A Great Weekend of Skiing and Riding (or just playing in the snow) is On Tap for Southeast Ski Resort Fans!

First Trax

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Some areas in the region saw another Trace to 1" of new snow within the last 24 hours. Snowmaking was in effect at several ski areas as well!

There’s a 40% chance of snow for today across the mountains and lows tonight should dip to a snowmaking op of 21° across the higher peaks.  It will be COLD enough to make snow each of the next several nights and that means more terrain open everywhere although several ski areas in the Southeast are already 100% open with others only one or a couple away from being fully open.

Santa’s doing his magical thing again this season. He’s somehow able to make an appearance skiing and in some cases snowboarding at multiple ski areas at the same time. He is, afterall, one cool dude!

Speaking of temps… WOW our new HighCountryWeather.com website is getting rocked with new visits! Thanks for checking it out and we hope that you’ll spread the word that we’re bringing you guys a one stop shop for all of the ski areas’ forecasts and current data. We’re going to grow that website’s outreach in the future.

Here’s the tour…and let’s go backwards per state today. (Just something different.)

Ober Gatlinburg – No snowmaking. – Ober is open with 6 of 9 trails for day and night sessions on Saturday. They also have tubing and terrain park open as well as the biggest indoor ice rink in the region. Wait, it’s the ONLY indoor ice rink in the region. Ober also has the only TRAM in the region as well, taking you from downtown Gatlinburg to the ski area with an amazing view of the Smokies. If you haven’t made it to Gatlinburg you’re really missing a treat at Christmas – or anytime of year.

Wisp Resort – 15° – Wisp is reporting NO snowmaking despite the frigid temps. That’s how great the conditions are right now. Wisp didn’t report it, but they saw another 4" of new snow from Thursday to Friday AM, giving them 46" of snow on the season and that is nearly one-half of the normal snowfall for a season and we’re only at December 18th! Wisp is open with all but one trail open (That’s 31 of 32 trails) and they have two of three terrain parks open, ice skating, snow tubing on seven lanes and their mountain coaster is open as well. It sounds like a GREAT time to head to Wisp this weekend.

Winterplace Resort – 12° – After a 12° low this morning it is now as of 8:30am at 20° and that should make for a great day with some natural snowfall to boot – to enjoy a great day on the slopes. Winterplace has both terrain parks open as well as snow tubing and they are open on 19 of 28 trails for day and night sessions. Winterplace is reporting that they only have 27 trails on their snow report, but we counted them and there’s 28. For a moment we thought we’d lost one!

Timberline Resort – 27° – They made snow and also picked up another 7/10th of an inch of new snow that gives them 4.5" in the last few days, nearly 13" in the last week and 54.6" on the season. They are under-reporting their season snowfall (I actually like that!) and conditions there will be awesome today on 20 of 37 trails. No night sessions just yet at Timberline according to their report.

Snowshoe Mountain – 12° – It’s c-c-cold at Snowshoe this morning. They picked up a TRACE of new snow and are now at 44" on the season. Snowshoe opens up even MORE terrain today with 44 of 60 trails open. They are open with night sessions over on the Silver Creek side as well as Cupp Run is open today! Laura, Ed, get us some pics and video on Cupp!

Laura reminds us, "Almost 75% of our available terrain is now open and perfectly groomed this morning. Don’t forget that the Silver Creek area is now available daily from 9am to 9pm. Your Snowshoe lift ticket grants you access to all of that terrain as well–that’s 12 hours and almost 200 acres to enjoy with just 1 lift ticket! We have terrain park features set up in the Powdermonkey Small Park and Spruce Glades Large Park at Snowshoe and the Robinsons Run Small Park at Silver Creek. Tubing, snowshoeing, snowmobile and snowcat tours are now all available! And don’t forget, for you first time skiers/riders, take 1 adult group, beginner lesson and you’ll receive a FREE lesson PER DAY for the remainder of your stay! It’s our way of saying thank you for choosing Snowshoe Mountain, and welcome to the sport! It’s going to be a great day on snow, enjoy it out there!"

