That IS the quote of the day and it came from the keyboard of David N. Vance, the Assistant Ski Area Manager (and Recreation Manager) at Canaan Valley Resort State Park, in beautiful (by God), Davis, West Virginia.
Lots of brilliant sunshine baked all of the ski areas on Saturday (including Canaan Valley Resort) and with that sun and all of the snow that had fallen up there – came the “The mountains are full of greatness” quote. Kudos to David for summing up our own sentiment as to just how gorgeous the day was on Saturday.
You could ditto that for all of the ski areas and I know that our own Kenny Griffin and Jordan Nelson had similar thoughts as to just how awesome things looked atop Beech Mountain in North Carolina. Brilliant sunshine spotlighted the snow that was everywhere the eye could see from atop their 5105′ elevations. Kenny rode the mountain on Saturday and Jordan handled filming it from the air and we got some amazing photos and videos from both of those guys.
Will Mauney also sent in some amazing photos and a few video clips and we’ll try to get those posted for you guys asap.
In the interim – check out the gallery of awesome photos and video that Kenny posted late on Saturday for their day on the mountain. Click on – NC SKI RESORTS video blog.
The photo to the left was one of my favorites from Beech on Saturday!
A MILD PATCH AHEAD…
After frigid temps and tons of snow, we’re in for a MUCH milder Sunday. It is cloudy across a good bit of West Virginia but the forecast is for another sunny day and temperatures as high as 60° in Banner Elk; the mid to upper 50s at Sugar and Beech; and the upper 40s to around 47-48° at Canaan Valley Resort today; and to around 58° for a high at Massanutten. It looks like some light rain is in the forecast for this week ahead so hit the slopes today if you can make it up. There’s still lots of snow around to play in, have a snowball fight or pose for a family photo for those upcoming Christmas cards.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BASE…
Marketing departments must be “standing pat” with base depths as I would have expected all of the resorts to drop their numbers a bit. When I did the snow report on Saturday morning I WANTED to say something because base depths skyrocketed at a couple of resorts in what LOOKED LIKE an effort to “catch up” with what some of the other resorts were posting. A handful of ski resorts jumped their base depths by 11-15″ overnight (with no natural snowfall).
Then after a brilliant, sunny, milder day on Saturday that dropped the NATURAL SNOW DEPTHS on the ground SEVEN INCHES in the last two days according to David Lesher’s CanaanMtnSnow report for Davis, WV — the manmade snow depths at resorts across the region stayed the same. In fact, NOT ONE ski area changed their base depths up or down over the last 24 hours.
Oh well…there’s LOTS of snow to ski and ride. In fact more than I’ve seen in late November in a long time. So get out and enjoy it.
It was a rather quiet day here on SkiSoutheast.com and ResortCams.com on Saturday after huge visitor numbers during the big snows of a couple of days ago. So I will just end things today by advising you guys to…
Check the snow report for all of the details (including total snowfall for the season) but for today here are just a few notables:
Winterplace Resort – Open for day sessions today on 10 trails. They will be closed Monday, 12-1 through Friday, 12-5-14.
Wintergreen Resort – Open: 9am – 5pm skiing and riding on 8 trails with 2 lifts for Sunday and they will be closed mid-week this week, re-opening for skiing, riding and tubing on Saturday 12/6 and Sunday 12/7. The Plunge (tubing park) is open today as well.
Canaan Valley Resort is playing on 9 trails for DAY SESSIONS only on Sunday. They are offering a pretty sweet, “Stay 2 nights and Save – rooms starting at $66.75 per night.”
They are riding on “Face” (black diamond), FOUR (blues) and FOUR (green) trails…and they will be open all week.
Massanutten Resort – Day sessions only today with 6 trails and 7 lanes on the tubing hill. Also remember that the Ski Slopes and Snow Tubing will be closed Monday, 12/1 – Friday, 12/5. The Ski Slopes and Snow Tubing will re-open Saturday, 12/6 when daily operations will resume. Night sessions will start in mid-December. Also if you are buying an Adult or Student Full Season Pass, you can save 10% by purchasing TODAY!
Cataloochee Ski Area – Don’t forget that Cat is open only for Day Sessions on Sunday. They’re playing on 10 trails today.
Bryce Resort – Open for day sessions Sunday and remember that they will be CLOSED on Monday. They will operate with 50% of the mountain open including “Bootlegger”, “Bunny”, “Little Nip” and “Redeye”…as well as tubing. It’s crazy but they update their Facebook content faster than their website. Another quick reminder for you Bryce fans – their vastly reduced pricing for lift tickets, season passes, etc ends tomorrow. If you’ve been thinking about season passes…go get them. (Hey they make GREAT Christmas presents!)
ENJOY YOUR DAY. Kenny will pick things back up on Monday and I’ll interject some thoughts and videos as needed. I’ll be back with you on Saturday.
Drop me an email if you like. Send photos, videos…and comments to [email protected]