That’s 109 of 353 slopes and trails available to ride at the 13 ski areas that are open in the region. That’s 31% of the available slopes that dot our mountains.
Are you guys starting to get a little antsy about how few slopes and trails are open?
Let me take you on a magical, mystery tour of “near Christmas Past”. The great thing about our little website (more than 187,000 pages of content, photos, videos and more) is that we can go back into the archives to see how things compare from season to season.
A look back exactly 365 days ago will show you that they were pretty much the same as they are RIGHT NOW. In December of 2013 we were coming off a mild stretch (after a nice start) and resorts were struggling for every snowmaking opportunity to get as much snow on the mountain prior to the all-important Christmas-New Year week. If you want to revisit the story from December 13, 2013, click HERE.
WHO’S OPEN, WITH WHAT?
We thought we’d take you guys on a tour of all of the resorts that are open and who has the most slopes and trails operating.
Snowshoe Mountain – Has the most terrain open in the region with 21 of 60 trails open. They are operating for DAY sessions only today. They have a whopping 32-56″ base as well.
Winterplace – Open with 14 of 27 trails for day and night sessions. Snow tubing is open as well. They posted, “We will be OPEN to the top of the Mountain on Sat. 12-13th! The Snowtubing Park will be OPEN on Sat. 12-13, 9am – 9pm & Sun 12-14, 9am – 4:30pm with 3 lanes!”
Cataloochee – Open with 11 of 17 trails. Cat is now open to the TOP of their mountain! Tubing is open this weekend as well. Open for day sessions only until next week.
Sugar Mountain – 50% open with 10 of 20 trails, tubing and ice skating. Sugar is celebrating SugarFest this weekend with:
4:00pm- After Ski Party with Music by BOSS HAWG through 7pm
5:45pm- Fireworks Display
Appalachian – Open with 9 of 12 trails and Both Appaljack and Appal Jam are open with fun park features!! Ice skating is open now as well!
Beech Mountain – Open with 8 of 15 trails. They are open for night skiing now. Beech posted, “Powder Bowl Terrain Park has seven brand new features, including a jump and the @recessnc wall ride! You couldn’t ask for a better weekend to make some laps. See ya out here!”
Wintergreen Resort – Open with 8 of 26 trails, snow tubing, terrain parks and more. They posted, “Overnight snowmaking hours continue off and on through the upcoming week. Upper Cliffhanger and Lower Wild Turkey are more than ½ complete with a goal of having these open on Saturday 12/20. Cross your fingers and toes for cold weather.”
(I like the way they do their mountain blog.”
Timberline Resort – Open with 8 of 41 trails for day sessions only today. No mention of terrain parks, etc.
Bryce Resort – Open with 5 of 8 trails and tubing today. Bryce posted, “Revenuer’s Run joins the action starting today and we are excited to be opening another slope. The snowmakers have been hard at work and fighting for every flake so far this season! Early Season Rates have been extended through December 19th!”
Massanutten – Open with 5 of 14 trails and 7 lanes of snow tubing. You can see some great LIVE shots of slopes and tubing at: http://www.resortcams.com/webcams/massanutten/
Wisp Resort – Open with 4 of 34 trails, tubing and ice skating as well as their mountain coaster.
Ober Gatlinburg – Open with 3 of 9 trails today as well as tubing and ice skating at the regions only INDOOR ice skating rink.
Ober posted, “The time is 5:34am, we have 22° with clear skies, AND it’s the day we’ve all been waiting for!!!”
Wolf Ridge – Open with 3 of 15 trails. (Not sure why but last year they reported that they offered 17 trails.) They are open with night skiing and riding as well.
Liberty Snowflex – I spoke with Drew this past week and it was great to hear all of the fun that they have planned this season. Of course as far as season’s go, they are open year-round with 100% of their mountain open. That’s 8 of 8 trails!
Canaan Valley and Sapphire Valley – plans to open the weekend of December 20th.
Canaan Valley wrote, “Due to the warming trend forecasted over the next 10 days, Canaan Valley Resort will suspend on-slope operations in order to preserve the current snowpack. TENTATIVE RE-OPENING DATE is Saturday, December 20, 2014.”
NO REPORT from:
The Homestead – We believe they are opening NEXT WEEKEND.
Check out the FULL SNOW REPORT HERE and feel free to drop me an email with your thoughts and reactions at: [email protected]