Editor’s Note: Beginning today we are posting North Carolina resort news via SkiNC.com and separate industry news from around the Southeast and Mid Atlantic via www.SkiSoutheast.com. So for more news be sure to visit both sites!
The big news is the SNOW that has fallen across the high elevations of Western North Carolina. You can take a tour of the live webcameras at www.HighCountryWebCams.com and see just how much snow many of the areas have received…or not received in some cases.
Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain and Hawksnest picked up close to 2” of natural snow Sunday evening and up to this post (1pm). It is also COLD as heck out! Temperature readings are in the freezing range right now across most of the region and the cold spot right now is atop Beech Mountain where it’s 21° and still snowing some. Ray’s Weather is reporting 28° at Sugar Mountain and our weather station on top of Hawksnest is showing 25°!.
That has prompted more resorts to make snow across the region. Appalachian and Ski Beech cranked up the snow guns Sunday night and they have really out down some early coverage in these optimal conditions!
We’ve received some emails asking about why Hawksnest is not making snow. Lenny Cottom told us that were looking to open the first weekend in December. There were some last minute tweaks happening with their new conveyor lifts in the tubing and beginner areas…and with those small delays, they took a look at the long range weather forecast and decided to look to the NEXT cold wave to begin snowmaking.
SUGAR IS OPEN!
The other big news is that Sugar was able to make a ton of snow overnight with the optimal snows and cold temps and Gunther and his crew were able to pull it off and open this morning. That makes Sugar the second resort to open in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic region so congrats to them for that.
Sugar is open to the TOP of their mountain, instead of just the ¾ station. In years past they have tended to open first to the ¾ station and then after a few days go to the top.
There’s no official word on Ski Beech and Appalachian opening dates just yet but you can bet that it will be any day now…
Cataloochee WILL BE OPEN on Tuesday. They too picked up some natural snow and their snowguns have been hammering the trails since Sunday.
Things are looking good for a good start to the Holiday this week!
Until Next Time… for MORE ski news across the Southeast visit www.SkiSoutheast.com
THING COLD – THINK SNOW!
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