The temps this morning are some 10° “warmer” than Wednesday morning. However all but Ober Gatlinburg were able to make snow last night. Some resorts are still making snow as of this post. Appalachian, Cataloochee, Hawksnest, Sugar, Beech, Canaan, Snowshoe, Timberline and Wisp were still making snow as of this 8am post. With the cold temps and the snowmaking that has been put down over the last 48 hours or so…expect conditions to be p-r-e-t-t-y sweet at your favorite resort for Thursday!
With the way that the weather has been thus far this season, we’d all like to see some more snowmaking going on, however, the skiing and riding today will be very nice when the snowguns turn off. Temps across the region should make it into the 40s across the board.
We’re getting a lot of emails about the weekend forecast. If the forecast holds true, it appears that we will get some more snowmaking in tonight at most resorts. That is great news. After tonight, it looks like the next chance of snowmaking temps won’t come before Monday night. Temps are expected to be in the 40s to near 50° for highs and lows should stay above freezing.
The forecast for Friday and Saturday should be almost perfect for skiing and dry. We have some underdeveloped snow (rain) coming in for Sunday but that’s still a few days away so we’ll not fret over that just yet.
We received a lot of great images from around the region yesterday, and we’ll be getting to those posts today. My staff is on a Holiday break and since those posts are left to yours truly – I will start uploading them after I get back from making some first tracks of my own at Snowshoe Mountain this morning!
I’ll also be updating this column later today so be sure to check back.
Here’s some Notes from Around the Region:
Cataloochee opened another trail and is now 60% open with 7 of 12 trails operating.
Hawksnest may be re-opening their snow tubing hill today. Call ahead. We were told that they were making snow there and should be able to get it open for snow tubing fun today. They also have 4 trails open for skiing and snowboarding. Lorrie Tomlinson reported in from Hawksnest yesterday, “Tuesday’s natural snowfall attracted the after Christmas crowds to Hawksnest on Wednesday. Blue skies, little wind, and the overnight snowmaking provided great conditions. The wait in the lift lines was usually less than 10 minutes. The snow guns were powered off during the day session. The temperature dropped for the night session and snowmaking resumed. The guns were in full force on the tubing lanes, so hopefully tubing will re-open on Thursday.”
Sapphire Valley is still being reported as closed by the SSAA, they are open for skiing and tubing!
Evidently some people are showing up to Sugar Mountain for tubing. They do not have their tubing operation going just yet. If you want to tube in the High Country area…try Hawksnest.
Wintergreen was showing 38 this morning at 7:33am, but they made snow last night. So conditions will be very nice on the 5 trails they do have open. Sarah Lovejoy wrote, “Our snowmaking plan is to continue making snow on the trails we have open now and begin working on additional trails that have not opened this season. The next trails we plan on opening will be in the highlands area. Opening the tubing park and the terrain park are also a priority for us.”
Canaan Valley has been making snow on Lower Timber Trail, Cutback, Valley Vista & The Face. They have 3 trails open but are looking to open those others soon.
Snowshoe Mountain has really laid down some snow in the last several days. When I first hit the slopes Wednesday morning I was admitted shocked at how deep the combination of manmade and natural powder was. I stuck my pole down on one turn and it sunk close to a foot! The temps here this morning are 25 up top and 31 at the base and they are making snow as long as temps allow. Conditions for first tracks should be awesome. (I’ll report back in a couple of hours with some pics and report, so check back.)
Winterplace opened a few more slopes since Wednesday and they now are playing on 7 trails.
Wisp hasn’t updated their report since the 26th, but conditions are nice up that way. They’ve been able to make snow and the natural snow that they received Tuesday night is making for some nice conditions. We’ll get you some photos asap.
The advice this morning is to get out and enjoy the best conditions of the season at most resorts right now. We have a few days of what should be great skiing…so make the most of it. We’re keeping our eye on the weather and we’ll update you soon.
Email your photos to [email protected]
Until Next Time…
THINK COLD AND SNOW!!!
Send comments and emails to: [email protected]
For more information about the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic visit www.SkiSoutheast.com
REMEMBER TO VIEW ARCHIVED ARTICLES IN CASE YOU MISSED A STORY POSTED EARLIER TODAY!