There was a lot of snowmaking accomplished since Thursday and Friday across the region and that is good news as the transformation from thin to nice coverage is amazing! We say it all of the time but it bears repeating – our snowmaking crews of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic are simply THE BEST in the entire country.
Check the slope conditions page for further details, but we thought we’d take you guys on a little tour of each of the resorts that are open this morning and show you:
a) The difference in base depths over the last 24 hours – to show how much snow was put down.
b) The difference in temps from just 24 hours earlier (8am Saturday morning).
Before we dive in, the temps have now risen a bit as expected, so the snow guns are off until Thursday or so in the North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia mountains…and until perhaps Tuesday around Snowshoe, Timberline, Winterplace and Wisp Resorts. So get out to YOUR favorite mountain (the ones that are open this early) and make some turns with NO SNOW GUNS running!
Here we go:
Snowshoe Mountain – 27° this morning (it was 12° 24 hours earlier) and they are reporting the same 10-20" base as they showed Saturday morning. However much like st Sugar Mountain, Snowshoe was focusing snowmaking on portions that were not running yesterday. In fact, they opened an eighth trail and fourth lift, Whiffletree and Ballhooter respectively, will open today. Snowmaking continued throughout the night last night and will continue as long as temperatures allow. The following slopes are groomed and open: Heisler Way, Whistlepunk, Skidder, Crosscut, Spruce Glades, Tailtree, WHIFFLETREE and Powdermonkey. Open lifts: Skidder, Powdermonkey, BALLHOOTER and Grabhammer. Four (4) terrain park features as well.
(Rob Story shared a great trail report from Snowshoe and you can read that under his "The Real Story" column on the front page.)
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 35° this morning (it was 19° 24 hours earlier) and they are showing a base of 12-24" this morning (up 2-6" from yesterday) and are riding on 3 trails with 2 lifts operating. They have 6 Terrain Park features open! Lodge opens at 8 am and slopes are open at 9 am. Ice skating is open as well!
Cataloochee Ski Area – 32° this morning (it was 18° 24 hours earlier) and they are reporting a base of 22-30" this morning (up 6-8" from yesterday) and they have opened another trail for today. That makes 4 trails open for day skiing only today. Cat will be closed Monday-Thursday this week as they are still operating under their earlier season scheduling.
Sugar Mountain – 42° this morning (it was 15° 24 hours earlier!) and they are reporting the same 8-24" that they were showing 24 hours earlier. However, I was up at Sugar on Saturday and they were definately focusing snowmaking on areas that they has not made snow prior…so they certainly blasted a lot of snow in the last 24 hours. Sugar is operating on 5 trails today for day and NIGHT SKIING as well. (We have some great video to share with you guys from Sugar on Saturday and we’ll try to get that running later so check back this afternoon!)
That’s it from the resorts that are open. We can tell you that Hawksnest Resort made a fair amount of snow to put their first coverage on their hill. They are shooting to open their tubing hill first (next weekend weather permitting) and then the slopes. They are showing 43° this morning (it was 22° 24 hours earlier)
Bryce Resort in Virginia made some significant snow since Friday and they are working towards getting open ASAP.
Wintergreen Resort made snow great snow since Friday and even though they are not open yet, they look pretty sweet this morning. It won’t be long until Wintergreen’s patrons are rewarded with good coverage.
There’s been no snowmaking as yet at Ski Beech, Wolf Ridge, or Sapphire Valley in North Carolina. There’s been no word from Massanutten or The Homestead in Virginia.
In the West Virginia and Maryland areas…while Snowshoe is the first to get open, Winterplace has been making snow and will be blasting the slopes at every opportunity this week. Wisp Resort in Maryland has made a lot of snow lately and portions of their mountain looks to be ready to open. Expect more snowmaking from them Tuesday-Thursday of this week.
THE WEATHER AHEAD…
The weather for this next few days looks like the "Tale of Two Areas" as the ski resorts further north into West Virginia and Maryland look to be picking up the colder air that will allow them to make snow earlier in the week. Sunday and Monday look too mild for snowmaking with some rain in the forecast on Monday…after some light SNOW tonight. Beginning on Tuesday their night time temps should allow for some GREAT snowmkaing each night through the rest of the week.
Further South:
Our "team meteorologists" will certainly provide more detailed information for us this week, but it looks pretty much like the really cold (snowmaking) air will stay away from us until sometime at least Thursday with SOME snowmaking ops on Thursday and Friday nights, but the consistent cold does not look promising until December 2nd or 3rd as we reported yesterday. There appears to be a good chance of a blast of winter temps coming to our area the first week of December and THAT is when we’ll see resorts really kicking into action.
So get out and enjoy the resorts that are open. Today will be the best conditions as a little rain is expected Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday should be nice but mild.
See you on the slopes…
Until Next Time…
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