Yesterday afternoon I got an email from Sonny Gower who works up at the Silver Creek side of Snowshoe Mountain and he said that they were waiting on the snow to hit up there. I told him that we were getting BOMBED with snow here in North Carolina. (At that time we were…but it turned out that the snow down here between Boone and Banner Elk was more of a "STRAFING RUN" of snow as maybe 2" fell here and at my home. However, THAT 2" beat out what most of the mountains of West Virginia saw in the last 24 hours and how often does THAT happen!?! The couple of inches we saw here at our office doesn’t hold a candle to the SIX INCHES of snow that fell overnight at Ski Beech and Sugar Mountain.
…and the top honors in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic as far as natural snow goes from yesterday’s storm is – Wolf Ridge Ski Area over in Mars Hill as they reported 8" of snow! It is crazy how diverse the snowtotals are this morning as the reports up in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland are that those areas only saw a TRACE to one inch from this system. In fact, Ober Gatlinburg, just across the Tennessee line from Western North Carolina only saw a trace of snow, while Cataloochee reported 6".
NONE of the Virginia ski areas reported anything more than a TRACE of snow, while Winterplace reported six more inches! Crazy!
It will be a BOMBER DAY to be on the slopes no matter where you choose to ride today!
Temperatures are whacked this morning as well! Typically Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia tends to be the cold spot every morning with Canaan or Timberline sometimes reporting slightly colder temps. However this morning we’re seeing 10° at Canaan, 1° at Snowshoe and yet minus 7° at Ski Beech and Sugar Mountains in North Carolina.
Regardless, it is cold enough for ski areas to make all the snow that they want right now although many did not make snow overnight. Some ski areas are only making snow on selected terrain and others are not making snow during open sessions. Several resorts simply don’t NEED anymore snow right now. It’s been that good of a run of weather of late!
ANOTHER LULL BEFORE THE STORM???!!!!
Some areas are receiving more snow right now (as of 9:40am) and others are experiencing sunny skies at this moment. Regardless, the NWS is forecasting 5-9" more snow for the ski areas up around Snowshoe, Canaan, Timberline and Wisp with Winterplace picking up additional snow today.
The North Carolina Mountains are expecting a total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible today and 1 to 2" more tonight!
As much as 10-14" of snow could fall through this evening when it is all said and done!
As forecasted earlier this week, after this snow and bitter cold clears out – behind it on Friday through Tuesday of next week is milder air and sunny skies. Highs this weekend are looking like they will rise into the 40s and even some mid 50s by Saturday and Sunday. With this kind of snow, the great snowmaking and milder temps…this promises to be a GREAT weekend to hit the slopes.
Let’s go ahead with the quick tour and then below that we have added some more of your emails. We posted a few of those yesterday and you guys emailed us that you enjoyed reading some of them. We don’t have time to do that everyday, but we’ve included a few more email oddities today.
Here’s the quick tour: We’re mixing things up a little, again.
Bryce Resort – 15° and no reported snow after they saw 2-3" the day before. This particular storm has missed them so far according to their report. They chose not to make snow (don’t need it says Horst) and they will be 100% open with all 8 trails, all 4 lifts and tubing as well.
Massanutten Resort – 10° and they made snow on selected trails. No new snow fell in the last 24 hours after they reported 4" the day before. They are reporting an average base of 50" on 100% of their terrain (all 14 trails) and they have 8 lanes open on the snow tubing park.
The Homestead – We heard from John at The Homestead on Tuesday and he said they ended up with 5" of snow (no more yesterday as far as we know) and they have all 5 trails open and 4 lanes of tubing and ice skating open.
Wintergreen Resort – 9° this morning – They saw 4-6" of new snow from the previous day’s snowfall but no new reported snow in the last 24 hours. They made snow and have 26 trails open with groomed conditions and a base of 40-60". Awesome conditions await you at Wintergreen.
Canaan Valley Resort – 10° – They are not reporting any new snow, but David Lesher (the official Tucker County weather guru) reported another 2.5" of new snow for them, so we’ll go with that. Canaan has seen 7.2" of snow (three of the four days of February thus far) and 141.7" on the season. February is taking up right where January left off – SNOWY as heck! Conditions will be awesome today at Canaan with all 39 trails open.
