– Story by Will Mauney
Good Morning everyone, it’s February 18th 2010 and another beautiful day in my neighborhood. And by beautiful I mean it’s cold and snowy once again. If you’re like and you moved to the mountains from the flat land, you did so in the hope that each winter season would bring huge amounts of snow. We have been let down for the past several years and the ski industry and my hopes of an epic snow season were suffering during those seasons. Finally we are finding out how great skiing and snowboarding in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic really is.
With more snow falling at Beech, Sugar, Canaan Valley, Timberline, Wolf Ridge, Snowshoe, and Wisp, these resorts as well as the others are looking like western resorts typically do around this time. We have a huge snow pack in Western North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia right now. There are a few notables this morning as far as 24 hour snowfall. Snowshoe received another 8 inches overnight. Sugar Mountain is reporting 7 inches and our CoCoRaHs report from Beech showed another 5.7 inches of fresh pow. This is that light snow that we all love.
Beech Mountain will host our SkiNC.com Summit on February 20th 2010. This Saturday we have 179 confirmed guests that will enjoy epic conditions, prizes and giveaways. There is nothing better than to get some BIG DISCOUNTS ON SKIING, meet and make turns with some new friends! Beech Mountain Resort has always been very kind to our summit attendees and last year really kicked things up a huge notch. We KNOW you’ll have a great time and you can get some great vacations, hoodies, stickers, tshirts and more – while helping a great cause. With the economy being what it is, there is NO PRESSURE to donate to these charities. If you want, simply come and enjoy some great eats and drinks, hang out and meet some new fellow ski enthusiasts and ski FOR HALF PRICE. Go to the messageboard, join, and attend! It’s not too late.
Show up and meet up with SkiNC Messageboard Members and Staff for some great turns on the slopes! Look for the SkiNC Banners at the Entrance to The View Haus. Let’s meet and hit the slopes! Lisa, Lauren, Andrea, Chase, Jonathan and Gary (members of the SkiNC staff) will all the there – as well as "Adm1n / Mike" – so come and join us for some turns!
My buddy Dayne Anderson with 4Front skis will be set up at near the quad to give away some POW Gloves and allow our summit attendees to demo skis that can be purchased at Ski Country Sports for a discounted price. He’s also got a couple of autographed C.R. Johnson posters to get rid of as well. SkiNC will have a few sets of skis to giveaway along with a custom SkiNC Snowboard and 12 vacation packages!
The inaugural Shreddin the Love Benefit features a slopestyle and boardercross beginning at 12:00 and 2:00 p.m., respectively; registration takes place from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in The Beech Tree Bar & Grille. Simultaneously, a cookout and live music will be featured on the View Haus deck starting at 12:00 p.m., and children’s activities—including face painting, inflatables and ice skating—will be offered between 12:00 and 5:00 p.m.
SkiNC.com will host an auction starting at 4:30 p.m., featuring vacation vouchers, season passes, snowboard and ski gear and gift certificates. During the auction, attendees will have a chance to win a custom snowboard. Free ice skating will be offered between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., but participants are encouraged to make a donation to B4BC and the American Cancer Society. To honor cancer victims and survivors, the event will include a luminary lighting ceremony at 8:00 p.m. Luminaries will be sold all day to attendees, which they can purchase in honor of a loved one affected by the disease.
These events will start at 12pm on Saturday and go until 10:30pm. At 9:30 p.m., Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band and Native Sway will headline a benefit concert in The Beech Tree Bar & Grille. Admission is $7 per person. The event concludes at 10:30 p.m. with a fireworks display. All proceeds from the day’s events will benefit B4BC, the American Cancer Society and Lees-McRae Relay for Life.
Some other notables, Sugar Mountain will feature blue grass by Boss Hawg on Saturday and the Crescent Ski Council Competion on Sunday.
Snowshoe Mountain presents Subaru Master of the Mountain. This is round two of the season. Get a chance to tour the mountain with ski patrol, take mini-lessons from Ski and Snowboard School, and check out some new things at Subaru.
Wisp Resort will host The Maryland Open/USASA Snowboard Comp featuring boardercross/skier cross, slopestyle and slalom events this weekend.
Appalachian Resort’s last Midnight Blast Night is this weekend along with their Shred for the Cup Big Air event on Saturday.
So these are just a few of the fun things happening across the Southeast and Mid Atlantic. Be sure to check your resort website for upcoming events and activities and get up to ski or ride as soon as you can.
We’re on day 80 and there are 57 more days of opportunities to enjoy the snow for the 2009-2010 ski and snowboarding season!
That’s it for today. Go enjoy the snow! Check out the Snow Report at https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php and please send us your favorite ski photos, ski videos, trip reports and comments to [email protected]