Great Conditions Today at the Remaining Open Ski Resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic

Today’s update could have the old ELO song “Confusion” running as the theme music. We started getting emails early and often asking about whether or not Appalachian Ski Mountain REALLY WAS CLOSED; whether Cataloochee and Wintergreen were skiing today; and does Snowshoe have 30 or 36 trails open for skiing…and how much snow DID they get this weekend!?!

We wandered what the heck had prompted the emails…until we did the morning research to ascertain that data for ourselves.  The reasons for the confusion is pure and simple…don’t look anywhere else for your information!!! Ha!

For example, Appalachian IS CLOSED FOR THE SEASON.  However, even though their own website says that at the BOTTOM of the slope report, they DO have all of the trails marked as open.  Hence the confusion. True to his word, Brad Moretz closed Appalachian for the season after the day session on Sunday and that leaves Cataloochee as the last to close in North Carolina . Cataloochee is CLOSED today through Friday, but will open ONE MORE DAY for Saturday skiing and snowboarding for $2.75.

Special thanks to Kent Jackson for getting me tons of Meltdown Games photos!!! I will pour through those in a bit and post the best!  Be sure to check those out under the Photos of the Day for Appalachian in just a while later today!

Cataloochee is CLOSED today through Friday as mentioned…as is Wintergreen Resort in Virginia .  BOTH have special plans for the weekend.  More about Wintergreen’s in a moment, but the reason for the confusion is that there ARE other sources reporting them as still open…which “technically” they are, but they won’t be until the weekend.  Again…hence the confusion.

There’s no confusing the fact that SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN in West Virginia IS OPEN and skiing on Packed Powder after a nice weekend of snow that dumped around 9” of snow on the resort according to the National Weather Service.  There IS confusion surrounding that and today’s slope report though.  Some reporting services are showing 36 trails open and Snowshoe’s own website is showing 30.  So we’re posting 30 trails as operating today.  However the BIGGEST confusion at Snowshoe is “how much snow did they get this weekend?”  Check this out.

On Snowshoe’s front page they are saying that they got 20” of snow this weekend.  On their slope report page they are saying 17”.  However, Stephen and Michelle (and others) emailed us this weekend about the fact that Snowshoe had to have mistakenly added some snow figures twice.

On Saturday morning their own report showed that at 10am they’d had 2” and 159” on the season. Then Sunday morning they reported they’d gotten more snow…and enough to show 174” on the season. That would have been 15” on Saturday.  Kim Woodall of Irmo, SC emailed me this morning stating, “There’s a rumor floating that Snowshoe received 15” of snow this weekend.  Conditions were UNBELIEVABLE!!!”

Confused?  We are too, because more emails came in from meteorologists up that way who are saying that Snowshoe HAD to have made a mistake.  We received another report this morning showing that Snowshoe has a West Virginia leading 9” of snow on the ground from this weekend’s snows.  We wrote Andrea Smith about it but have not gotten an answer back as yet.  As we reported yesterday…we HAVE to respond to so many emails about it…but Snowshoe is usually GREAT about reporting, but even the greatest make mistakes.  We’ll let you know as soon as we get clarification.

Regardless of the numbers…Snowshoe got a lot of snow this weekend and conditions were as Kim said, “Unbelievable” and they are skiing on 30 trails of Packed Powder here on March 27^th, 2006.  There’s one more week of great skiing remaining at Snowshoe, so GO ENJOY!

Thanks to  several people who emailed us the NWS Link: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/RLX/HYDRLX

The NWS is also reporting 7” on the ground at Davis, West Virginia, home to both Timberline and Canaan Valley .  Canaan Valley is CLOSED FOR THE SEASON, but Timberline presses on! They have 26 trails for your enjoyment.  They are reporting 2” of snow in the last 24 hours plus…and they are reporting 7” of snow for the weekend.  Great Groomed and Packed Powder conditions are the word THERE today.  This Friday and Saturday Timberline has a special tribute weekend for Jimmy Buffett fans.  They have a “weekend of fun, sun, music & great spring skiing” with Performances:

Friday, March 31^st 10pm – 12midnight
Saturday, April 1^st ~ 1pm – 3pm
Saturday, April 1^st ~ 10pm – 12midnight

WISP RESORT looks in plenty good shape to ski and ride one more week.  They have 18 trails open today with Groomed and Spring Conditions.  We’ve had a couple of emails from folks talking about how great the conditions are in Maryland and with only a few thin coverage and bare areas.  Wisp is gearing up for a great Spring and Summer season as they have a huge fan base of people that love Deep Creek Lake and the golf course…which is set to open on April 15^th by the way!

Oh yea…the last bit of confusion to clean up involves Wintergreen Resort in Virginia .  Some sources are reporting that THEY too are still open.  They are CLOSED.  However they ARE opening up Saturday and Sunday for two days of fun called the “ Wicked Huge Park Party”. They will be open next Saturday and Sunday for the party, skiing and riding from 9am to 4:30pm each day. They have great food, music, pond skimming and prizes planned.

Hopefully we’ve “cleared” up all or any confusion and you guys can just go have a great day skiing and riding.

Until Next Time!

Be sure to email photos, snow reports and comments to: [email protected]

Visit www.SkiSoutheast.com  and www.HighCountryWeather.com  for more information.