Winterplace Resort and Timberline in West Virginia both reported some additional snowfall in the last 24 hours. Timberline Resort reported 2" more snow on Monday on top of the 6" reported from Sunday. That makes for 8" of snow in the last couple of days and 33" on the season!
Winterplace Resort reported another 1" of snow on Monday and 6" in the last two days.
So it appears that this Sunday to Monday snow storm ended up dumping from 8" at Timberline, Canaan Valley and Snowshoe Resorts, to 6" at Winterplace, 5" at Wisp Resort and anywhere from 3"-5" across many of the Virginia and North Carolina ski areas. Ski Beech and Sugar Mountain’s report of 4-5" is the most in North Carolina.
TEMPS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE…BUT THEY ARE PERFECT FOR SNOWMAKING!!!
It is a COLD, gloriously beautiful day in the mountains! Crystal blue skies and temperatures that make you pick up your pace as you go from your car to your front door! As I post this morning’s update at 7:30am I am seeing temperatures that are all over the place. It’s 26° atop Beech Mountain and yet 9° just ten minutes down the hill in Banner Elk and 12° here at my office on Hwy 105 between Banner Elk and Boone.
Some other temperature observations are 15° and Massanutten in Virginia, 22° at Wintergreen, 10° at Timberline Resort in West Virginia, 16° at Winterplace and 17° at Wisp Resort in Maryland.
One pretty impressive temperature anomaly is at Snowshoe Mountain where this morning the 7am temperature was 9° at the bottom of their mountain near Shavers Lake, and 17° at the top of their 4848′ elevations. Crazy, but true.
It was 11° at Cataloochee, 22° at Appalachian, 10° at Hawksnest, and 14° at Sugar. All resorts are making snow and did for the last 30 hours or so.
NUMBERS GOING UP…
The combination of 3-5" of snow across the mountains and frigid temperatures since Sunday AM have made for rising numbers at our ski areas. Rising base depths and trail counts that is!
Most resorts are adding 4-8" of base with Cataloochee raising their base depths numbers 20" in just that last two mornings!?! Appalachian has increased their base 8" in the same period, and Sugar Mountain 10". Most resorts are showing a 4" to 8" increase in the last 24 hours which shows just how great the snowmaking conditions are!
Wintergreen Resort upped their base by 2" and most of the rest added an average of 4" since Monday!
Cataloochee has also opened 3 more trails than they had open on Monday. They now offer seven trails for skiing and riding from 8:30am to 10pm today. The seven trails that they offer matches the state’s most open terrain. Sugar also has seven trails available for day and night skiing.
Appalachian Ski Mountain has 4 trails, but expect more open soon. Appalachian was really blasting the trails from every angle yesterday, and their machines showed no let up all night last night and this morning. Expect all of the resorts to make snow as long as temps allow!
While I am on Appalachian, thanks go out to Brad Moretz for your generosity yesterday. You know you guys are appreciated! Also, "you’re welcome" goes out to a group of kids from Valle Crucis yesterday who all snowboarded free on SkiNC.com. It’s cool to get emails from 13 year olds. According to them, we "rule", "rock" and they will "represent". Thanks to Appalachian’s Snow Day rates, the snowboard rentals and lift tickets were on us. (I hope the rental department released the $1600 worth of board deposits!)
If you get a chance to ski or ride today…I can attest to the fact that the snow over at Appalachian is as close to the real thing that God puts down as any I have ever skied. They DO know how to make some sweet powder over there.
I can also attest to the fact that you’d better have all of your proper gear for protection for the elements! Goggles are a must and some kind of head gear is recommended as you WILL get snowed on!
OTHER RESORT NEWS…
Hawksnest will be opening for the 2007-2008 season on Wednesday morning. They plan to ski, board and tube on their first official day of the season!
Sapphire Valley is making snow and planning on opening soon.
Wolf Ridge is planning to reopen probably mid week.
OBER GATLINBURG OPENS ON WEDNESDAY! I use caps here because for the last year and a half or so, Gatlinburg has experienced marginal temps that have made it a battle to make and keep all of their terrain open. The same is true for this early in the 2007-2008 season as they have been just above the needed temps to make snow and therefore have not been able to get cranked up. These cold temps have made it possible for Ober to make a ton of snow and they plan on opening Wednesday at noon! GREAT NEWS FOR THEM!
Massanutten Resort in Virginia is looking pretty good as they have snow skiing, boarding and four lanes of their tubing hill open.
PACKED POWDER is the surface condition of the day today as resorts have groomed and done a great job of making snow on top of the 3-8" of natural snow that feel this weekend and into Monday, so skiing and riding should be rather sweet today. GET US SOME PICS!!!
PARTING SHOTS…
I still plan on sharing a lot of your comments about our Global Warming story. It seems that you guys really have some very strong opinions about it…and it’s pretty amazing that we’ve only received two or three emails calling us an idiot and more than a hundred or so supporting our stance with some pretty impressive data and proof as well.
With the supportive emails I would have thought that the lastes poll that we posted asking for your vote on whether or not the global warming craze is bogus or real…would have been even more lopsided. If it were a presidential election the results would be a record, historic landslide as 305 voters say that the global warming craze is bogus and only 113 say its real. That is a 73% to 27% lead thus far. Frankly I thought it might even be a bit more lopsided…
Of course I will now get the obligatory emails from a few who say something like, "Dude, jus’ cause most of da people think that it is bogus doesn’t mean it’s not happenin’. That jus’ means most people are stupid and uninformed unlike us colledge graduites." (FYI I did the mispellings on purpose, because I don’t know what they are teaching in our schools other than things like the global warming malarky because grammar and spelling doesn’t seem to be one of them.
Enjoy what should be a great day on the slopes…just wear your goggles!
Until Next Time…Send your comments, photos and videos to: [email protected]
See You On The Slopes!