I’m jumping right into your questions for the day. The weather today will be WET, pretty much wherever you go. We’re looking at 70%-80% chances for rain today with rainfall totals of a tenth of an inch today and maybe one-half inch tonight. That’s okay because most ski areas are closed tonight to allow time to be with family.
Christmas Day and beyond is shaping up to be nice. We’re looking at mostly sunny skies for Christmas Day. The Holiday weather is looking better and better with a mostly cloudy and windy Friday and Saturday with only SLIGHT chances of spotty rain and some sun to boot. Sunday looks a little wet, but only what they are calling "occasional rain". Then Monday and forward is looking sunny and seasonable temps with highs in the 40s and lows in the low 30s. With the conditions we have on the slopes right now it should be a very nice Holiday week of skiing and snowboarding. There’s no natural snow in that forecast, but there’s PLENTY of it on the slopes and trails as base depths have sky-rocketed over the last 72 hours.
We’re all wishing that a few more slopes and trails were open at each resort, and some have added some open trails to their count. With no more snowmaking temps from today through Sunday we have what we’ll have in terms of base depths. Most all of the resorts are looking good in that department right now with only Ski Beech currently reporting some thin areas. They are doing the best that they can with what they have but they will be working overtime to keep their groomers pushing snow around to keep a consistent base through the next few days. It appears that Sunday night we’ll get a return to some snowmaking temps over the next few days past that as nighttime temps may allow for some snowmaking.
We’ll go on record to say that if you have plans already in place for any of the ski areas, relax and make your ski getaway a great one! There’s plenty of snow on the slopes and there will be plenty of skiable terrain to have fun on. If you have not made plans yet, BEST BETS for the most consistent snow, best conditions and trail counts and no thin snow, etc. will be at Appalachian Ski Mountain, Cataloochee and Sugar Mountains. Wolf looks good in the "snow department" but only has 4 trails open. Beech should remain open to the top and their 5 trails offer top to bottom skiing on a lot of terrain, but they’ll fight a little to keep "pretty snow" on the trails. Things will get better and better at ALL of the ski areas as we get some more snowmaking temps overnight into next week. SO THINK COLD! THINK SNOW!
SANTA IS GETTING AROUND!
"Somehow" he is making an appearance at App today and evidently taking a sleigh ride over to Sugar for some day skiing. Then from what we understand he will be skiing at Cataloochee on Thursday! He’s THE MAN!
HOLIDAY SCHEDULES ADDRESSED IN OUR REPORT TODAY: (We’re changing the order of reporting a little today to move some people up a bit from time to time.)
Ski Beech is reporting 40° at 8am and 5 of 15 trails open for day sessions only today. They will be opening at 12:30 on Christmas Day and ski and snowboard until 10pm. So night skiing begins Christmas night! Ice skating opens at noon. Ski Beech is still reporting 10-30" base with thin areas. We’d have to bet that those are all but gone for today, but we’ll mention them since Beech is. Ice Skating is open as well.
Sugar Mountain – 30° – They are open with 11 of 20 slopes for day skiing, snowboarding and ice skating until 4:30pm today. No night skiing tonight. Then Sugar opens Christmas Day at noon and stays open until 10pm tomorrow night. Look for Santa out and about today! Sugar added 2" more snow over the last 24 hours and the slopes are in good shape.
<Wolf has good snow for today!
Wolf Ridge Resort – We’re not certain what’s happening over at Wolf, because they are not updating with any reporting service. Some have them not open, some have them open but are not listing any slopes, and some are reporting "No Report". We called over there and they ARE open today until 4:30pm with 4 trails and as you can see via the live cam THEY ARE IN GREAT SHAPE for today. Wolf will be CLOSED on Christmas Day. No skiing or snowboarding at all on Christmas Day or night. They have tubing open today as well.
Appalachian – 30° – 8 of 10 trails open. They added 4" more manmade snow and the guns are now off. It should be a fablulous day of skiing and snowboarding today as far as the slopes are concerned. (It may be tough dodging the rain drops though!) Appalachian is only DAY SKIING today and they will be closed this evening AND all day Christmas Day. App will offer ice skating for Christmas Day if you’d like to come out, but no skiing or snowboarding for Christmas Day. They will reopen for normal hours on Friday with what should be great conditions.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 43° – (As predicted by yours truly) Cat has added another open trail to their mix today as they now offer 8 of 14 slopes open for day skiing only today from 8:30am-4:30pm. They layed down another 5" of manmade snow and conditions should be wonderful for today! (Again, wet, but great snow!) They will be skiing day, twilight and night everyday till January 3rd, except for Christmas Eve: 8:30am – 4:30pm and Christmas Day: 1pm – 10pm.
Tube World located in Maggie Valley, across from Ghost Town four miles from the ski area will be open from 10am until 6pm today. They warn, "Please remember that tubing is on a first come, first served basis and some sessions do sell out. Should the session you wish to tube be sold out when you arrive, you may purchase a session for later in the day." They will tube Christmas Day, when they will be open from 2pm until 10pm.
While we are on TUBING – Hawksnest will offer tubing sessions today and Christmas Day! On Christmas Day their sessions will be 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm. Dec. 26 to Jan 3 our sessions will be 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm.
Sapphire Valley is open with both trails "as far as we know" according to the guy at the community center who was bothered that I called and asked (since they had not updated their report). They will also have the Frozen Falls Tubing Park open. They ride today from 10am-5pm and Christmas Day from Noon until 9pm. He hung up before I could finish saying "Thank-" (There was still a "you" coming.) Someone won’t be receiving a visit from you-know-who tonight.
As always, be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news about ALL of the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic including more photos of the day, more snow news, more videos…and just MORE! (There’s some mention of SNOW for Christmas Day!
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