Story by Mike Doble – [email protected]
LET’S GET TO THE OPENINGS and CLOSINGS…
Sugar Mountain made the decision to shut down ski ops for a couple of days as the mild temps played havoc with the first manmade snow of the season. Sugar and Cat had only made snow for about 40+/- hours prior to opening this past Saturday. After two-days of skier/snowboarder traffic and mild temps both resorts were looking a little "weathered". Cataloochee had already made the call to close for the weekday sessions – looking to reopen this weekend. As I said, Sugar made that call this morning as well…and are now looking to reopen perhaps as early as Thursday. We’re kind of thinking it might be Friday before they reopen.
SkiSoutheast.com Staff Meteorologist Kenny Griffin is getting in the swing of things now offering up his video Skier’s Forecasts every other day. Kenny’s update from Monday afternoon talks of temperatures dipping back to snowmaking capable for Snowshoe Mountain on late Wednesday…and for the rest of the ski areas on Thursday night.
I was talking with Winterplace Resort’s Terry Pfeiffer around 2pm on Monday and as we were talking it was near 70° there in Ghent, West Virginia (home to Winterplace). Monday evening as I got home the temperatures felt more like a late summer day than a mid November one.
As I walked out to my truck this morning the temps hovered around the low 50s. Not exactly condusive to making snow, huh? Kenny says that will all change as we head into the weekend.
Check out Kenny’s Latest Skier’s Forecast at:
http://www.highcountryweather.com/video.php
MORE CAMERAS COMING ONLINE!
This has been QUITE the crazy last several weeks. I mentioned that I was speaking with Terry Pfeiffer on Monday. That conversation went immediately to the fact that they had already been discussing web cameras. Since we can now host LIVE STREAMING and push that to our network of meteorologists, I think Winterplace will be the site of at least one new LIVE CAM coming soon.
Drew Sherwood of the Liberty Snowflex center came on board with us for the upcoming 2011-2012 ski and snowboarding season. He shared that they will be partnering up and hosting as many as three LIVE cameras aimed at the year-round ski and snowboarding complex! Drew shared, "Yea Mike we are happy to report that we’ve been open for 317 straight days with ideal conditions!"
For those unaware, The Snowflex complex is located atop Liberty University’s serene 5,000-acre mountain, the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre is the country’s premier point for year-round skiing, snowboarding and tubing. Composed of beginner, intermediate and advanced slopes and a two-story lodge, this high-performance playground is the first of its kind in the U.S.
So we’ll use these next few days to gear up a little more with new ski area parterships, more LIVE STREAMING CAMERAS and more fun to announce. Stay tuned!
Drop me an email at [email protected] with any comments, questions, photos, videos or whatever the heck you want to email me!