The weather seems to be really "working well" with the ski area management, vacation rental companies and vacationers as we are now moving into another weekend that presents the best possible conditions for visitors. The Heavenly Chamber of Commerce is providing us highs in the low to mid 30s across the North Carolina Mountains with clear skies and 35° for Friday, 34° on Saturday with some light snow, and a high of 28° on Sunday with early snow and clear skies later in the day. Overnight lows will be in the upper teens tonight and Saturday night and a degree or two colder for Sunday night. That means nearly around the clock snowmaking, more trail openings and a VERY, VERY NICE weekend for your ski and snowboarding getaway. Get in the car and make the trip.
We’re doing just that this morning. It is currently 5:30am as I type this early report and we’re making a ski getaway ourselves this weekend….
We’ll take plenty of photos, videos and post some trip reports of our own. This will be my 6th trip to the slopes so far in the early season and every trip has been as good (or better ) as the first. Their is an abundance of snow on the mountains of the Southeast and more trail openings are happening across the resorts.
Speaking of TRAIL OPENINGS…
Appalachian Ski Mountain is now 100% open with all ten trails open for day and night skiing tonight as well. They debut Thin Slice and Hard Core (black diamonds) for the season today!
Ryan Costin told me some more great news for Ski Beech fans for this weekend. He wrote, "Hey Mike, we will be opening for night skiing this Friday, December 5th, and will continue through the weekend. We will operate our day sessions next week and reopen our night sessions for the following weekend. Ice skating will be open this weekend and will be available Friday and Saturday night as well. The Beech Tree Restaurant will be opening on Friday for the weekend and have live music on Saturday night from 9:00pm to 12:00am. We are working on our new Tubing Hill right now so I will update you with that information as soon as I know."
Sounds like these are really, really hopping up at Beech. I can see some enjoyable nights coming up soon at Ski Beech.
Word is that Ski Beech will be opening more terrain this weekend as well. I am posting this report early as I am hitting the road, and we will update it later in the day as needed to let you guys know of any additional terrain that is opening up.
Here’s the notables for this morning:
As mentioned, App is 100% open wih both terrain parks open as well as the ice rink. App made snow and is 21° colder than at this time 24 hours ago. They are at 20° at 6am.
Cataloochee is also at 20° this morning. They are open with 9 trails and great, groomed conditions. Don’t forget about Cat’s "Can U Ski" food and coat drive this Sunday. Ski Free by taking at least 10 cans of food or a winter coat to Cat on Sunday.
Ski Beech has groomed and frozen granular conditions for today AND NIGHT SKIING TONIGHT on five slopes (to the top of their 5,505′ elevation) and they have the ice rink open as well.
Sugar has not updated their morning report as of 6am, but they will be in great shape for day and night skiing as well. They will probably be making snow as it is 14° this morning. Expect at least 10 trails open, including Tom Terrific…and more on the way. We’ll update this report a little later today if we can.
Wolf Ridge will be open for today and this weekend for day and night skiing. We think that they will be skiing on 3 trails. If they open more, we will update that as well.
Thanks to App, Cat and Ski Beech for the early updates!
Go enjoy your day and send us some photos and trip reports.
For more information about all of the resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic, be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com !
Send your photos, videos, trip reports and comments to: [email protected]