What a Difference a Day Makes!

First Trax

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Some NATURAL SNOW has fallen and a bit more may come down today. It’s VERY VERY COLD across the region and resorts are open. ONE DAY AGO slopes were BARE and it was GOLF WEATHER. Go figure.

I’m always intrigued when new webcams are added to our network, but this morning one of the more impressive examples of how much difference our region’s snowmakers can make is by looking at the following BEFORE and AFTER at Wisp Resort.

 

A view of Wisp Resort's Squirrel Cage slopes as of 3pm Friday afternoon!
A view of Wisp Resort’s Squirrel Cage slopes as of 3pm Friday afternoon! Click to enlarge!
This morning at 8:15am! Click to enlarge!

EDIT: This is Kenny here.  I captured a timelapse of the last 24 hours on the new Wisp cam.  It turned out pretty decent, although a few of the captured frames were off center.  I’ll have to work on that when I get home (out of town right now) but it’s still pretty cool to see!

As I was looking around the region this morning via all of the webcams, I couldn’t help but notice that the wind is howling in certain areas AND the snow guns are cranking out some snow that IS mixing in with some natural snow that was falling at places like Snowshoe, Canaan, Timberline and even at Beech and Sugar.

It WILL be a raw day particularly fighting the windy conditions and snowmaking but let’s be real – it is AWESOME to have those machines blasting away, right?

Snowmaking WILL BE HAPPENING! No complaints please…

Bryce Resort, Massanutten Resort and Wintergreen Resort made snow which was something of a surprise as temps were borderline at 30° and with the forecast for the next week. However they are fighting the fight to get open. We’ll keep you updated.

Wintergreen’s marketing people always do such a nice job with their Mountain Blog, I thought that I’d share their post – which shares the sentiment that we all have right now. They posted:

If the weather cooperates, we would like to open limited terrain on Sunday and operate from 12 noon until 5pm.  Because the snowmaking hours available are limited, the amount of snow made will not survive the extended warm up in our forecast.  Rather than focus on this reality, we are going to do everything we can to get open even if we only operate for a few days.  We love snow as much as anyone else and a few days of fun on the snow are worth all the effort we are going to put in.

Our snowmaking focus will be on Upper Dobie to Loggers Alley Lift, Potato Patch, Ridgely’s Fun Park and The Plunge.  2 trails, 2 lifts, a few rail features on Upper Dobie, kid fun in Ridgelys and a few lanes of tubing.  In an effort to try and make this happen, we have placed ground guns between tower guns trying to maximize our production in this limited area.  With the short weather window, this strategy provides the best chance at getting something to slide on.  Success has everything to do with weather….Cross your fingers and toes for COLD!

Be sure to check out all of the Ski Resort Cams today as things are looking very nice.

 

Here’s The Latest News as of 8am Saturday morning:

Canaan Valley Resort – 15° – 1.7″ on NEW SNOW! Canaan will open at NOON and be open for day sessions until 4:30pm today with 4 Trails from the top – offering intermediate & advanced terrain.
Snowmaking in progress!

Snowshoe Mountain Resort – 14° – 2″ of natural snow! – Open for day sessions with 7 trails and 4 lifts with a 23″ base.

No Word from Timberline or Winterplace about an opening today as of 8am. Last we heard they should open Sunday/Monday.

Wisp Resort – 19° and made a ton of snow

Appalachian Ski Mountain – 19° – making snow – Weather permitting, ASM hopes to re-open for skiing and snowboarding Sunday, December 20. Keep posted as we will post any updates on re-opening as soon as they become available.

Beech Mountain Resort – 11° – making tons of snow – They are reporting NO NATURAL SNOW, but in fact they did receive .5″ of new snow officially according to the CoCoRaHs reporter on Beech. They are open for skiing and snowboarding with 5 slopes and trails!  The resort will operate from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m..  Ice Skating and Tubing will open for the season on Sunday, December 20, 2015.  We will continue to make snow as temperatures allow.  Beech has SELFIES WITH SANTA, LIVE MUSIC and more planned. See: BeechMountainResort.com for more info

 

Bryce Resort – 30° – Surprised us and a lot of people by making snow late on Friday and this morning.

Massanutten Resort – 28° and making snow as well. No word on opening just yet.

Cataloochee Ski Area – 20.8° – They WILL OPEN but there’s no report of slopes and trails as yet. They will open for day sessions only.

Sugar Mountain Resort – 13.1° – 10-20″ base with FIVE trails open for day and night sessions. The slopes are open for day and night skiing and riding. Snowmaking is in progress. The tubing park is closed and will reopen as soon as possible. Please continue to check back. Ice Skating is open with sessions at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm.

Wolf Ridge Resort – Snowmaking in progress with plans to open Sunday or Monday.

Ober Gatlinburg – 27° – The weather has finally turned in our favor, with more seasonable temperatures expected.  The snowmaking system is set up and ready to go as soon as it reaches 28 degrees.  Expect to see snow guns running on Cub Way and Castle Run, as well as the snow tubing area and Cubbies Sno-Zone.  Will it be enough to get open for skiing and snowboarding?  Only time will tell, but you can be assured that our dedicated crew will make every effort to do so.

Sapphire Valley – 24° but not making snow as they may be waiting until AFTER the first of the year to open now.

 

Until next time…

Enjoy your day and THINK SNOW! THINK COLD! …and Start a Prayer effort! Email me anytime and about anything at: [email protected]

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