The closing days for all of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas are upon us. Sugar Mountain and Massanutten closed for the season after day skiing on Tuesday. That leaves only Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock and Cataloochee is Maggie Valley open in the state of North Carolina. Both resorts plan to close on Sunday, March 30th.
Massanutten’s closure on Tuesday means that no Virginia ski area is open now. The most open terrain in the region is found in West Virginia and Maryland. Snowshoe Mountain is still offering 32 trails, Wisp Resort offers 28, Winterplace has 27, and Timberline is playing on 26 trails today!
All but Timberline Resort in West Virginia plan to close this Sunday, March 30th. (Timberline is still going until April 6th!)
Mostly sunny skies and golf, tennis, and rafting promoting temperatures are forecasted for today through the long range forecasting period. Highs are expected to get to 60° today, and mid 60s for Thursday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday should drop back into the low to mid 50s. So it will be a shorts and sleeves kind of closing weekend and that should make for some real fun at many of the resorts that plan to end things with a bang. Several have pond skimming and other events planned and conditions will be very nice for those of you who just want to make a few extra turns and perhaps even be the last skiers or snowboarders off of your favorite hill.
Snowshoe Mountain has the most terrain open in the region with 32 trails for day skiing today. They have some fun planned as well for this closing weekend. They call it their "Last Hurrah" weekend and Click here to see> Snowshoe Mountain Last Hurrah Weekend
SNOW TOTALS CHANGE…
Yesterday we reported that Snowshoe had been under reporting their natural snowfall all season long and we emailed that to Snowshoe’s Communications gal, Laura Parquette. Joe Stevens also called me after reading our story and he agreed that he had added up the official reporting station totals and found that Snowshoe was some 12-15" off. Greg Dobson of Asheville, who regularly contributes to this website had shared the NWS official data and found that Snowshoe was under reporting. That made Laura go back and check their math and they are now reporting 127" on the season.
She posted this statement on their own website this morning, "You might notice a little jump in our snow total #s. With 5 days left, this isn’t a marketing ploy, but rather my lack of mathematical skills being called to my attention. Thanks to Mike and the guys at Skisoutheast.com for motivating me to recalculate our numbers!"
Snowshoe does a great job of "keeping things real" as they not only under reported snowfall all season, they were one of the few resorts to detail "thin coverage and bare spots" in their daily reports all season long and trust me when I say when they are at Snowshoe, they’re most everywhere else as well.
We are STILL reporting more snowfall for Snowshoe than they are detailing as we are going with the official reporting station’s figures of 132" on the season.
For those keeping up with the math, that means that Snowshoe has seen the following snow tallies over the last few seasons:
2007-2008: 132"
2006-2007: 122"
2005-2006: 179"
Timberline Resort has 26 trails open for today with Groomed conditions.
Winterplace has 27 trails open, snowtubing and their terrain park for today.
Wisp Resort has 28 trails, snowtubing and terrain parks open for today. They have tons of fun planned for their closing weekend as well. There’s comedy, pond skimming and even some free food available this weekend!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Location: Wispers Bar
Fee: $15 Per Person – Tickets available online or by phone (301.387.4911). Limited Quantities! Featuring Big Ben Kennedy and Headliner Phil Hogan. The Baltimore based comedy, Big Ben Kennedy, has shared the stage with the likes of Jeff Dunham, Pauly Shore, Darrell Hammond, Jim Florentine, and many others. Kennedy has also appeared in the movies "The Replacements" (Warner Brothers), "Major League II" (20th Century Fox), and "The Money Shot" (Independent). Hogan is a comic/guitarist, originally from North Carolina, has opened for the likes of Jeff Foxworthy, Carrot Top, Jerry Reed, Lee Roy Parnell, and many others. Hogan has also headlined many prestigious venues, including "Carnival Cruise Lines," "Chaplins," and "Stardome Comedy Club."
*Show contains strong adult content, no one under the age of 18 permitted without parent/guardian.
The free food is in the form of free appetizers at DC’s in the main lodge building. This weekend if you purchase an entree at the restaurant, they will give you a free appetizer of your choice! Trust me, they have some amazing crab dishes and mouth watering entrees at that place!
The REAL fun is Sunday, March 30th when Wisp will close the season with a Pond Skim of their own!
They will do it at 1 PM at the Bear Claw Tubing Park. There’s a $15 Entry Fee for Ages 13 & up; $10 Entry fee for ages 12 & under. Cross the man-made pond or take the icy plunge on skies or board! Spectators Welcome! Take your cameras!
Appalachian has their Meltdown Games this weekend. They will have big air comps, trash bag / downhill races, a cardboard box derby, a high ollie contest, a pond skimming and costume contest and something that they call a "Chinese Downhill".
Check out the full details by clicking here> Appalachian Ski Mountain’s Meltdown Games
Appalachian is 100% open for day skiing only today. They were doing some fancy grooming yesterday, cutting what appeared to be the start of a superpipe or something. This morning it appears that they have smoothed that into a substantial jump right in the midst of the main hill.
Cataloochee Ski Area – They have 5 trails open from 1pm-10pm today and today is also "Family Day at Cataloochee" when a child 17 and under will receive a free lift ticket with the purchase of a adult twilight or night lift ticket. That’s a sweet little deal although many will tell you that every day is family day at the Cat.
ALL VIRGINIA SKI AREAS HAVE CEASED SNOW OPS FOR THE SEASON…
We received a few emails about Wintergreen Resort still being open and we’re guessing some of you got that idea from the SSAA website at Southeastski.com (not to be confused with this www.SkiSoutheast.com website). They are incorrectly reporting Wintergreen as still open. Actually Massanutten was the last Virginia ski area to close and they did that after ski sessions on Tuesday.
Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
Send your snow photos, videos, comments or emails to: [email protected]