Let’s get right to it. You guys wanna hear about the snow; where it fell, which resorts have powder, and how much snow fell – right?
Before we get to that let’s also throw in that it IS COLD out this morning! I had to DIG my truck out this morning and pull at least a FOOT of snow off my windshield. Doing that in 13° temperatures and a bit of wind is always fun! However for those digging out up at Beech and Sugar where the temperatures are hovering around 3° this morning has to be brutal. We’ll take the bad with the good and the GREAT news is that the weather gurus were all wrong yesterday. The National Weather Service, Ray Russell, and even our meteorologist buddy Matthew East ALL under-estimated how much snow was going to fall since Sunday morning. All of those just mentioned forecasted 2-4" to no more than 5-7" and I am happy to report that Ski Beech is reporting FIFTEEN INCHES of snow! Gil Adams of Ski Beech is a reporting member of the Community Collaborative Snow Network (they report on rainfall as well) and he has not reported in just yet this AM, but it is a safe bet that once he does report in – that Ski Beech have received MORE SNOW on March 1st, than within the entire month of February (when 14.5" officially fell)! That 15" yesterday (and it is STILL SNOWING by the way!) takes Ski Beech to 67.8" on the season and 85% of their full average season total of 80" and they have a few weeks left!
Blowing Rock (home to Appalachian Ski Mountain) officially reported 8" of snow according the CoCoRaHS network. One of the official reporting stations is in Mars Hill, home to Wolf Ridge Resort and they are reporting 4" of new snow.
As we mentioned, several of the local and state weather gurus all stuck close to what the NWS was forecasting with Ray Russell of RaysWeather fame forecasted 2-4" early on Sunday morning. Around 11am or so he updated it to forecast MUCH MORE. It was bombing snow by that time! Admit it, we ALL love it when these guys are wrong…
The high today around a lot of the mountain areas will be in the low 20s with another low tonight in the single digits. So POWDER SKIING and SNOWBOARDING will rule the next two days. Things will mild up like crazy by Thursday so go enjoy the POW POW while you can!
Let’s get to the resort by resort details because we know that’s what you’re here for:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 18° – 8" of new snow – 80-105" base – 100% open all 8 trails – No Snowmaking – Both terrain parks are open and ice skating. Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 42"
Cataloochee Ski Area – NA° – 6" of new snow – 46-93" base – 100% open for DAY SKIING ONLY on Monday’s with 14 trails – TUBING IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 44"
Ski Beech – 3° – 15" of new snow! – 42-80" base – 13 trails open with POWDER conditions – Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 67.8" You had to like Beech’s tone this morning as they said that the Piston Bullies were smiling going out this morning to groom! S-W-E-E-T!
Wolf Ridge Resort – 6° – 4" of new snow! – 44-68" base – 11 trails open with Powder Conditions! – Total 2008-2009 Snowfall: 46" Tubing is reportedly open as well!
Sugar Mountain – Man SOMEONE is really screwing around with these guys as for the second day in the last week, Sugar’s website is now pointing to "Business Ethics" website. We’re getting a fair number of emails "telling us about it", but we’re aware as we check their website daily for updates and happenings. Numerous others are reporting that they are correctly seeing Sugar’s website. There is obviously some crazy anomaly going on, but I want to go on record to say:
1. I think it is pretty lame that someone is doing this to these guys.
2. We’ve had our issues with the management over there, but I, nor anyone within our organization knows anything about this scenario, nor have we had anything to do with it and my entire staff will take a lie detector test to prove it! (Unless they know what’s going on over there, there are probably some that would speculate that we had something to do with this. Not so. As we stated last week, the only person that can change DNS record info on a domain name HAS to know the username and password. This HAS to be someone within their organization, past or present. )
According to the NC Ski Areas report, Sugar is reporting 10" of new snow and based on our travels late last evening, we’d say that’s pretty darn conservative reporting on their part! They are reporting 20 trails open and ice skating is open as well. Tubing is closed for the day. 2008-2009 Seasonal Snowfall: 60" Today will be ONE AWESOME day to go and enjoy Sugar’s conditions.
SAPPHIRE IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE SEASON…
Sapphire Valley Ski Area – 2" of snow and 7" on the season. We called over there to let them know that they had not updated their ski report since keyboards were invented, and the young guy that took my call said, "Dude we’re DONE for the year. Closed down, no tubing, no skiing, we’re done." It’s official – they’re done for the season. Of course their ski report shows 2 slopes open…but it’s been saying that since February 13th. Maybe they’ll do better next season.
Lots more is happening around the region…Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
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