Great Conditions and Memorable COLD stretch in our Forecast!

First Trax

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Temps are in the teens and twenties as I viewed the weather stations dotted around the region this morning and that of course means added manmade powder for all ski areas. Some areas picked up another small bit of natural snow accumulation on Tuesday before the sun broke through. It will be another Chamber of Commerce / Marketing Department kind of day to be skiing or snowboarding no matter where YOUR favorite ski hill is on this gorgeous day to be alive!

I was up early knocking out the snow report for the region and filming a time-lapse view of an awesome sunrise that was coming up, viewed from the back deck of the gorgeous ski rental that I’m in this week when all of sudden that sweet sunrise became clouded over with what appears to be snow clouds.

We haven’t heard from Meteorologist Brad Panovich yet for today so we’re awaiting HIS take on the approaching snow/winter storm but according to all the other resources available to us, we’re in for more snow and cold with highs in the low to mid 30s, dropping to highs in the teens by Sunday for the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Add a few more inches in the way of accumulation into the West Virginia mountains and drop the temps a few degrees and you have the forecast for that portion of our coverage area.

So things are simply outstanding as far as ski and riding conditions no matter where you point your vehicle. However, as Joe Stevens wrote in his "Joe Knows Snow" column on Tuesday – SHAME ON YOU – if you don’t point your vehicle SOMEWHERE and go take advantage of these outstanding conditions and powder that we are experiencing right now.

I know the long range forecast is for a "MEMORABLE SEVEN DAY COLD SNAP". According to several weather gurus, tomorrow (Thursday) will be the "mildest" day in the next week as temps will put us in a deep freeze for the long range forecast period.

As cold as it has been this week, the arrival of the season’s coldest air will be the call for New Year’s Day, putting us in the deep freeze over the New Year’s weekend, and continuing into much, if not all of the following week!

Some ski areas will see a little more snow than others but there’s not a lot of moisture accompanying this cold stretch as the big news will be the fact that we’re entering a memorably cold 7-day period of weather.

We’ll update you once Brad Panovich provides his views on this system, but regardless it WILL be plenty cold and somewhat snowy for the next week. That means MORE snowmaking and we should see nearly ALL, if not all, ski areas open at 100% in the very near future!

So quit procastinating and make a New Year resolution to get ON THE SNOW more for 2010!

A QUICK THANKS!

I met my ski brother from another mother last evening for a beer or two. I’m vacationing here at beautiful Snowshoe Mountain for my Holiday ski getaway and Bill and his beautiful wife, Jennifer were gracious hosts as we got to spend an hour of so with them at Moonshine on Tuesday. We also had the opportunity to meet Snowshoe’s new Marketing Director Craig Low and revisit a few minutes with Snowshoe’s top notch Media Producer Ed "I get all the best powder shots" Schneider. They have a great crew here at Snowshoe and it shows in their love for the mountain and their passion for talking about this place!

Anyway THANKS to Bill Rock, Craig Low and Laura Parquette for arranging and putting up with me and my crew of nineteen of my closest friends and family members who made the trek and who all have HAD TO PUT UP with these ridiculously horrendous conditions since we’ve been here! (I have a MAJOR sarcasm meter attached to that last statement because ALL it has done since we’ve been here is SNOW!)

Anyway thanks again to those guys. I’ll be back up here next weekend for their annual media weekend and look forward to hanging out a bit more. While on that note, whether you’ve attended our SkiSoutheast.com Summits or just read about them in the past, Snowshoe Mountain will be hosting our 3rd Annual SkiSoutheast.com/ Snowshoe Summit March 5th, 6th and 7th and YOU ARE INVITED! Stay tuned as we will begin bringing you all of the particulars beginning the week of January 4th after Craig, Laura, Bill and I put our heads together. We’ll be doing a lot of what we’ve done in the past (which is have a great time with 150-180 of our closest ski and snowboarding friends) but we’re certain to add a few new wrinkles to the deal. Mark those dates on your calendar and be sure to JOIN US!!!

A quick tour today…

Appalachian Ski Mountain added 4" of new, manmade snow and of course has everything open with awesome conditions. Ice skating and all three terrain parks are available for your winter enjoyment!

Beech Mountain Resort made snow but is focusing that on some of their unopen terrain right now. They offer 12 of 15 trails, tubing and ice skating for today. We’d expect to hear that they are opening more terrain any day now. Don’t forget that Beech has a great New Years Celebration happeing tomorrow. Check it out at http://www.skibeech.com/news/31.html

Cataloochee also added 4" of new manmade powder and is 100% open and add tubing to their fun today!

Wolf Ridge Resort has added three trails to OPEN status and now offer 11 of 20 trails. We’ve received some emails asking about Wolf’s slow start to getting more trails open, but they were 100% open for a few days due to the natural snowfall of two weeks ago. They dropped back to 8 trails but now have 11 open. Here’s Wolf’s morning post: "Its Wednesday morning at the Wolf and 28 degrees with clear skies. We will have 11 incredible ski runs opened today including our world renowned Bowl, 4 lifts in full operation and the terrain park located next to Broadway. The slopes are groomed to perfection and the runs are better than ever. Get here early today and also plan to join us Thursday New Years Eve at 7:00 PM for our first annual Wolf Ridge New Years Eve fire works display at the top Ski Lodge parking lot. See you there !!!"

What are you waiting for?

Wolf has some New Year’s Celebrating of their own and invite you to "…join us Thursday New Years eve at 7:00 PM for our first annual Wolf Ridge New Years Eve fire works display at the top Lodge parking lot. See you here !!!"

It is obvious that Wolf Ridge is trying to really step things up a peg after dealing with some growing pains over the last couple of years. Good job Wolf. Not quite GREAT status yet, but good job.

Sapphire Valley is 100% open which means two trails and their Frozen Falls Tubing hill.

Sugar Mountain is now 100% open with 20 of 20 trails, ice skating and tubing.

Scaly and Hawksnest both offer snow tubing only and great conditions.

That’s it for the North Carolina report for today. To check out all the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas snow report, weather and snow, click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com  and for all of the snow report details at one glance visit https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php  

Send your comments, videos, photos, trip reports and questions to: [email protected]

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