, ‘Bout Dat Base…){kind=link}
Man I’m sore this morning and I WISH I could say that it was from skiing. I’ve been adding some decks onto my home and unfortunately my wife felt that finishing the deck work held a higher priority than skiing right now.
She’s right of course, but I’ve now been invited twice to hit the slopes early and I’ve had to pass up those opportunities. H-o-p-e-f-u-l-l-y soon.
This morning at Sugar from their LIVE Base Cam…
From your emails, I’m kind of glad that I wasn’t able to break away and head over to Sugar for a few runs because according to varied and reliable sources…it was rather sketch at the base by mid morning on Saturday.
One emailer wrote, “Thirty bucks is kind of much for one run really and a good portion of that run was sketch.”
(You now see where I got the “sketch” review from.)
Sugar Mountain last Sunday (Nov 2nd), taken by killglobalwarmingnow from the messageboard.
What a difference a few days make, right.
Here’s my thoughts on that. First, Sugar has TWO runs open…not just one. Second, Sugar and Cataloochee are the ONLY ski areas open and they made a bunch of snow to GET OPEN and that stuff is expensive to make. That is why the industry calls it “white gold”. They can’t GIVE sessions away. They named a price to experience their hill and if you have the ‘Joneses’ enough – you’ll pay the price.
As mentioned earlier, I was not able to break away from my deck building, but from what I understand – there were plenty of “takers” who felt that the conditions were worth the price. If you don’t – then don’t go. End of story.
HERE I GO AGAIN…
Since I led off this morning’s BLOG talking about conditions…I’ll go ahead and throw in this addendum. I’ve been moaning about base depth reporting for nearly two decades now – but this season I get to include a NEW resource who might be able to help me bring a third-party eye on the subject.
Your honor, I call on Meghan Trainor as my expert witness as she knows “ALL ABOUT DAT BASS, ‘BOUT DAT BASS…”
You guys KNEW I was going to e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y go there, right?
While I do defend every ski area’s right to be open no matter what the conditions are like; AND while I think if people are invited to ‘have a look at the slopes before buying a lift pass’ and then decide to do so – that they have no reason to complain; I WILL say it again for the 4,321st time… I don’t think resorts should report a 6-20″ base with some thin coverage. I think the report should read “1-20″ with some thin to bare areas as the day progresses.”
My buddy, Joe Stevens has ALWAYS defended the resorts with his argument that you can’t ski on ZERO, so the resorts are reporting the skiable terrain. Hence 5-20″ or whatever.
However, when there are huge patches in the middle of a slope AND those areas are not marked as off limits or crossed off – then wouldn’t that be more accurately 0-2″?
MOVIN’ ON. (I have more deck work awaiting me…)
Sugar IS reporting an 8-26″ base and they also report, “The slopes DO have some thin areas”, so take note and make your decision – to ski or not to ski – based on that.
Sugar Ticket Rates: Adult Full Day: $35, Adult Half Day: $30, Jr. Full $30, Jr. Half Day: $20
Sugar Mountain will be closed for the night session.
It’s 33° at the base and summit at Sugar Mountain this morning and they ARE making snow as of this post. They made snow overnight.
The highs today will be in the low 40s at the highest elevations today so snowmaking will cease at some point around mid-morning.
CATALOOCHEE DATA
Cataloochee looks pretty good this morning via their BASE CAM…
Today they will be skiing on three trails from mid-station down with two aerial lifts operating on a base of 12-16″ and a machine groomed surface. Today they have one session of skiing offered, day skiing only from 8:30am-4:30pm and pricing will be a special $35 lift ticket rate for adults and $30 lift ticket rate of juniors, for either day or ½ day skiing.
Cataloochee is again offering their “One Run Refund” for guests unhappy with conditions and they will refund your lift ticket after 1 run within 45 minutes of your purchase.
BOTH SKI AREAS offer good skiable/ridable terrain for today and based on what THIS reporter is seeing – we COULD see Cat and Sugar decide to temporarily cease ski ops until colder weather returns…so get it while you can.
The forecast over in Maggie Valley is for temps in the mid 60s and even into the low 70s this week…with NO snowmaking temps until MAYBE Thursday night.
The forecast for this week around Sugar Mountain is for a high today of around 45° and the mid 50s to 62° Monday and Tuesday. There are no snowmaking temps forecasted until Thursday evening when things really take a nose dive (if the current pattern holds).
So unless you’re like me and have some yard work (or deck work) to do…get out and enjoy Sugar Mountain and Cataloochee today.
I appreciate the emails that I received this morning. More eyes on the slopes is a great thing. You guys and gals can really help us show the rest of the world what the conditions are like by sending us your photos and reports. Drop me an email at [email protected] or join our messageboard and post a TRIP REPORT.
I’ll hand you guys back over to Kenny Griffin for this week and until next time…