Today sees the third ski area in the Southeast open for the 2014/2015 season. Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock, NC is dropping the rope at 9am today. That picture at the top was snapped this morning out there. Sweet corduroy.
It looks like they will be skiing and riding on 9 trails and they have two parks open. Interesting to note, it looks like Appaljack will be converted into a regular run during peak season. So, you won’t have to have a park pass to get in there and they’ll have some berms and what not. Today however, they have that area stacked with features.
Their base is listed at 28-58″ and I believe it. They posted a pic the other day on Facebook of snowmaking and it looked like a full on blizzard out there. Here’s a little blurb from an announcement they posted. You can read the full thing on their website.
Appalachian Ski Mtn will open for the 2014-15 season on Thursday, November 20 with more open terrain and base depth than ever before in our 53 year history! Peak season conditions can be expected on all 9 open slopes. Remember, the first 100 guests to the ticket window will receive a FREE ticket! Slopes will open at 9am, and we will be riding continuously through the night session, ending at 10pm.
Sugar’s New Trail
Sugar Mountain is opening Gunther’s Way for the first time today. From their website…
The intermediate level slope features a variety of changing terrain. Situated on nine acres, Gunther’s Way is 150 feet wide and 2,900 feet long. An impressive 700 foot vertical guarantees an exciting challenge. With the help of a new 1,000 gallon per minute vertical water pump and Mother Nature’s frigid temperatures the ten new SMI snow-making machines have been diligently pumping powdery, white snow around the clock.
I’m not sure when I’ll be at Sugar again, but that trail looks pretty fun. And steep in parts. I’m kind of surprised it’s only rated a blue. Northridge to Gunther’s Way seems like it’d be an awesome line to take down the mountain. I’m looking at the webcam right now and it looks like some people are already enjoying that line themselves.
Bryce Resort Opening Early
Bryce Resort in Virginia has announced an earlier than anticipated opening date. They announced yesterday that they are opening this weekend. Sweet!
Snowmaking was a success and we plan on starting the winter season this Saturday and Sunday from 10AM – 4PM!
They were originally scheduled to not open until the second week of December, so they really must have layed down some snow to be opening 3 weeks early. The webcam out there looks pretty good this AM. Impressive.
So yeah, we’re slowly adding to the list of open ski areas. Three today, four by Saturday, and more to come next week. I can’t believe Turkey Day is only a week away. That’s when things really get going. It can’t come soon enough!
Enjoy your Thursday peeps. Don’t forget, you can keep an eye on all the ski areas while you’re at work. Just head on over to Resort Cams. We have a cam at literally almost every ski area now. It’s awesome.
Until tomorrow…