Yesterday saw Mother Nature provide the ski areas with a mixed bag of precipitation. We had freezing rain, rain, sleet, and even some measurable snow for a few resorts. Things clear out some today and it looks like a decent day to get some turns in. The rest of the work week still looks a little wet, but a weekend return of cold air looks promising!
The mild-up continues this morning as many resorts are actually above the freezing mark. It’s been a while since I typed that. There’s still a number of ski areas that are still in the 20’s and lower 30’s though, so the snow should be in good shape this morning. Yesterday was an interesting day. Brief periods of snow in the North Carolina and Virginia mountains gave way to freezing rain and plain old rain as the afternoon wore on. That didn’t deter some folks though as Kelly Kraft was pretty stoked on conditions out at Sugar Mountain. Here’s one of the photos he posted on our Facebook page.
He says..
“Conditions were just great on this Monday with temps in the morning around 25. There were maybe 100 cars in the lot today so empty slopes! All you suckers working really missed out. Everything except the double black and one or 2 connector trails everything was open and looking awesome. I lapped the blue run Oma’s Meadow several times as I needed to get my form back as this was my first day on the snow this season. Oma’s has a nice easy pitch and probably the best snow of any trail today. We even got some snow around 12:45 for a bit before it turned into a mix.”
While most of the region saw mainly rain and freezing rain, the temperature was a little colder up in the northern part of our coverage area. The northern West Virginia resorts saw several inches of snow as did Wisp in Maryland. Here’s a quick rundown of those numbers.
- Canaan Valley: 3.4″
- Snowshoe: 3″
- Timberline: 3.4″
- Wisp Resort: 2″
As I mentioned in the opening, and as the title of this post implies, today looks like a nice day to be on snow. The precipitation is out of here for the time being and temperatures will get into the 30’s and 40’s for all of the ski areas. You won’t have to bundle up with layer upon layer. Finally!
Additionally, today is looking like the best day of the week until Saturday or Sunday. Tomorrow through Friday looks kind of…dreary. I mentioned it yesterday and I’ll only go over it briefly again today. Temps will stay on the mild side with underdeveloped snow chances increasing as the work week progresses. Enough said.
I will reiterate though the fact that cold air, and some snow, returns Saturday and the chilly temps remain for the rest of the holiday weekend. This cannot be understated. I have Monday off work for MLK Day and I plan on riding somewhere. I was going through the NWS forecasts as I always do and the final day of the holiday weekend looks cold at any ski area you visit in the Southeast. When I say cold, I mean high temperatures will be below freezing for the vast majority of resorts. Snow on Saturday, cold temperatures for the majority of the weekend, and snowmaking each night and possibly all day as well. Sounds good to me!
A few days of mild-ish and wet weather will hardly put a dent in the snow. The past month has been fantastic and while the initial start to the weekend looks sub-par, the majority of it looks rather nice, albeit cold. We’re still on track for a successful holiday weekend!
Cool Stuff
Messageboard member SnowshoeGuy posted this awesome video of his recent trip to Wisp Resort. Sunday looked fantastic up there and I am loving the drone shots! The GoPro gimbal clips are awesome too. I’m about to get suckered into getting a GoPro 6 with the latest price drop. The footage looks so good!
Cataloochee also posted a link to a recent article exploring the history of the ski area as well as North Carolina skiing in general. It’s a good read and if you have a few minutes I highly suggest checking it out by clicking the link below.
[button color=”” size=”default” type=”square” target=”_blank” link=”https://www.ourstate.com/the-mountain-moguls-of-cataloochee-ski-area/”]The Mountain Moguls of Cataloochee Ski Area[/button]That about does it for today. Enjoy your Tuesday and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow.