More Resorts = More Trails!

Hawksnest and Wolf Laurel in North Carolina; Massanutten and Wintergreen in Virginia; Timberline and Winterplace in West Virginia; and Cloudmont in Alabama ALL joined the ranks of ski resorts now open for the season when they all opened for skiing today.

(Yes there IS a ski resort in Alabama.)

Snowshoe Mountain continues to be THE PLACE to ski or ride if you’re looking for the best snow on the most trails. They have THIRTY slopes and trails open today, terrain parks, and they actually have more LIFTS open than most resorts have trails operating. Hey, we’re only reporting the facts babe. Nothing but the facts.

Speaking of facts – will one of our On-Snow Reporters get us a report on Timberline. They are reporting 38" of Natural snow on the season and while it COULD HAPPEN, it just seems out of whack with what everyone else in the region is reporting.

It is really cool to now be able to report that 16 out of 19 areas are open in the Southeast. Bryce Resort in Virginia will open on Saturday, and we have yet to hear anything about The Homestead in Virginia or Sapphire Valley in North Carolina. Come on guys…IF CLOUDMONT IN ALABAMA CAN GET OPEN! Jeesh!

SOME VERY SPECIAL THANKS TODAY I’m going to brag for a moment, but this is really mean’t as a THANK YOU to all of the media attention that we’ve been getting lately. Truth is we’ve always relied on our visitors passing the word about our site to other snow lovers and at first we never really considered the fact that a lot of snow lovers HAPPEN to be people in the media as well! A few years ago we were contacted by a few television stations around the Southeast, and we received reports from our visitors that still other stations in your different hometowns were showing our data, live ski cameras and road conditions.

Last season our KNOWN media coverage extended to at least 30 television stations in 9 Southeastern states that kept in semi-constant contact with us. We also did a few interviews for newspapers around the region and have been featured (and quoted) in magazine articles all over the Southeast.

…and then there’s THIS Season! We’re not sure what’s happened except that maybe after (9) seasons of dependable, reliable reports, and hundreds of On-Snow Reporters efforts…we have received contact from and been featured on more television affiliates than ever before. We REALLY want to give thanks to each one of you. We’ve tried (and we promise to do an even better job this season) to give mention to the many meteorologist who have taken time to pay us such wonderful compliments. Thanks tons!

Since we on the subject – We really like to hear from those of you that use our information, cameras, photos, etc from time to time (or regularly). We’ve never really attempted to see just how many stations do plug us from time to time, but it would be nice to know. If you’re reading this…drop us an email and let us know. Include your name and media affiliation to [email protected]

The Extreme Compliment – We also want to take a special moment since we know our traffic is now approaching mid-season pace, to thank Joe Stevens, who is the Director of Communications at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. (Yes, I’m mentioning Snowshoe today because this story is being posted BOTH on SkiNC.com and our sister website, SkiSoutheast.com.) We were attending a wondering Media Weekend last weekend at the popular West Virginia resort. In attendance were many notable media representatives from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and around the region. Many were television meteorologists; some were news reporters, and newspaper reporters, etc. The most recognizable was Paul Goodloe of THE WEATHER CHANNEL fame. With all of these impressive media representatives in attendance, Joe Stevens actually addressed the group’s first meeting with a huge pro-SkiSoutheast.com promotion by advising all television stations and news media people to use our website for the most up-to-date, accurate information for all ski areas in the region.

He went on to say, "As a suggested storyline, maybe you guys (the media) could focus on how websites such as SkiSoutheast.com and SkiNC.com really serve to keep the ski resorts honest in their reporting."

"When websites like Mike’s have On-Snow Reporters writing on-site reports and submitting photos that support their reports, it’s a real service to visitors," he added.

Stevens concluded by telling media attendees that for the best coverage, he really recommended SkiSoutheast.com.

The fact is, I was astonished. Not one other media representative received that kind of plug. We know we have a good thing going, but it really feels great when other people recognize it. My brother-in-law made the trip with me and we had breakfast and made a few turns with THE WEATHER CHANNEL’S Paul Goodloe and it was really quite cool that Goodloe made mention of the fact that he and fellow meteorologist, Jim Cantore had mentioned us on air several times. You just can not get better outreach in this business and I want to thank Joe here for exposing us to media further north into Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.

More Thanks –We’ve received recent publicity from and want to thank Joey Holleman for his nice writeup in THE STATE Newspaper last week in Columbia, South Carolina. That was especially nice as that is my home town.

We also want to say thanks again to Joe Miller of the News and Observer in Raleigh. Joe has written about us and quoted us in a couple of articles of late. Miller actually wrote and plugged both SkiNC.com AND SkiSoutheast.com as his first two recommended websites for definative information on the region’s ski areas.

Also, we want to thank one of our newest television personality contacts, Brad Panovich of WCNC NBC TV in Charlotte. Chad wrote, "…I am an avid skier and Meteorologist at WCNC…and I do a three hour show both Saturday and Sunday mornings starting at 7am and think that your information is great for people leaving Charlotte for the 2 hour drive up to the resorts."

Brad went on to say that he has actually made an awesome graphic using their high resolution topographical imagery to promote us. Too cool…and thanks again Brad. We really appreciate the plugs.

Thanks again to all of our media contacts. We committ that we will do our best to continue to earn your trust and respect each and everyday this season and for years to come.

THINK SNOW!