Ski Resorts Looks P-r-e-t-t-y Busy Midday Saturday! Especially at the North Carolina resorts. Have a Look!

FeaturedFirst Trax

Stay up to date by getting notified of new posts!

(The image above is a bit blurry because it comes from the LIVE CAM at the base of Sugar Mountain. It is CROWDED, but I’ve seen it MUCH busier!)

I was doing some catch up work at the office today so I didn’t get a chance to drive over to the foot of Sugar Mountain Resort like I like to do this time of year to see (for myself) how busy things are. The best barometer for judging how busy they are for these kind of peak weekends is to simply drive down Hwy 184 and see how many cars are parked out on the highway. On Sugar’s top weekends (like MLK weekend) they will have all of their normal, close-in parking lots full and then they park people a couple of miles out at the front of Hwy 184 and shuttle people to the ski area. I have seen some peak weekends when even that parking area has been packed and then they actually park people down the road and bus them over.

We are certainly not seeing that kind of skier-visit MLK Saturday – and not even the most positive, glass-half-full, marketing person will be able to debate that.

HOWEVER, I decided to take a quick trip around the entire Southeast and mid-Atlantic ski region. By car that would take ALL DAY, but with our ResortCams.com network of LIVE CAMS I was able to look in at all of the ski resorts in about 20 minutes.

Here is a South-to-North tour of the ski areas:

As I was sitting at my desk working for most of the morning, I couldn’t help but shake my head a bit as the clouds cleared and the sun popped out for most of the morning hours. It has clouded up a bit here in the High Country, but for the most part there’s been NO precipitation – which had definitely driven the crowds to show up at the North Carolina ski areas.

Beech Mountain’s base area looks pretty packed. I’ve seen more before…so I’d have to estimate that traffic is off perhaps 25%. (But it’s packed!) Click to enlarge!

 

The TOP OF BEECH and their 5506′ elevation looks pretty busy as well! (Click to Enlarge)

 

Beech Mountain’s Learn to Ski area is shrinking and yet there’s a ton of first-timers there!

 

Here’s one more look at Beech’s base. Navigating that crowd would be a challenge for some!

 

Cataloochee’s base is shrinking / narrowing, and the traffic is “brisk” but there’s no question that we’ve seen double that on cam before.
Wolf Ridge is doing well today, but they too are running substantially under a normal MLK Saturday. Still quite the crowd and line.

Further up and into Virginia, things look a bit wet and the traffic is not quite as busy as I witnessed on the NC cameras. Wintergreen and Massanutten looked the busiest of the VA resorts but they are certainly not packed as they would normally be on this popular, four day weekend.

Here’s a look at the 2pm line at Wintergreen’s Blue Ridge Express. Traffic is brisk but no-doubt off a good bit today.

Here’s another look at Wintergreen Resort. Again, traffic looks good…but certain down a bit from the normal packed house.

Wintergreen’s Tubing Hill is usually wall-to-wall.
Things are a bit wetter as I looked into West Virginia, but here at Winterplace Resort you can see some of the crowd at the bottom.
The light rain and fog is holding the crowds down. The snow looks awesome at Winterplace though, doesn’t it?

You can tell that it is even wetter still as I looked at the WV ski areas but the crowds at Winterplace could be see (somewhat) on the mountaintop cam. Snowshoe was busy but certainly WAY OFF from a normal MLK Saturday. There were some lines at the Ballhooter lift, but about one-third to one-half what you would typically expect.

Anyone who has ever been to Snowshoe on MLK Saturday can tell you that this line is about one-half what you’d expect on a non-rainy holiday weekend.
How about THIS for an unbelievable shot of Silvercreek at Snowshoe Mountain with NO Lift Lines at 2pm!

The Silvercreek side of Snowshoe Mountain had NO lift lines at all. (Again, it IS a bit wetter there as can be seen on the Boathouse Cam.

Timberline Resort looked busy, but definitely off. Wisp Resort is still getting an icy precip as can be seen on their LIVE CAM.

Sorry for the blurry shot. Probably the lens being wet at Timberline Resort. Decent traffic but definitely off.
Canaan Valley’s cam at 2pm looked about like it did at 8:30am this morning. Steady, brisk traffic but not swamped for sure.

If you want to see something cool, visit the Wisp Cam and click on the TIMELAPSE icon on the top right of the video screen and watch the weather come in! You can see the nighttime groomers come in as well.

Click on the link here and don’t forget to click on the TIMELAPSE ICON> http://www.resortcams.com/webcams/wisp/

Things are still frozen at Wisp.

 

This is obviously a VERY unscientific approach to judging skier-visit traffic but there is no question that the weather is holding things back a bit in the MD, WV and VA resort areas.

Further south? Ouch! That’s about all I can say. Look at the traffic at the base of Beech, Sugar and Wolf Ridge ski areas. I am certain that they too are down somewhat in terms of lift tickets sold, but OMG are those places swamped!

That’s it for now. Enjoy your day. Email me if have something to say – [email protected]

#THINKCOLD
#THINKSNOW

Previous Post
Wild Temps and Variable Conditions Across the Ski Resorts for MLK Saturday
Next Post
Drought Conditions in Haywood County Prompt No Snowmaking by Cataloochee Ski Area
Author
Related Posts