow and based on our travels late last evening, we’d say that’s pretty darn conservative reporting on their part! They are reporting 20 trails open and ice skating is open as well. Tubing is closed for the day. 2008-2009 Seasonal Snowfall: 60"
SAPPHIRE IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE SEASON…
Sapphire Valley Ski Area – 2" of snow and 7" on the season. We called over there to let them know that they had not updated their ski report since keyboards were invented, and the young guy that took my call said, "Dude we’re DONE for the year. Closed down, no tubing, no skiing, we’re done." It’s official – they’re done for the season. Of course their ski report shows 2 slopes open…but it’s been saying that since February 13th. Maybe they’ll do better next season.
Lots more is happening around the region…Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
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