The temperature seems to be a consistent 28° everywhere around the Southeastern ski areas, except at Snowshoe Mountain where it is 20°; Timberline Mountain, where it is 22°, and Wisp Resort, which is reporting 25°. Snowshoe Mountain and Wisp Resort made snow, but it appears that Timberline did not.
Do check the SNOW REPORT for all the deets. The photo of the day up top is from this morning at Timberline Mountain. Looks awesome, huh? Let’s go!
On Saturday – the forecast for last night, today and the next few days was for snowmaking temperatures and some icing and light snow Sunday through Tuesday of this week. As I woke this morning, after losing an hour of sleep last night, the only thing on my deck was a “glazed donut” of icing. Mother Nature is just cruel. It does look like Snowshoe Mountain picked up 1″ of frozen precip, but it too looks like perhaps a slightly more heavily glazed donut – if you check out the picnic tables at the bottom of Ballhooter. See Snowshoe Mountain Ballhooter Cam
More on Snowshoe Mountain in a moment.
With the aforementioned 28°, Appalachian Ski Mountain, Beech Mountain Resort, Bryce Resort and Timberline Mountain chose not to make snow overnight and perhaps wait until later today – or the wet bulb temperatures were just out of reach. Massanutten Resort and Sugar Mountain Resort WERE able to make snow with those 28°. Snowshoe Mountain had the better of the temperatures this morning with 20° this morning and they DID make snow.
A Mixed Bag of Conditions…
The wet, freezing rainy conditions have things a bit on the wetter side at Appalachian Ski Mountain, Beech Mountain Resort and Sugar Mountain Resort in North Carolina for this morning and today. Things should improve as we look into Monday and Tuesday as there are chances for light snow and lows around 18° for Monday night and Tuesday’s high may only reach 22°. That will allow for those ski areas that want to make snow – to do so. It will be interesting to see which resorts do. I can guarantee you Sugar Mountain will. We’ll see about the rest.
Looking into Virginia, both Bryce Resort and Massanutten Resort are pledging to carry on. Massanutten was making snow this morning and they could see 1-2″ of snow today and lows Tuesday & Wednesday night look promising for snowmaking.
Wisp Resort in Maryland has been pleasing their fanbase by being more aggressive with snowmaking and remaining open over the last couple of winters. That is the case again this season and they too could see an inch or two of snow today through Tuesday night and the temperatures look great for snowmaking Monday night, all day Tuesday and Tuesday night and into Wednesday. So conditions could be good enough to see them in great shape through March 19th or longer.
West Virginia is Just West Virginia…by God
As I checked out the various snow reports and weather conditions this morning I came across Snowshoe’s report. I had to take a second look at my calendar because if I didn’t know better, I would think I was looking at a January or early February snow report. Snowshoe was just bragging this morning as they posted this:
The forecast is calling for snow showers to get started this morning and hopefully last through Tuesday! Conditions are as good as they’ve been all season and they’re only getting better. Spruce is open as a park with banked turns, snow features, and a variety of rails. Progression Park is now open as a green ski trail without features.
They have 31 trails open today. They are getting a light snow this morning as of 8:30am.
Here is a capture from the LIVE cam at 10am as it is SNOWING at SNOWSHOE!
Here Are Some General ‘Housecleaning’ Notables:
In response to my Blizzard of ’93 post on Saturday, Bill Nabers of Bryce Resort wrote me:
I remember that storm from 30 years ago. You didn’t post Va results. I know both Bryce and Massanutten had well over 2 feet. (I skied both of them early that next week.) Some of the drifts were crazy. I was living in Massanutten at the time. We had thunder snow as that storm came up the valley ( the Shenandoah River flows North) and hit that peak. The weather people called it a landlocked winter hurricane with low pressures to rival Cat 4 Hurricanes. Crazy.
We could use a foot or two of that snow today.
Bill N
True dat, Bill.
Another Round of Comments About the Wolf Ridge “Sale”
I won’t kick a wounded wolf-pup while it may still be injured. So no direct copy/paste posts from Social Media here this morning. However, for those of you interested, check out our Facebook page for SkiSoutheast (@SkiSoutheast) and also do the same for @WolfRidgeResort. There’s a mix of those with a lot of hope amid those with high doubts. You can also add in a dash of disbelief.
Whether Wolf will see a brighter future is anyone’s guess. I received a few emails from those closer to the Madison County scene and a couple shared that the sale INDEED is a real deal, done deal thing. One reader shared that she checked with the Madison County Register of Deeds on Friday and the sale is official – for the amount of $8.4 million…slightly less than some of the television news posts claiming $10M. Another reader/fan of Wolf wrote:
I work over here (not sure where here is) and I can confirm the acreage and everything on it was sold to the Hatley’s. Please don’t share my name, but a lot of us are thinking that skiing and snowboarding may have a shortlived future as many feel this is a land grab. They may add a bike park and keep skiing around for two to three years but we’re doubtful.
One thing that I KNOW Wolf could use is a true rebranding that gets their name straight across all media. They are www.SkiWolfRidgeNC.com and on Facebook they are WolfRidgeResort, and they also promote “Ski the Ridges”, and their logo is “Ride the Wolf”. As I shared on Saturday, with a LOT of our ski mountains changing their names and branding to “mountain”, I think Wolf Mountain Resort would be awesome. However, there was a post on Social Media (like we can depend on that right?) that said that the rebranding might be something related to Appalachian Adventures. I highly doubt that, but then again, we have yet to be honored with an interview.
I did look up www.WolfMountainResort.com and it IS available to purchase as a domain name for $1975. That would be a steal and allow them to rebrand everything with one consistent name.
Someone DID email me that there were some conversations about adding a brewery and vastly improved dining options and more. Obviously, Wolf is in that “talking stage” where everyone is talking. A lot of those talking – including those of us here at SkiSoutheast – are just passing on hearsay. If you read ONLY what has been shared via two television stations and the Asheville Citizens Times then you’ll see exactly what the new owners have planned – at least for now.
If they follow suit with that, then there are MANY reasons to smile about what’s happening at “The Wolf” Ridge, Resort, Mountain – whatever they morph into next.
That will it for me today. Let’s enjoy the day and the colder/snowier days ahead and make some turns while you can.
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