It’s Friday, and the mountains are snowy.
Timberline, Snowshoe, Canaan Valley Resort, Winterplace, The Omni Homestead, and Massanutten, were all hit with significant snowfall. Meanwhile, there’s an inch or less of freshies at Cataloochee, Sugar Mountain, Appalachian Ski Mountain, and Wintergreen.
And it’s snowing at Bryce Resort this morning.
I know the early season’s chaotic weather patterns were nothing short of frustrating for most of us, including myself. Cold weather during the week. Wet weather on the weekends. Rinse and repeat. It had us ready to burn our Farmer’s Almanacs for getting our hopes up with the promise of an El Niño winter.
But this is truly shaping up to be a very solid winter, particularly in the southeast. There is certainly more rain in our future, and I don’t want to get out over the tips of my skis by declaring this entire season a success, but we’ve been really fortunate that the snowfall predictions that meteorologists like SkiSoutheast’s own Brad Panovich have held true.
Even when the rainy weekend days on the slopes were driving us crazy.
SkiSoutheast’s founder and editor Mike Doble addressed our collective lack of patience with Mother Nature in a story a couple of weeks ago. You can read that here.
And here’s Brad’s forecast for this weekend:
Bagels and LAAX Open
What are you doing first thing tomorrow morning?
I hope your answer is that you’re going to be driving to the mountain to take advantage of the storms we’ve had recently. But if you’re already staying overnight in a mountain town, you can’t go skiing or riding tomorrow, or you plan on sitting in the passenger seat, I have plans for you.
The Laax Open snowboarding finals kick off tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. And Red Bull TV has the live stream for you straight from Switzerland. You can watch that here.
The Laax Open is Europe’s most prestigious snowboard contest, and it recently opened its doors to freeskiers. Heavy hitters Red Gerard, Takeru Otsuka, Maddie Mastro, and Chloe Kim will all be competing in the snowboard disciplines of halfpipe and slopestyle. Americans freeskiers Mac Forehand and Colby Stevenson are also competing, and sitting atop the leaderboard in the semifinals as this is written.
It’s gotten pretty difficult to watch any snowboarding events live that aren’t the X Games. The Laax Open truly is the premiere competition each and every year. And Chloe Kim is competing in the halfpipe for the first time since the last Olympics. Luis Medearis, the official team USA filmer, captured just how beautiful her riding really is.
Snowboard media company The Bomb Hole will have an alternate broadcast during the event, featuring founder former professional snowboarder Chris Grenier, Mary Walsh, the editor-in-chief of Snowboard Magazine, and Jesse Burtner. That one will feature more casual coverage and commentary.
Here’s what you need to know to ski and ride in the southeast today.
Timberline
Snowfall is expected to continue throughout the day today. Timberline is reporting 5 inches of the fluffy stuff so far, and snowmaking ran continuously from Monday morning to Thursday morning. All 20 trails and four lifts are open today.
“You’ll find a machine groomed surface on the majority of the mountain today,” the snow reporting team said. “Off the Wall remains ungroomed. The Drop has been partially groomed on skier’s right. Snowmaking mounds on upper Thunderstruck have been pushed out and groomed. The forecast today calls for a low of 6 and a high of 21 with cloudy skies and snow throughout the day.”
Snowshoe
Shredders at the ‘Shoe didn’t wake up to a foot’s worth of powder, like some had predicted this morning. But there are 2 inches to start the morning, and it’s expected to snow until tomorrow morning.
The resort is inching its way up to 100% open: Widowmaker and Upper Ballhooter are open today, and Robertson’s Run over at Silver Creek will drop its ropes.
“Cascade isn’t far behind. Be sure to check out that fresh build in Mountaineer Park! Snowmaking may be in progress on some open trails today,” Snowshoe’s snow reporters said. “Safety Tip: For your safety and the safety of others, please steer clear of any closed terrain. It is closed for a reason. These are some of the best conditions we’ve seen in years!”
It looks like many of the glade runs at Snowshoe are open as well.
Canaan Valley Resort
I have never been to Canaan, but as I sit at my desk every day and do the snow report, it has confused me why so few trails have opened for a resort that has 47.
But that changes today! After getting another 6 inches of snow overnight, There are 33 of 47 trails opened, and a base depth of 40-64 inches.
A member of Canaan’s marketing team reached out yesterday, and noted that 21 additional trails will be set to open by tomorrow, including all natural snow trails.
“Some of these trails haven’t been open in the past several seasons,” they said.
Wintergreen
It seemed like Wintergreen was almost certainly Mother Nature’s middle child for much of the start of winter: neglected and often forgotten about.
But it’s finally gotten its fair share of natural snowfall at the dinner table. Reader Dave Perault sent this photo in yesterday.
“Most snow I have seen there is quite some time,” he said. “Will be opening up more terrain this weekend for sure.”
Omni Homestead
After getting 2-inches of powder, the Omni Homestead is back open with seven trails and two lifts. There is a base of 28″ and two lanes of tubing open.
Don’t forget, Friday’s are for night skiing and snowboarding too.
The Rest
Don’t forget: Clear your calendar from February 9-11. That’s when Massanutten and SkiSoutheast will host team up to host our summit. It’s a great way to meet like-minded, snow-loving people, and possibly make some lifelong friends in the process.
Thanks to everyone that has already joined us on Discord.
Think snow!
Think cold!
Click here to join us on our new SkiSoutheast Discord channel. It is a great way to meet new snow loving friends and shares experiences, ask questions, and more!
And as always, email me at [email protected] with your thoughts and photos.