It will be a seasonably cold day from Snowshoe Mountain northward through Canaan Valley, Timberline Resort and Wisp Resort in Maryland today…with highs close to 40°. Push that a notch milder into Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina for today as temps will creep up to the upper 40s and even some low 50s for today.
Then the week ahead is looking colder with some wintry mixes and snow in the forecast. If you are currently thinking about a ski trip NEXT weekend things are looking colder and even snowy throughout the entire area – which bodes well for those of us who are headed to Snowshoe Mountain for an unofficial summit. To date there seems to be some (28) of us heading there for next weekend.
However, seemingly wherever you are heading for next weekend, things will be cold and snowy.
It has been that kind of season with well-timed weather making for nice-to-great conditions for each weekend. Of course we made it through ALL of the holiday weekends with good-to-great conditions and that is super for the needed skier visits that all of our resorts need to pay the bills.
If was a very busy day at Beech Mountain on Saturday. The parking lots were full, as were the slopes – particularly as you get to the bottom of the mountain.
Saturday offered up a heaping helping of mash potatoes as the temps reached into the low 50s even atop Beech's 5000+ foot elevations. There was great coverage and only a few thin areas beginning to show around some of the higher trafficked areas of the mountain. This next cold snap will be yet another well-timed one for the resorts that choose to make snow. Of course, some talented grooming and pushing snow around will do much the same in terms of making for great coverage and conditions.
Admittedly I was a little surprised to see that Snowshoe, Timberline, Canaan, Wisp, and Beech – which ALL had temps overnight in the 20s – DID NOT make snow. In fact, THE ONLY ski area I saw making snow overnight and early this morning was Sugar Mountain. Kudos to Gunther at Sugar.
Chilly overnight temps will firm up the snow and make for great conditions especially early in the day.
You can certainly check the SNOW REPORT for all the details, but here are the slope openings at each of the resorts at a glance:
100% Open
Appalachian Ski Mountain: 12 of 12
Beech Mountain Resort: 15 of 15
Bryce Resort: 8 of 8
Massanutten Resort: 14 of 14
Sapphire Valley: 2 of 2
Sugar Mountain: 20 of 20
Timberline Resort: 40 of 40
Winterplace: 27 of 27
The Rest:
Snowshoe: 57 of 60
Canaan Valley: 41 of 42
Wintergreen: 25 of 26
Cataloochee: 16 of 17
Homestead: 6 of 10
Wolf Ridge: 9 of 22
Wisp: 26 of 32
Ober: 7 of 9
Notables:
I've noticed that Timberline Resort has reverted back to showing their OLDER snow report page INSTEAD of this one that is simply better:
http://www.visitcanaan.com/timberline/snow-report-spreadsheet.html
That's it for me today. I am writing a bit of a rant against MANY of you who read our stuff regularly…so if you'd like to have your wrist slapped…check back a little later. NOW THERE'S A TEASE!
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