We’re back to a normal, late January kind of weather day today. Highs near 40° are expected and it is cold out this morning and the snowguns are already off at Appalachian Ski Mountain this morning and the groomers are out smoothing in a nice corduroy out of the manmade powder they blasted out last night. Cataloochee is still making snow and there is a virtual cloud of manmade snow going on over there! Ski Beech is still making snow and things are looking very nice this morning. Sugar Mountain is blasting some sugar-like snow all across their terrain and snowmaking is ongoing as we speak (7:50am). If Wolf Ridge is making snow we can’t see evidence of it from their bottom-of-the-mountain webcam. The Southeastern Ski Areas is not reporting any snowmaking for Wolf either but then they’re reporting that Cataloochee didn’t make snow either and they did. The temperature at Wolf right now is a reported 30° so maybe it’s a borderline situation over there.
Regardless, this will be a great day to ski no matter where you choose to lay down your hard earned money and ride. Go get that corduroy!
IS A MAJOR SNOW STORM BREWING!!!???
Our inbox is loaded with emails this morning either asking us about or TELLING us about the "impending major snow event" that looks to be setting up nicely to deliver a "Blizzard" of a storm beginning Monday and lasting into Wednesday of next week. Just yesterday I mentioned about how accurate our weather gurus have been at forecasting weather 4-5 days out. Monday is still four days out, so ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.
The NWS is calling for snow and cold to continue through next Wednesday and regardless of whether this is a MAJOR event or not, conditions at the ski areas will be awesome.
WE KNEW OLD BRAD WOULD BE IN TOUCH TODAY!!!
As I was about to post up this morning’s report from around the region I just received an email (VIDEO) from Meteorologist Brad Panovich. He is ONE SNOW LOVING dude and we knew he would not be able to resist telling us what to expect out of the snowfall coming our way tonight and early next week. I was all prepared to go with the data that I had this morning, but instead – what I’m going to do now is post this report, then hop over to SkiSoutheast.com and get that information up – and THEN we’ll check out Brad’s take on things as they apply to the huge snow event and then we’ll post another story by mid-morning.
So, read on and check back within the next hour or so for what we’re going to tell you guys about all the snow heading our way! It’s exciting, so don’t miss it!
Here is the quick tour:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – They made snow with an overnight low of 23°. It is 35° at 8:00am. They will be in AWESOME shape to make some turns today and tonight on 100% of the terrain and terrain parks. App is reporting an 80-106" base this morning. (That is nearly NINE FEET of base (on the max side)!)
Cataloochee Ski Area – 19° – As mentioned above, they are still making snow this AM and we’ve upgraded their base rating to a perfect "10" this morning. Conditions will be phenomenal today on all 14 trails. They have tubing open today as well!
Ski Beech – 17° – They are blasting away at the slopes this morning and they are reporting a base of 30-60". We’ve upgraded their base rating to a (9-10) which means that they will be in great shape today. Beech is reporting groomed conditions and hopefully they were able to lay down some corduroy and eliminate some of the "tough spots" that were on White Lightning the other day. They will offer 11 of 15 trails, snow tubing and the terrain park for today.
Ski Beech is offering an all-inclusive package for anyone interested in skiing or snowboarding on Sunday. The package is $80.00 per person and will be highlighted in conjunction with their Super Bowl activates so the special discount is a stand alone offer, the discount includes:
Lift Ticket (Day or Twilight)
Rental (Ski or Snowboard)
Lesson (Beginner Ski or Snowboard)
Lunch Voucher (View Haus Cafeteria)
The package will be redeemable at the Group Sales office.
Beech is hosting a Super Bowl Celebration in the View Haus Cafeteria, which will be highlighted on a 65” television. They will have Pizza, Wings, Nachos, Snacks and Beverages available during the game. Questions? Call 828.387.2011 ext. 251 or 209 and tell them you saw it on SkiNC.com!
Sugar Mountain – 17° and they are reporting a dusting of natural snow (we thought we saw some snow flakes last night!) They are still making a cloud of manmade snow and they have 100% of their mountain open with all 20 trails, ice skating, snow tubing and great conditions. They are reporting a base of 35-74" and we have upgraded our base rating for Sugar to a perfect "10".
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort – 30° – We’re thinking that Wolf made some snow overnight but regardless they are in nice shape on 10 of 20 trails for today and tonight and they are reporting a base of 46-66".
Sapphire Valley – 29° – They are making snow in prepartion to reopen on Friday. They are always closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]