Don’t forget that Canaan Valley has a rather unique race going down this weekend. Check this out:
Sponsored by Facelevel.com
Date: February 7
Activities start at 11:00am
Race starts at 2:00 pm
Fees Apply
Canaan Valley Resort will host this inaugural event. Activities include music, prizes, and three race events: an extreme speed downhill event where racers will compete for top speed, a boardercross style event where individuals racers will compete head-to-head (with full contact allowed) for first place, and a team race event. Fee charged to race – register now or inquiries [email protected]
Snowshoe Mountain – 1° and reporting another 1" of snow overnight. They have awesome groomed and packed powder conditions on all 60 trails for today. This weekend marks the Cuervo Games of Winter! Tons of games will be held at the Connection Nightclub along with many on-snow activities. Be sure to visit our website at www.snowshoemtn.com for a schedule of events. If you book by February 13th you’ll receive your 3rd night is FREE! Call 1-877-441-4FUN and make your reservations today! Check out the video on the front of SkiSoutheast.com to see President and COO of Snowshoe, Bill Rock talking about that great deal and also you can see the half pipe and more.
Timberline Resort – 13° and they saw more snow in the last 24 hours to take them to 7.2" on the month (the last four days!) and 141.7" on the season. Timberline has closed a trail and they are doing some focused snowmaking right now on Upper Salamander, White Out, Woods Hole, Twister and Upper White Lightning. Conditions will be awesome today on 31 of 37 trails with 80% of the mountain groomed. They report a base of 35-65".
Winterplace Resort – 17° and 6" of new snow being reported! That takes them to 58" on the season and it will be a POWDER DAY at Winterplace today! They have closed a couple of trails for focused snowmaking and offer 24 of 28 trails and snowtubing. Buttermilk, Milkshake, Ridge Runner & Wood’s Run are Closed for snowmaking. They report a base of 32-72".
Wisp Resort – 15° – Trace of new snow and groomed conditions on 31 trails with some isolated snowmaking going on with a few trails here and there. A couple of people emailed us that Wisp has some crazy, awesome moguls on Whip Saw so you mogul fans may want to check that out! They have their terrain parks open, 10 lanes of snow tubing and the mountain coaster is open as well!
Ober Gatlinburg – 7° and they reported a TRACE of new snow and it is snowing as of this 9am report! They are making snow and they have 6 of 8 trails open and snow tubing as well!
Wolf Ridge Resort – minus 2° and they are reporting 8" of snow in the last 24 hours! That takes them to 39" on the season and it will be a powder day at The Wolf today. They report a base of 56-76" on 10 trails serviced by two lifts. They report, "The best snow of the season!"
Ski Beech – minus 7° and 6" of new snow. That is 7" in the last two days and more is expected to fall today! They are making snow as well and conditions will be awesome today on 11 of 15 trails and a base of 35-65". Expect POWDER and PACKED POWDER conditions today! This takes Beech to 49" of snow on the season!
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 0° – Reported 3.5" of new snow and more is coming in today! They are 100% open with a base of 88-114" of groomed powder. They have both terrain parks open and ice skating as well. Expect
nothing but SWEET conditions at App today and tonight. No snowmaking during open sessions!
Cataloochee Ski Area – 0° – They reported 6" of new snow as of 9:30pm last night! That is on top of nearly an inch that feel the evening before and now 31" on the season! Cat is 100% open with packed powder conditions and a base of 42-98" on all 14 trails for day and night sessions. Great skiing at the Cat!
Sugar Mountain – minus 7° and 6" of snow! That takes Sugar to 47" of snow on the season and they report a base of 50-89" with Manmade and Natural Powder conditions on all 20 trails. Tubing is open. Skating is closed today. It will be an awesome day at Sugar Mountain today as more snow is expected today. Snowmaking is ongoing only in selected areas today.
Sapphire Valley Ski Area – They are closed on Wednesdays & Thursdays. It’s been six days since the last update for these guys.
Hawksnest Tubing – still closed til Thursday. 0° and 6" of snow.
