IT’S SNOWING! It came in a little later than some were forecasting, but it is now SNOWING! Before we get to the weather…
First, I want to apologize for lying yesterday. I feel like Forrest Gump this morning. You know "Momma says that I should never tell a lie. She’s washed my mouth out with soap for that."
Well I didn’t MEAN to tell a lie. Yesterday afternoon we awarded only ONE of the three ski vacation getaways that we intended to post and give away on Wednesday. I also had a weatlh of Summit News that we HAVE to get the news out about for this weekend and for the SkiSoutheast.com / Snowshoe Summit coming up on March 6-8th. I told all of you guys on Wednesday to check back later in the afternoon and I’d be posting all of the above. However, an important client had some major issues that needed my attention and that blew the entire afternoon. So I never got around to posting the other two vacation giveaways OR the Summit updates. My apologies to all of you who probably sat around refreshing your browsers to see if we’d posted new contest or Summit information. I guess that is a strange way to prompt a ton of pageviews into our statistics package. With all of the crazy traffic that we get every day (and especially on a snowy day) we don’t need the pageviews…but that’s how it goes around here. We have to give our clients our undivided attention occasionally and such was the case on Wednesday afternoon.
Having humbly apologized – I’ll see if we can’t do better today and to make it up to you guys – we will be posting not TWO Ski Vacation Getaways for you to win – but FOUR! How’s that? We will have that information posted as the day progresses today! (Unless another important client needs our attention!)
We are also posting a TON of new information first about the HUGE SkiNC gathering at Ski Beech this Saturday. We have LOTS to share with you guys about that event that comes up in two days. We will be adding a new story post by lunchtime today to cover those events. For now –
WE INVITE ALL COMERS TO COME AND SKI AND RIDE WITH SKINC AT SKI BEECH THIS SATURDAY AND SKI OR RIDE FOR HALF PRICE!
There’s lot of other reasons to be there Saturday and we’ll be sharing all we have on the subject TODAY so check back.
WE ARE ALSO ONLY SIXTEEN DAYS AWAY FROM THE SKISOUTHEAST.COM / SNOWSHOE SUMMIT on March 6th-8th and we are posting a cool invitation that Laura Parquette sent us to share with you guys. We really want to BLOW UP that event so we some incentives to share with you about that cool event and AGAIN – we’ll be posting all we have on that – later today. So AGAIN, keep checking back= throughout the day for lots on that great event as well!
THE NEWS THAT NEEDS TO BE SHARED THIS MORNING…
Temperatures are cold this morning across the entire region and we’re seeing light to moderate snow falling at pretty much all of the ski areas that we’ve checked on thus far this morning. We’ll share what each area is expecting in the way of weather, snow etc and to do that we’re going to go right into the morning tour of the region. To save time, we’re combining today’s news for all of the ski areas and shuffling the order in which we typically display the information. We’ll update you as we have additional news or information about the weather.
Suffice to say that today will be variable in terms of surface conditions with yesterday being such a rain day followed by the quick drop in temps. Now that snow is falling, things should be pretty good all across the region. With VERY COLD temps forecasted for most of the next several days, all of the ski areas that wish to make snow we’ll be able to do so – so conditions will be AWESOME from Friday forward. Here we do with the details:
Ski Beech – 22°- Their on mountain weather station is reporting 45° but it is malfunctioning. They are making snow and receiving natural snow right now. They have 11 slopes open and tubing as well. 2" or more of snow is in the forecast for today with some light snow expected this weekend. The forecast for Saturday (the SkiNC / Ski Beech Summit day) is for highs to be a little more in the normal range (42°) with lows in the mid 20s. So things should be very nice for all of the fun planned. More to come later today on Summit News…
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 34° – They are 100% open with super conditions. They are getting some light snow and may see anywhere from a dusting to an inch today. App has a great deal going right now. You can Ski Free Through March 29th with the Purchase of a 2009-10 Season Membership. 2009-10 Season Memberships are now on sale – anyone purchasing next year’s membership now can ski free for the rest of THIS season. Appalachian’s members also have the benefit of a first preview night for new and sale items the night before Appalachian’s annual Tent Sale and Ski Swap. You can check that out by clicking here> Appalachian Ski Mountain Season Pass
Cataloochee Ski Area – 27° – After 3" of wet snow/mix fell on Tuesday night and Wednesday, Cat is getting a light snow this am. They may see an inch of snow today with highs in the mid 30s. They are 100% with tubing open as well and groomed conditions. They made snow overnight as well.
