We DO have some chances of SNOW in the forecast with anywhere from a few snow flurries at some locations, to anywhere from 1-3″ across some of the higher elevations for Saturday, Sunday into Monday.
(The photo of the day up top is from the Snowshoe Mountain Basin Cam this morning showing off the snowy slopes.)
Thanksgiving Day was awesome. I ate way too much and I bet most of you did as well. I’ve been on a workout regime lately and really dedicated to it. Turkey day was great. Threw the football around a bit and squeezed in an Airsoft war in between all the fun. However, after pigging out on way too much turkey, ham and all the trimmings – all I wanted to do was lay around lazily and ask anyone within hearing range to ‘rub my belly’. I know that Scientific American reports that we should quit blaming the bird for our post-pig-out drowsiness, but I can honestly say that it happens to me every Thanksgiving.
I eat too much, feel miserable afterwards, get sleepy watching football and blame the bird. It’s a tradition for me, so whether there is something to turkey being packed with tryptophan or not; whether its just some boring football games on a fully belly; or simply a built in, ready-to-use excuse for laziness…I’ll stay with it.
I had to force myself to crawl out of bed this morning at 6am to hit my Peloton for a 30 minute ride in the mountains of Italy. (By the way, if there are any fellow Peloton riders out there in our reader-audience, feel free to search me up, follow and let’s ride together. (I’m GarnetMike.))
The Friday after Thanksgiving Day holds another tradition in my family – that of going out and finding the perfect Christmas tree at various choose-and-cut Fraser fir tree farms around the area. In true, Clark Griswold fashion, we cannot possibly find just the right tree until we’ve searched a MINIMUM of three tree farms. (You think I’m kidding? Oh no, no, no. Come with…)
This Weekend Brings Another Tradition for a Lot of Us
This is also the weekend on the calendar that traditionally signals the unofficial/official beginning of ski season for many of us. We currently have (15) ski resorts operating in the region and while a fair number of them don’t open until sometime in December, there have always been a few that have targeted Thanksgiving Weekend as the traditional opening date on the calendar.
It was on a weekend like this one many moons ago, that Blowing Rock had picked up a nice natural snowfall. My parents, Aunt and Uncle packed up the station wagon with a few kids in tow and headed to the mountains to enjoy the snow. There used to be an old Western Auto hardware store in Blowing Rock and we stopped in and bought a few old-school, Western Clipper sleds and we enjoyed a day in the snow, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, off of Hwy 321 in Blowing Rock. After a couple of hours of that we were all frozen and needed a place to warm up and someone in the group had the idea of ‘driving the short, few minutes to Appalachian Ski Mountain’ to go into their cafeteria and grab some food and warm up.
I had never seen ski slopes. I had no idea that the cafe was located in the lodge and as I walked in and saw all of those windows offering a wide view of the trails…I was hooked. We didn’t ski that day, but I was back a few days later on my own…and a few more times that season.
Open and Operating Today
It is a bit colder as you head north this morning. Canaan Valley and Snowshoe were making snow as I did this post this morning, while the 8am temperature is 42° in the NC and VA mountains.
Check the SNOW REPORT for temps and more deets.
42° – Appalachian Ski Mountain – 8 slopes open, day and night
42° – Beech Mountain Resort – 5 slopes open, day session only
36° – Bryce Resort – 2 slopes open, day session only
44° – Cataloochee Ski Area – 5 slopes open for day and night sessions
36° – Massanutten Resort – 3 slopes for day session only. Tubing day and night.
46° – Ober Gatlinburg – tubing only right now
35° – Snowshoe Mountain – 11 slopes open for day sessions and planning to open more terrain Saturday.
43° – Sugar Mountain Resort – 7 slopes open for day and night sessions
25° – Canaan Valley Resort – making snow this morning and a TRACE of natural, opening December 13th
24° – Wisp Resort – making snow this morning. Opening TBA.
So (8) of our (15) resorts are open. Conditions are pretty good-to-great depending on where you look. Check the snow report and the LIVE CAMS for more.
Enjoy your day, whether you are headed to the slopes (send me pics and vids), searching the mountains for that perfect Christmas tree or laying around lazily watching the football games. By the way, Go Hokies today!
Until Next Time…
Here are a few more captures from this morning
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