I’m stepping in to handle the Tuesday Snow Report as Matt Laws is on assignment the next few days. Ha! I’ve always wanted to say that. Truth is Matt is handling some other important tasks for us these next few mornings and I promised to step in and handle the FirsTrax for a few days.
The title of today’s FirsTrax references some “Oh Wow” conditions and that is not an exaggeration. This past Sunday I mentioned that I was playing golf the day before and several in our group knew that I am part of the SkiSoutheast crew. One asked me, “Mike, I see you’re joining us for golf this early on a Saturday, so I’m guessing there’s no snow left at the ski resorts.”
I pulled out my trusty iPhone; browsed to ResortCams.com; clicked Ski Cams and showed him several views. His response?
“Oh Wow!”
Don’t believe me? Check out these captures from ResortCams.com this morning at 8am:
This first shot of Sugar Mountain was taken at 7:39am as you can see from the timestamp. Crazy this is, last Wednesday or Thursday, there was almost NO SNOW on the Oma’s trail. However, seven nights of snowmaking temps that began last Monday, March 13th along with 4″-5″ of natural snow sure prettied things up!
Though the camera clarity is not great, the image below of Sugar’s base at 8:06am looks great, right?
Check out Snowshoe this morning! They really could almost pass for mid-season form!
Wisp Resort in Maryland will close up for skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing after Sunday, March 26th sessions, but they also look great this morning with 9 trails in operation.
Here’s a Couple of Resorts That Are Closed for the Season…but Could be Open
This first one is from Appalachian Ski Mountain on Saturday. Steven Cooley emailed our own, Matt Laws:
“Went to Appalachian on 3/18/23 and snow was great. Well groomed and very carvable. Wish they were still open, very well could be. Just thought I share. Have a great spring and summer!!”
Closing Comments…
If you wanna ski or ride today, you have just four resorts to choose from. The lone North Carolina ski area still open is Sugar Mountain with 9 of 21 slopes open for day and night skiing.
West Virginia has two ski areas still operating. Snowshoe Mountain has 31 of 61 slopes available and Timberline Mountain is open today with 16 of 20 trails. Timberline will be closed Thursday & Friday and then reopen Saturday for the weekend.
Wisp Resort in Maryland is open with 9of 34 slopes through Sunday and then they too will close for skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing.
As of right now, Massanutten Resort is still HOPING to be able to reopen this weekend and that is weather dependent.
Snow…or a Lack of It.
We’ve been keeping up with every flake of snowfall this season and we will end our season by sharing all of the snowfall totals for all of the ski areas within our coverage area. We will do that within the next several days.
Until then, David Lesher of Canaan Valley Weather has been sharing his intel all season and yesterday he posted this:
Less than inch of snow fell over the previous five days, a return to the nearly snowless pattern of the past four months. As of this date, the shortfall of snowfall since December 1 has now reached 80 inches.
Normally, Davis, WV picks up around 150″ or so of natural snowfall annually. Most of the ski resort marketing brochures are still reporting 180″ as their average. However, those averages are from decades ago. Even with the 150″ normal – Canaan Valley has only seen 64″ or so of snow this winter. Hence the deficit of nearly 80″ that David is reporting.
That will do it for me today. If you are blessed to be skiing or riding today, drop me an email and include a photo or video! Email me at [email protected]