The sub title should be…
Great Conditions for this weekend, no matter where you’re headed!
Friday was a GREAT day to be on the slopes. I played hooky from work and hung out at Sugar Mountain with a bunch of great kids from Valle Crucis. The morning started out cold, then warmed a bit and seemed to be on its way to the forecasted 45° but then the clouds roared in and temps hovered right at 32° all day at Sugar Mountain. It began snowing on us at about 1pm and really picked up intensity around 7pm Friday evening.
I want to thank Sugar’s Len Bauer for taking great care of the Valle Crucis eighth graders that dominated their hill for most of the day. Also it was great making some good turns with a number of the group. Len and Michelle Bauer’s daughter, Dakota, races for the Sugar Mountain Ski Team and is one of my daughter buddies and it was cool watching her get challenged by several of the boys in the class…only to go down to defeat each time. Cody is quite a skier and snowboarder. It was also impressive to see how many of those kids are really quite talented at skiing and snowboarding.
We’ll share some pics and video from Friday a bit later. For now I’ll move on to what you guys want to know…about the weekend.
Several areas picked up 2" more snow overnight and made snow as well and conditions should be darn nice for today and Sunday with rather windy conditions early but the winds should diminish around midday. It should be sunny both today and Sunday with highs in the 40s Saturday and in the 50s for Sunday. Tonight’s low should allow for snowmaking as the temps dive back to around 23°.
You may not see any of the resorts take advantage of tonight’s snowmaking opportunity as some rather significant rain is expected Monday night and into Tuesday. As much as an inch-plus is expected from that storm.
Take advantage of the SWEET conditions that are out there this weekend, because there is NO guarantee that you’ll see these kinds of conditions again for a bit.
Appalachian had a low last night of 25° but did not make snow. They saw a TRACE of snow last night. They ARE expected to take advantage of the snowmaking op on Saturday night. They are 100% open and have both terrain parks operating and their ice rink as well.
Cataloochee reported 3" of new snow from last night, taking them to 25" on the season. They also made snow and have 10 of 14 trails open today. Don’t forget that this is the LAST weekend that Cataloochee will have the tubing park open so if you want to get in one last tubing expedition, hit it this weekend.
<Hawksnest looks primed and ready for a GREAT Saturday!
Hawksnest Resort received 2-3" of snow last night. They did not make snow but I’ll tell you, Hawksnest hasn’t looked this pretty this season. Expect a great time on the hill up at Seven Devils today! They have 9 trails open with some terrain park features scattered around the mountain and their popular tubing hill looks great as well.
Ski Beech – They saw a low of 26° but did not make snow. They did receive about 2" of snow last night to take them to 38" on the season with more than 14" of that coming in the last few days. They will have 11 trails open today, their terrain park and ice skating as well. Expect very nice conditions at Beech today.
Sugar Mountain – They saw a low of 26° and did not make snow. They report 2" of snow there overnight and will have 19 trails open today, their tubing hill, terrain park and ice skating.
Sugar is hosting the annual Dick Trundy Memorial Sugar Cup Competition today. The giant slalom competition will be held on Big Red and is for participants with an intermediate or above ability level. 100% of entry fees go to the American Cancer Society in memory of Sugar Mountain’s former Director of Operations, Richard T. Trundy. Donations are graciously appreciated.
Big Red was in great shape on Friday and this event should be fun to watch and/or participate in.
Wolf Ridge – We spoke with Orville English and Jonny Goen up there this morning and they said that Wolf picked about 4" of wet snow overnight, taking them to 32" on the season. Jonny said that they’d have 12 trails open with granular conditions today. The connector trail would be open today.
ONLY 6 DAYS TO GO BEFORE WE EXPERIENCE THE 1st ANNUAL SKISOUTHEAST.COM SUMMIT!! MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US!
This time next week we will be enjoying some turns with summit attendees at Snowshoe Mountain! The long range forecast is calling for sunny skies 2 of the 3 days and snow on one of them with temps in the 20s and 30s for the weekend!
We have a few more coming on board and we’ll share that with you a bit later this morning!
72+ people have committed to come and we have several of the most notable messageboard crew coming including GaTom, Mellow Yellow and others. Some of the newer, most active members such as TheGnar will be there and we’re trying to nudge some of the top messageboard people to make it.
*** Update: Brad Panovich may not be coming afterall. We heard yesterday that his higher ups may be making him stay home and work. We’ll try to apply some pressure there and keep Brad on board!
Snowshoe’s President and COO, Bill Rock is providing some first tracks for us Sunday AM. Marketing Babe (she knows that I mean that in the best possible way!), Laura Parquette will be there making some turns with us…as will Marketing Director Brad Larsen, VP Ed Galford and others! We have the WV Ski Areas Spokeperson, Joe Stevens who is going to hang with us…
There’s FREE Wings, Free Sunday lift tickets and $100 OFF On Mountain Lodging for Summit Attendees! The only thing missing so far is YOU (If you haven’t made reservations yet!)
Click here to Join Us for All of the Fun of Spring Break and/or the SkiSoutheast.com Summit Weekend!
Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
Send your snow photos, videos, comments or emails to: [email protected]