Sugar Mountain – 20° – It is snowing this morning and as much as 2" is in the forecast for today. They are making snow right now and have all 20 trails open as well as ice skating. The tubing park is closed today for snowmaking but will reopen on Friday. Sugar is hosting a Spyder Sample sale that begins today! Receive 30% off all 2009-10 Spyder Sample items. Quantities and sizes are limited, so go early. Additionally you’ll receive up to 60% off other Spyder Sample items. You won’t find this kind of a sale anywhere else!
Wolf Ridge Resort – 21° – We don’t see any evidence of snowmaking this morning. However Wolf should be in good condition and they are expecting up to 2" of snow today. They have 11 trails open and tubing as well.
Wrapping up the NC Resorts….
Ski Sapphire – Closed on Thursdays…
Hawksnest Tubing Park – Closed today. This time for "possible windy conditions". I guess since they are a tubing only playground these days, they can open or close at the drop of a hat. They’ve done that throughout this season, opting to close when it’s windy, drizzly, the sun’s too bright or when one of their guests has a cold or anything. I thought they’d be making snow because it is cold enough and it looks like they could use some. They are not making snow at this time.
Let’s continue up the eastern seaboard…kind of…as we next drop over and down a little bit to cover the lone Smoky Mountain ski area…
Ober Gatlinburg – 33° – They are seeing a mix of rain and snow but no accumulation is expected today 🙁 They have 6 trails open with Groomed and Loose Granular Conditions.
COVERING THE VIRGINIA RESORTS NEXT…
Wintergreen Resort – 30° – They are seeing some flurries here and there but milder temps later today than the resort north and south of them. The high today should be around 37° and breezy. Lows tonight and over the days ahead to allow for more snowmaking. They were hit a little hard with the rains yesterday and they also are experience some issues with the "Big Acorn" lift and it is closed today and thus they have dropped to 14 trails open today. With the great snowmaking weather coming in tonight and over the next couple of days they will reopen some of the closed trails and be in great shape for the weekend.
Massanutten Resort – 38° – As you can tell, it is simply milder in Virginia today. Therefore no snow or snowmaking here today. They WILL get back to making snow tonight! Woo hoo! They are still 100% open today and really looking VERY nice today.
Bryce Resort – 39° – No snowmaking here in a few days, but they are 100% open with all 8 trails and really looking nice.
The Homestead – No Report.
WEST VIRGINIA SKI RESORTS…
Snowshoe Mountain – 22° – As you can tell it is colder into WV. They made snow overnight and picked up another 3" of natural snow in the last 24 hours – making for some SWEET conditions for today! Snow is in the forecast there for the next four days! That gives Snowshoe 161" on the season and the region’s largest ski resort is expecting another 4" of snow today! They are open with 59 trails today, snow tubing, snow mobiling, terrain parks and about anything else you want to do in the snow!
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK IN JUST A BIT FOR A GREAT INVITATION VIDEO BY LAURA PARQUETTE OF SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN for the SkiSoutheast.com / Snowshoe Summit coming up in 15 days! More news coming today!
Canaan Valley Resort – 27° – David C. Lesher up that way has a GREAT snow and weather resource as an official weather reporter. He shares that they have received another 2.3" of snow in the last 24 hours and 6.7" of snow in the last five days – with some measurable snow falling each of those days! They now have 153.4" on the season! Canaan’s David Vance shares that they should see another 3-5" of snow today! That will make for some CRAZY conditions on the 24 trails they have open!
Check back later today as we’re going to announce TWO GREAT SKI GETAWAYS that we are giving away up there!
Timberline Resort – 26° – Ditto Canaan’s snow totals and add in a little manmade snow (on White Lightning) and you’ll get Timberline’s 30 trails of Wet Packed snow and groomed conditions!
Winterplace Resort – 28° – They got a TRACE of snow but are expected a bit more today and this weekend! They are 100% open with all 28 trails and snow tubing to boot. The low tonight should dip to 12° setting up some awesome snowmaking ops as well!
MARYLAND’S LONE RESORT …
Wisp Report – 26° – They picked up another 1" of snow and have edged to within 1" of their TOTAL average seasonal snow total of 100". They should get that today! Wisp is open with 29 trails and groomed/hard packed conditions.
That’s it for now. Check back periodically throughout the next few hours as we post tons of new information about the Summits, contests, announcements and more. It will be a busy day!
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