By all accounts it was one BUSY weekend. Several people emailed about crowds around the region and one On-Snow Reporter said that the yellow and green lift lines at Sugar on Saturday MET each other back to back at the bottom. Another reported that people were parking by Alpine Ski Center and WALKING. Now THAT is a huge crowd! That’s what great conditions and natural snow will do! We’re going to dive right in to the notes from around the state…and you guys have a great day out on the slopes!
APPALACHIAN: We have to take our hats off to Brad Moretz and his mountain ops as they have done the usual great job this season of keeping their slopes in primo shape even during some of the testier times of this season. Also, they have kept the maximum base depths real this year. There’s definitely a number of areas across all nine trails where they have some 5+ feet of snow! They picked up a little more natural snow overnight last night and made snow as well and are skiing on Packed Powder again today. Great conditions for President’s Day Monday!
CATALOOCHEE: Great conditions at The Cat on Monday as they too picked up a little more snow and made snow as well. Cat is 100% open and they will DAY SKI ONLY today and their tubing park is open until 6pm. Also as is the norm with Cataloochee, they will begin their late season operating schedule on March 5th. Tammy Brown wrote, “As many of you know, we were the first ski area in
Cataloochee will operate on a regular operating schedule until March 5th and then they will be closed on Mondays. Tuesday’s through Fridays they will ski from 1pm to 10pm each day. They will open on Saturdays and Sunday for day skiing only from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
More on Cataloochee –
In conjunction with Oldies Radio 96.5, Cataloochee brings back the ever-popular, best deal of the year $96.50 Midweek Season Pass
HAWKSNEST – Ski Hawksnest picked up another 2” of snow overnight and they will be skiing and riding 11 of 12 slopes and trails and they have their sweet tubing hill open as well. Hawksnest has a great base of 25-58” and conditions should be sweet today!
SKI BEECH: They too received more snow overnight. Gil Adams who handles the ski patrol and marketing duties up there always does a conservation measuring of snow reported 1” or so of snow and three On-Snow Reporters who live on Beech reported closer to 2” so that’s what we’re going to report. That 2” put Ski Beech over the 60” mark on natural snow this season and 5” of snow over the weekend. They still had a fair amount laying around from the 16” of last week, so conditions are in very nice shape up there. Beech is 100% open and they have been making snow in selected areas as well.
WOLF LAUREL: Orville English and Rick Bussey have it going on up at Wolf Laurel this season. Conditions are in great shape right now with 12 trails operating on a groomed base and they also received a little more snow overnight which will certainly delight the President’s Day crowd.
One more crowded day on the slopes today guys and gals and then we’ll have the slopes to ourselves for the week. Okay…not REALLY, but things will certainly SEEM that way after a HUGE weekend. I’m STAYING pat with my prediction that SEVERAL ski areas across the state and the Southeast will break single season attendance records this year.
Have fun out there people!
Until Next Time!
Be sure to check out www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news and stories for all of the Southeast’s ski areas.
Be sure to email photos, snow reports and comments to: [email protected]