It’s a rainy Saturday Morning but it isn’t a soaking rain – at least not this morning. According to our meteorologist friends there is a large mass of rain that is moving over the region and rain totals could be in the one-half to one-inch range across most of the Southeast and mid Atlantic. It will be one of those yucky, foggy, rainy days. We’re already seeing some hearty souls out on the slopes via some of the live webcams so for those few that will be out there today – have fun!
Ski Beech has their closing day fun planned for Sunday, March 15th, and although there’s some rain lingering around for tomorrow it will be less of it. Maybe a quarter inch of so. They are doing some pond skimming so you’ll get wet anyway.
Base depths are dropping faster than the stock market and that is saying something!
Since we’re on a bad news run this morning – our weather guru friends are not seeing any really cold air (not cold enough for snowmaking) through the next seven day forecasting period. There’s been an increase in "BARE SPOTTINGS" out there and it looks like we’ll have what we have at your favorite ski area.
Right now the most open terrain in the region is at Snowshoe Mountain with 53 trails. They had 4" of new snow on Wednesday night and Thursday morning and with some additional overnight snowmaking and 32° temps, Snowshoe will have not only THE MOST snow, but perhaps some of the best conditions in the region.
Wolf Ridge Resort in Western North Carolina decided to close prematurely. They had planned to reopen this weekend after remaining closed this past week. The weather forced their hand and they are now closed.
Here’s the quick tour:
WEST VIRGINIA RESORT NEWS:
Snowshoe Mountain – 32° – 47" base – 53 trails open with Silvercreek open tonight. Snowshoe made snow overnight and just had 4" of new snow on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Canaan Valley – 31° – 6-24" base – 19 trails open for Day Skiing only.
Timberline Resort – 24-48" base – 28 trails open with some open for night skiing tonight. Spring conditions and some bare spots being reported.
Winterplace Resort – 32° – 36-76" base – 100% open with all 28 trails and snow tubing.
MARYLAND RESORT NEWS:
Wisp Resort – 30° – 6-38" base – made snow – 21 trails open and night skiing as well. The mountain coaster and snow tubing parks are open. Wisp is reporting Spring Conditions and bare spots.
VIRGINIA RESORT NEWS:
Wintergreen Resort – 32° – 30-60" base – 19 trails open. Anne Marie Jones writes, "SNOW, SNOW, SNOW! Yesterday’s storm brought us 3 inches of new snow, come up and enjoy it with us! SPRING SKIING AND RIDING & SUPER SAVER LIFT, TUBING AND RENTAL RATES EVERYDAY!!! We are celebrating Spring this weekend with a great Freestyle Rail Jam today. Our final Slide and Splash Bash the weekend of March 21st, will include the last skiing and riding, Terrain Park features the length of Dobie, great music, contests, prizes and the very popular Pond Skim Contest! Come up for the fun! All of the cold weather this winter has allowed us to pile up snow on our core trails in anticipation of skiing and riding all the way through to the Slide and Splash Bash on the 21st of March."
Bryce Resort – 18-39" Base – 5 of 8 trails open for day skiing only. Remember that they are closing for the season on Sunday.
Massanutten Resort – 28° – 36" Base – 100% open with all 14 trails and 5 lanes of tubing. Mass is reporting another 2" of snow yesterday morning. They will have nice conditions for today!
The Homestead – Call ahead and remember that they are closing on Sunday.
NORTH CAROLINA RESORT NEWS: 
Wolf Ridge Resort is now CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. They had previously planned to remain closed during this last week and have a look at the weather and potential traffic. That led them to call it quits for the season. They will not reopen for this weekend as they first hoped. They passed along some "thank yous" for a great season and we’re all hoping that they can make some moves to work out the kinks with the real estate issues over there and get more open next season.
Appalachain Ski Mountain – 30° – 60-89" Base – Did not make snow – 100% with all 10 trails and ice skating. Both terrain parks in good shape.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 49° – 29-58" Base – Did not make snow – 11 of 14 trails open. Tammy Brown wrote, "As a big thank you for all of your support this season, we have decided to charge weekday rates everyday through the rest of the season, even on the weekends! They look darn nice this morning despite some light rain.
Ski Beech – 41° – 14-44" Base – Did not make snow – 8 of 15 trails open and Beech writes, "Upper White Lightning has bare areas and may have to close on Saturday." Just for the record the other trails have some thin coverage and bare areas as well, but there’s plenty of good, skiable terrain.
Sugar Mountain – 40° – 20-70" Base – Did not make snow – 100% open with all 20 trails and some thin areas and some bare spots. Some of the best conditions in the region though.
TENNESSEE SKI NEWS:
Ober Gatlinburg – 42° – 36-66" base and 6 of 8 trails open. Ober closes on Sunday for the season.
To see the closing date information for ALL of the ski areas of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic, check the SLOPE REPORT page or click here
Send your comments, trip reports, photos and videos to [email protected]