Friday was a GREAT day to be on the slopes. 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 tim. Cody is quite a skier and snowboarder.
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.
WEST VIRGINIA SKI RESORT NEWS:
Canaan Valley located in Tucker County has been blessed with 8" MORE snow in the last 24 hours, 21" in the last 7 days and now 136.6" on the season. They have THE MOST terrain that they’ve had open all season long TODAY with 38 trails of powder and packed powder conditions. I am soooo jealous!
Snowshoe Mountain is reporting 14° and made snow overnight but more impressive is the fact that they received another 6" of natural snow, 16" on the week and that takes them to 111" on the season. They ramped up to 59 trails open for today with powder and corduroy conditions! They have their terrain parks in sweet condition, snow tubing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and about anything else you can do on the snow!
Laura Parquette writes, "It’s the start of another great weekend at Snowshoe.Six inches of new powder fell overnight and conditions should be absolutely amazing all week. Today, another 1-3" of snow is possible, further adding to our incredible base. Snowmaking did occur overnight, but due to the large amount of snow we’ve recived this week-16"!!-snowmaking should not take place during the day all weekend. All slopes except for Lower Shay’s Revenge will be open today, with plenty of powder! Sawmill, Camp 99, Widowmaker, Knotbumper and portions of Gandy were all left ungroomed for great powder conditions this morning. Tomorrow should be an absolutely epic day on the slopes, with plenty of fresh snow, sunshine and warm temps. It’s the perfect way to kick off March on the Mountain. If you haven’t made plans to visit us in March, call 1-877-441-4FUN TODAY!"
Timberline Resort is reporting 8" of new snow and 35 trails open today! They have also see 136.6" on the season. There’s a great snow total resourse up there that we wish all areas would have. Check out http://canaanweather.4t.com/
<Can you say POW POW? Winterplace looks GREAT today!
Winterplace Resort – They reported 4" of new snow, 11" in the last 3 days and 61" on the season! they are 100% open today with great conditions on the trails, terrain parks and tubing hill. We feature Winterplace with our Photo of the Day today!
Conditions should be EPIC all weekend in West Virginia!
MARYLAND SKI RESORT NEWS:
Wisp Resort – They are at 22° this morning and reporting 5" more snow in the last 24 hours and 13" in the last 3 days. The 5" of new snow takes Wisp to 82" on the season and within striking distance of their annual average of 100" with ALL of March left to go! Wisp has exceeded their annual average snowfall in each of the last three season! They have 31 trails open today, both terrain parks, tubing and more!
VIRGINIA SKI RESORT NEWS: The resorts in Va made snow, but did not see any of the natural snow. We only mention this because the North Carolina Mountains AND West Virginia mountains picked up as much as 14" in the last week and the system just seemed to bypass the Virginia resorts.
Wintergreen Resort – They took great advantage of their high-tech snowmaking plant and now have 21 trails open today as well as their tubing hill and terrain park. Anne Marie Jones writes, "Come join us for an exciting weekend of fun in the sun and snow as we celebrate Mardi Gras and host the USSA S.A.R.A. Ski Championship today. Snowmaking and grooming crews were busy at work this past week making record amounts of snow. Crews were able to resurface and stockpile snow on all main slopes and trails throughout the resort. Today we are expecting highs in the upper 30’s with clear and sunny skies. Skiing and riding conditions are some of the best of the season with lots of great skiing and riding left for the season as we are scheduled to operate through March."
Bryce Resort reported no snow and did not make snow. They are however 100% Open with all 8 trails, terrain park and snow tubing open as well. Expect very nice conditions at Bryce this weekend.
Massanutten Resort made snow, but reported no natural snow. They have 11 trails open today, terrain parks and great snowtubing as well. Massy will be hosting the "Thunder On the Mountain Snowboard contest" Sunday, Noon-3:30pm in the CMB Terrain Park. Subaru Day Sunday March 2nd!
Ober Gatlinburg in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains was not able to make snow nor did they see any natural snow from yesterday but did get more than a foot of snow this week! They have six trails open from the top and they are hosting their Spring Fling on Sunday at Noon.
NORTH CAROLINA SKI RESORT NEWS:
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 SWEET this morning, primed and ready!
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!
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