Sunny Skies, Snow on the Ground, Great Conditions – What are you waiting for?

First Trax

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We’re seeing something that we have not seen much of lately – the sun! It should be a fabulous day to be on the slopes as all of the ski areas received another dusting (mostly earlier on Tuesday) and they all made snow as well. Temperatures are about as varied as we’ve seen lately as Newland, NC is reporting 11° and yet temps are already reflecting 32° up on Beech Mountain. (Inversion perhaps?)

Snowshoe Mountain is showing 16°, Wisp 22° and that made for more snowmaking and what should be awesome conditions across the entire region.

There’s LOTS of snow on the ground which makes for a great, Holiday feel if you’re in the mountains looking for a Christmas Tree and getting in a little pre-Christmas skiing and snowboarding.

Check the slope reports page for updates on all of the individual details as per trails open, etc, but just know that they are the same as what was offered on Tuesday. Expect near normal temps for today, sunny skies and awesome conditions no matter where you choose to ride!

Appalachian, Cataloochee and Sugar Mountain are all open for day skiing AND night skiing tonight. Snowshoe, Wisp and Beech are open for day skiing only for a bit longer. We’re kind of expecting Beech to open for night skiing by this weekend. Your open ski resorts for today are Appalachian, Cataloochee, Beech, Sugar Mountain, Snowshoe and Wisp Resort. All other are closed til the weekend or in some cases later in the month. AGAIN, be sure to check the slope reports page as it provides all of the opening date information.

WHAT HAS CHANGED???

I know that the temps have been optimal for snowmaking over the last 48 hours, but we’re seeing some crazy growth numbers from some of the base depths. I know, here we go again. No, not really – we’ll probably adjust our slope reports to display like we did last season, wherein we simply report – "Good to Great", "Decent", "Passable", "Poor" and "Should be Closed". We’re not going to name names this morning, but some ski areas showed a drop in base of a couple of inches in base from two days ago and only a small increase within the last 24 hours – while one resort reported an 8" growth in base from Monday to Tuesday, and then another 10" of growth in base in the last 24 hours! That’s 18" in growth in two days across all their open terrain. That’s a little unlikely across all their terrain.

Another ski area has grown their base by 18" on the low measurement, to 12" on the high measurement in the last 24 hours! I know resorts can make a lot of snow in optimal conditions, but 18" in 24 hours, especially when the snowguns weren’t running around the clock???

We’ll call those numbers "marketing adjustments" or perhaps they were adjusting their base numbers after NOT doing so for a few days. We’ll keep watching and let you guys know what we’re seeing out there.

It SHOULD be noted that the conditions (including the base depths) are as good as we’ve seen in many years, particularly when you take into consideration that it is December 3rd! Base depths and conditions right now are GREAT for January, February or any date on the calendar. We’re seeing some great things from Ski Beech as they are reporting more base depth right now that at ANY point in the last few years. Beech is reporting 30-50" of base across their open terrain. Nice jon Ryan, John and crew!

<A View from the Live Cam atop Hawksnest this morning!

There are some sweet views on the live cams right now. One that prompted a bittersweet feel in my gut was the live shot from atop Seven Devils – home to Hawksnest – what USED to be a ski area. Darn what a sweet shot this morning with sun rising over the valley below and snow covered mountains in the forefront of the image. I know tubing is popular, but see Hawksnest with all that snow and no trails open does not make me smile a smile of appreciation for TUBING CONDITIONS. Sorry Lenny…

Hawksnest tubing park was closed for Tuesday, while they focused more snowmaking. We have not received word yet, but they should be open today…or at least by this weekend.

MORE COLD IS ON THE WAY…

This super weather we’re having continues! After sunny skies and slightly below normal temps for Wednesday, we’ll see some light, misty rain on Thursday and then sunny skies across much of the region for Friday and Saturday – but colder temps with highs in the 20s and low 30s – and lows in the teens for Friday and Saturday. THEN MUCH COLDER air infiltrates the area for Sunday with some snow showers and highs in the low 20s.

The WEST VIRGINIA snow country is looking at temperatures slightly colder than those shown above and snow for Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

Like we said…what are you guys waiting for…

Get out and enjoy your day…

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