WORDS MEAN EVERYTHING
Words mean everything – if you want to get the answer that you’re hoping for. We receive a ton of emails everyday and people ask all sorts of questions and we do our best to answer every single one, but some are hard to answer. For example, Carla H. of Mount Pleasant, S.C. wrote, "I want to visit a ski resort that allows 5 year olds to go sledding. Do you have a list of any? Thank you!"
The answer, if I stick to what she asked is, "No, the ski areas don’t allow people to sled on their trails."
Of course I now have to discern, did Laura actually MEAN "sledding" or was she asking about "tubing". …or was she indeed asking about sledding, because Beech Mountain Town Hall (as an example) DOES have a free SLEDDING HILL. Such is life in SkiSoutheast land.
I have been doing this website for 13 seasons now and it has always amazed me how people can ask questions in such generic ways that make it nearly impossible for us to answer without having a "Dr. Phil-like" conversation with them.
For example, about four weeks or so ago we were reporting "bare spots" on some slopes. Honest to goodness I had emails that I thought HAD TO BE fictitious in nature because they were so "out there". I have always enjoyed a little tête-à-tête every once in a while so I answer some of the questions that we’re asked in ways that are a bit cynical from time to time. Hey, I admit it!
However, case in point was Julie D, from Fort Jackson, S.C. who wrote, "I’ve had some friends tell me that they have run across deer from time to time on the slopes while skiing. What do skiers do when they run across these bare spots?"
Being a gifted "between the lines reader" I figured she was being sarcastic and PURPOSELY didn’t know the difference between BARE and BEAR. Of course I wrote her, "Well Julie, the polite thing to do would be to go to the bottom and ask one of the lifties to take a pooper scooper up there and scoop up those bare spots!" (She didn’t get it and her response told me that I was wrong about her being sarcastic.)
She thought that some of our black BEAR population must occasionally leave some "BEAR spots" on the slopes, I guess. No, really – that IS what she thought!
Another guy – Jamie C of Greensboro, N.C. wrote, "When you guys talk about bare spots, how big are these bare spots? How are we to know?"
Now that question is easier to answer. Our "base legend" pretty much spells out whether ski conditions are phenomenal (as they are everywhere right now) all the way down to "terrible/should be closed". However, all things are relative. To one newbie skier or snowboarder a bare spot is horrendous because like it or not – you’re going to run right through it. To an experienced skier or rider who wants to get every turn out of a slope that is possible – a bare spot is nothing more than a challenge. Heck, I know people who have done their darndest to attempt to jump and hook up bare spots that I would never consider skiing down.
I remember one reader defined "bare spot" as: "A place where, due to insufficient snow, the underlying earth is visible. Depending on weather conditions, bare spots can range from a patch the size of a footprint to a patch the size of the northeastern United States!" (Others would substitute our region in that equation, but I am not going there.)
I could get going off on a tangent on the alternative meanings of words, because we’ve had so many over the years. One of the funniest was a guy who wrote asking if I knew what a bastard was. I was hoping he wasn’t describing his opinion of me, so I answered, "Yea, it is a flat file that you can use to file or sharpen things with."
He wrote we back, "Yep. It is EITHER a wide, flat file used to flatten, sharpen or bevel ski edges with. Of course ANOTHER definition is – it is someone who CHARGED me for hand-filing my skis but instead he used a belt sander!"
WORDS…
More email oddities…
Holly M. of Charlotte, NC wrote, "Are there ANY message boards, websites, anything (other than Craigslist) to find carpools & rideshares up to the resorts near Blowing Rock, NC? Thanks."
Ummm…what about this website’s messageboard? People hookup all the time. (Oh THERE’S a word with multiple meanings!)
How about this one…
William B. of Fort Lauderdale writes, "I want to know the best place for ski."
Taking him literally…the best place FOR ski (or skis) would be anywhere that sells Atomics, Rossis, Salomon’s, Bros, etc. We have to play "Nostradamus" around here, so I am GUESSING he meant the best place TO ski. Well THAT would be ——-. (You guys think I’m stupid, don’t you?)
We DO answer these questions when we have a little more information like, "for beginners", "close to Asheville", etc.
That’s enough for today. Go enjoy these awesome conditions!
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]