Canaan Valley – 14° which leads us to believe that Timberline’s temp is wrong – Canaan reopens today after 13" of snow fell this week! They are open with 9 trails and tubing for today as well as offering some great cross-country terrain!

Wintergreen Resort – 21° – They’ve made snow and look wonderful for this weekend on 21 of 26 trails for day and night sessions. Anne Marie posts, "UPPER WILD TURKEY OPENS TODAY! Great snowmaking weather means more terrain opening just about every day. Today we will ski and ride on all 3 sections of our mountain. Opening HIGHLANDS this early is a real treat. Pack up your gear and start heading this way!

We plan to open additional slopes daily with a goal of being 100% OPEN BY CHRISTMAS. Between now and Monday we hope to put Lower Cliffhanger and Big Acorn on the OPEN list. Keep checking this report for progress updates."

The Homestead – We finally heard from them and they’re feeling good after 6.5" of snow fell recently! They are open today on 6 of 10 trails for day sessions.

Massanutten Resort – 20° and they made snow and after 4" of snow fell on Thursday to Friday they are in beautiful shape with 11 trails of 14 open as well as tubing. Mass is open for day and night sessions with near perfect conditions!

Bryce Resort – They are open for day sessions only today on 7 of 8 trails and tubing is open as well. Here’s some news for Bryce fans…visitors to OntheSnow.com chose Bryce as their "Favorite Family Friendly Resort" in the mid-Atlantic region.

Wolf Ridge Resort – 34° – No snowmaking. They opened 4 more trails to send them to 15 of 20 trails available for today. That’s the Upper Mountain (Old Breakaway slopes) that are now open. Rick Bussey reports, "SLOPES Groomed and in Great shape." Tubing is open as well.

No new natural snow was reported anywhere in the state of North Carolina for the first time in days. Beech’s CoCoRaHs reporter (which I think is still Gil Adams) is the only station reporting snow base still on the ground and that’s at 7.5" up on Beech Mountain. (This isn’t the ski area we’re talking about people – but the natural snow that’s on the ground like at Fred’s Mercantile and elsewhere.)

Sugar Mountain – 26° – They too are reporting snowmaking going on the AM and as long as temps allow. Sugar is open for day and night sessions on 17 of 20 trails and snow tubing is open – as is ice skating.

Sapphire Valley – 33° – No report. I know they PLANNED on opening yesterday however their own website reports that they were "planning to open December 17th". We try. That’s ALL we can do. We try and we try. We DID make a call and found out that they ARE open with both trails…the bunny hill and the intermediate slope. They are also offering their popular Frozen Falls Tubing Park as well.

Note: Not sure where Sarah got the 80" base depth from on the previous snow report from Friday, but Sapphire is reporting a much more appropriate 24-36" of groomed conditions today.

Cataloochee Ski Area – 32° – No Snowmaking – 100% open with all 16 trails open for day and night sessions and snow tubing is open as well. Great conditions await you at The Cat.

Beech Mountain Ski Resort – 27° – They ARE reporting new manmade snow – They are open with 14 of 15 trails, which is everything on the mountain with the lone exception of The Oz Run. They offer day and night sessions on a base of 34-60" of groomed conditions and ice skating is open as well.

Note: We’ve heard some very nice things about the conditions at Beech and the grooming up there so far this season. Not that it’s a surprise or anything – just saying!

Appalachian Ski Mountain – 26° – That was the recorded low last night at App, but it wasn’t long or consistent enough or something (wet bulb maybe) for them to make snow. App is 100% open with all (12) trails, including three terrain parks. They have ice skating open as well.

That’s it for today. Check out:
 
www.HighCountryWeather.com  
www.HighCountryWebCams.com  

Send us your photos, videos and reports of your day on the slopes to [email protected] or [email protected] and we’ll post you up! Thanks for helping us spread the word of how great things are on the slopes!

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