We’re making history today…or at least part of us is…the staying open longer than ever part for Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Friday was amazingly warm with temps surpassing 80° at numerous mountain locations around the region and yet four of our region’s ski resorts are open for business.
Cataloochee Ski Area is 100% open with all 16 trails groomed and ready. They are open with those and the Cat Cage Terrain Park from 9am-5pm today and Sunday.
Appalachian Ski Mountain which continues to operate daily with 100% of their 11 trails and all three terrain parks looks in great shape for day skiing and snowboarding. Remember that they are doing an Easter Egg TODAY at App.
On Saturday April 3, Appalachian Ski Mtn. will celebrate Easter weekend on the slopes for the third time in the last 6 years. The celebration will take place on Saturday to leave Easter Sunday open for families.
Bring your camera and come join the Easter Bunny for pictures on the slopes, two children’s Easter Egg Hunts with lots of hidden prizes including a 2010-11 Junior Season Membership. More than 1000 Easter Eggs, with candy and hidden prizes, will be spread around Appalachian’s Intermediate slope Strudel beginning at 9:30 am, for skiers and riders ages 6-12. After the on-slope Easter Egg Hunt at 11:30 am, children ages 5 and under can find Easter Eggs on the grassy knoll beside the Appalachian Ice Arena. A raw egg toss contest will begin at 2:00 pm, for participants 12 and older (prizes for longest toss and biggest splash). Appalachian’s Restaurant will also offer a special a la carte Easter Brunch on Saturday with several delicious options.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort is also doing an Easter Egg Hunt and also some pond skimming this weekend. They will be open with 21 slopes and trails and one terrain park. Laura Parquette writes, "Pon Skimming event will start at 2pm on Skidder Slope and you don’t want to miss it! Tomorrow, the little ones can celebrate Easter with an egg hunt for kids of all ages. Registration will take place at 11:30am on Sunday at the Shavers Centre Plaza. If you’re not already here, you’re missing out on some great spring conditions. Who needs a beach when you have sun, temps in the 70s and SNOW–and there’s still plenty of snow out there to enjoy. We’ll be skiing and riding until 4:30pm on MONDAY, so you still have time to get in your car and get up here and take advantage of great deals like $20 lift tickets with your season pass ffrom any other mountain."
Wisp Resort has only 7 trails available for their last weekend of skiing and snowboarding for the season. They will transition to a fun golf and lake resort in a few days and Deep Creek Lake and their mountain top white water rafting park are just a couple of the amazing activities available at the Garrett County resort.
THE WEATHER…
Yesterday it was warmer than I ever remember for an April 2nd day. I live on top of a mountain and we only need air conditioning in my home perhaps 4-5 days per summer. However, I have never thought we needed it in APRIL before. We flipped the ceiling fans on and opened all of the doors and it was wonderful waking up to all of the wildlife chirping and screeching this morning. Ahhhhh, Spring!
It was so warm that I called the marina and gave them the "go ahead" to summerize my boat and get it ready for "lake season". They quickly responded, "Now Mike you know that we’ve had some pretty crazy snows in April before, right? We don’t usually recommend summerizing boats until after April 15th."
I checked all of my weather services and I’m just not seeing ANY kind of crazy event happening this time around and the boat is getting ready for what I hope will be an awesome summer at the lake. While I’m talking "lake talk", I’ve been on lakes and rivers all of my life as I grew up in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. I’ve had the pleasure of boating on some gorgeous lakes in the south and simply stated – I have never seen a lake as beautiful as Watauga Lake in Eastern Tennessee. With it’s undeveloped shorelines, aquamarine colored waters (which are rated as the third cleanest in the United States) and mountains which rise dramatically out of it…Watauga Lake is one gorgeous lake. If you get a chance to visit the High Country, check out Watauga Lake. I’d recommend Lakeshore Marina and Resort. They have cabins, cottages and hotel rooms for rent, pontoons for rent and I think there’s even jet ski rentals somewhere on the lake. Check out www.Lakeshore-Resort.com
We’re installing two new, LIVE webcams over there this week and they are certain to be popular additions to www.HighCountryWebCams.com
By the way I don’t think we broke any high temp records yesterday but we got close! The record high for ANY day in April in Banner Elk was a high of 86° which happened back on April 24, 1925 and April 27th, 1986. The record low for April happened back on April Fool’s Day in 1923 when the low temp dipped to 7°. We’re blowing the doors off the average high temps for April (60.8°) with these upper 70 and 80° readings.
From what I’m seeing there’s no major threats to dump snow on us or see bitterly cold temps to mess up the sprouting flowers and blooms this season. So enjoy the last few days of skiing and riding.
Remember that Wisp closes for the season tomorrow after day sessions. Snowshoe will stop their ski and snowboarding ops after riding on Monday. Cataloochee will close after day skiing on Sunday – but plans to reopen NEXT WEEKEND as well.
…and Appalachian Ski Mountain will remain open DAILY for ski and snowboarding fun right through til April 11th as planned.
Go enjoy your Easter weekend.
We’re on day 128 and there are 9 more days of opportunities to enjoy the snow for the 2009-2010 ski and snowboarding season!
Go enjoy the snow! Check out the Snow Report at https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php and please send us your favorite ski photos, ski videos, trip reports and comments to [email protected]