The calendar may dictate that we are only three days away from Spring, but Mother Nature is making a case for conditions at our ski resorts that look a whole lot like mid January. In fact base depths at some resorts have been on the increase for the last 24-48 hours. Snowshoe Mountain picked up 10” of snow from Friday night through Saturday and several others reported in with 4-6” of snowfall.
All resorts are reporting anywhere from a low of 11° at Snowshoe to 12° at Sugar Mountain, 16° at Wintergreen and 18° at Wisp Resort in Maryland. Those cold temps have convinced Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock, North Carolina and Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, NC to MAKE SNOW! App cranked the guns back up Friday night and left them on all day on Saturday and they continue to blast the slopes with new, manmade snow this morning.
All that adds up to conditions on this Sunday, March 18th that looks a whole lot more like the middle of Winter, than three days prior to Spring!
Get out and ski and ride – and send us some photos to [email protected]
POLLING ALL VISITORS!
We’ve been terrible about polling you guys this season! We posted a poll early on asking about what kind of snow season you thought we’d have and we left it up all season and surely that influenced a lot of mid and end of season votes to say that it would not be a great one! Since we reported and wrote a lot about grooming this season – that we’d poll you guys as to which resort you feel does THE BEST job of grooming some sweet corduroy! We all know that some resorts do a fabulous job and others appear to just get it done. We want to know what YOUR thoughts are as to the best of the best. We don’t have room to include all (18) of the ski areas that we cover, so we picked ten for you guys to vote on. The poll can be found on the front page of the site!
HERE’S SOME DETAILS FOR TODAY!
Wisp at Deep Creek Resort – 18° – They picked up 2” more snow on Saturday and they pushes them to 124” on the season or 24” over their annual average. They are skiing, riding and partying on 30 trails today. In case you missed yesterday’s update, they are playing on the final day of their Beachin’ Weekend today with lots of fun planned!
Canaan Valley – 16° – They picked up three more inches of snow on Saturday (after 3” Friday night) so that’s 6” from the storm that moved through and that has made for some primo conditions for Sunday with 31 trails operating for day skiing only.
Snowshoe Mountain – 11° – After 2” of snow Friday night, Snowshoe picked up 8” of snow on Saturday and it was still snowing as of the early AM report (6am). Lindsay Kutsko wrote, “We’ve had nearly a foot of snow up here this weekend with 8 more inches since yesterday morning and it’s still snowing! All open trails were groomed except for Choker, Knot Bumper and Lower Shays. The base is 32" – 44" with powder and groomed packed powder conditions. The Silver Creek Ski Area will close at 4:30 today as we pull the ropes on another great season at the Creek. Our Mountaintop Beach Party is next weekend.”
Winterplace Resort picked up 2” from Saturday’s snow storm and they are skiing on 28 trails today with what they are calling “groomed loose granular” conditions. They plan to ski and ride through NEXT Sunday, March 25th.
Wintergreen Resort – 16° – It’s only fitting that we promote Wintergreen first among the Virginia resorts today as they are the only Virginia based ski area that will be skiing, riding or tubing after today’s sessions. Bryce, Massanutten and The Homestead will all end their snow sports seasons today. Wintergreen had been making some noise about skiing on past NEXT weekend (March 25th or beyond) but they have now dropped the “beyond” part and look to be skiing and riding until next Sunday. Today they have 22-25 trails open with a base of 20-50”!
Bryce Resort will be ending their season today with 100% of the terrain open! They are already promoting their summer camps and have taken the ski report off the front of their site.
Massanutten Resort is showing 16° this morning and 13 of 14 trail operating on a base of 20-30” of groomed conditions. That HARDLY sounds like the last day of the season for them – but it is. They too will be ending their season after today’s sessions. They also have 7 lanes of tubing for your enjoyment.
The Homestead is also closing up snowsports operations after today’s sessions. They have one trail operating today.
Appalachian – 19° – These guys are 100% open, have the best snow quality in the state right now AND are making snow as if they were opening for the season, not closing one down in a couple of weeks. App has all 10 trails operating as well as both super terrain parks and ice skating.
Cataloochee – 19° – Made snow overnight and they are Skiing and riding for day skiing only today on 7 of 12 trails with Groomed conditions. Don’t forget that Cat is closed on Mondays, but will be operating Tuesday. Tammy Brown wrote, “Come join us for some recreational racing here at Cataloochee today, these races are open to any age and any level and will be held from 1pm until 3pm. Cost is $3 per run, or $5 for two runs. Awards and results will be held at 4pm in the lodge.”
Sugar Mountain – 12° – They are the only NC Resort open that did not make snow the last couple of nights, but the word is that they didn’t simply because they are in good shape to make it to their April 1st – hopeful closing date. They have the most terrain open in the state and little in the way of thin coverage. They pushed snow around and are starting the day with no bare spots as well.
Sunday will be a stellar day to ride at the three open ski areas of North Carolina. If you are reading this within driving distance of one of the three ski resorts that are open we’d highly recommend hitting it. The forecast is for gorgeous blue skies and highs around 39° and lows near 24°. Normals for this day are 53 and 30, so as you can see things are well below normal for this time of year.
There’s a chance for some light rain Monday through Wednesday with highs getting slightly above normal. So get out and enjoy what could possibly be the rest conditions for the rest of the season – today!
Go Ski and Ride!
Until Next Time…
Send comments and emails to: [email protected]
For more information about the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic visit www.SkiSoutheast.com
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