The heavy snow that was expected to fall at many locations across the Mid Atlantic – fell in a big way across the West Virginia and Maryland ski areas! Canaan Valley received 6" of new snow in the last 24 hours. They have now seen some measurable snow within the last NINE straight days! They have now had 24.5" of snow in February and 159" on the season. They are really getting the weather. Canaan has 24 trails open today.
Ditto the same snow totals for Timberline Resort. They offer 31 trails today and they made snow.
Snowshoe Mountain is the cold spot in the region this morning with ZERO degrees early. They too received 6" of snowfall and added to the tally of where they were yesterday morning we’re seeing that they have now received 170" on the season. They are now just 10" off their normal average of 180" for the entire season. They have gotten dumped on again and today is a POWDER day! Snowshoe offers 58 trails today after a FOOT of snow has fallen since Wednesday! Snowshoe’s team writes, "Conditions will remain spectacular over the weekend as more flakes are in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday. Our expert snowmaking crew will be doing some day shots on Upper and Lower Cupp so please use caution around snowmaking equipment. If all this snow isn’t enough for you, this Saturday we’ll be hosting a local Quarter Pipe Jam on Mountaineer. Two local high school teams will go head-to-head for bragging rights on the snow. The competition starts at 6PM and spectators are welcome! This weekend also marks our second installment of the Subaru Master of the Mountain event, so stop by and check out the new line of Subaru vehicles. With so much going on at Snowshoe and more flakes in the forecast, get up here and play in some powder! Call 1-877-441-4FUN to book your trip today!"
Winterplace Resort got in on the snow as they are reporting 1" of new powder. They also made snow and are 100% open with awesome conditions.
Wisp Resort picked up 4" of new snow and have now surpassed there average for an entire season (which is 100"). They now stand at 103" on the season and have the rest of February and all of March to add to that total. They offer 29 trails today!
It is 21° at Bryce Resort but they did not make snow. They are 100% open with groomed conditions. Massanutten made snow and is also 100% open. Wintergreen Resort’s Anne Marie Jones sounded happy to write, "WOW 8 degrees at 7AM! We are making a lot of great snow! We have a lot going on today and over the weekend. College Ski and Board teams are here for regionals. They will be racing today on Upper Wild Turkey and on the Boardercross course located on Upper Diamond Hill. Tomorrow’s race will be held on Outer Limits. Both Saturday and Sunday are packed full with events that cater to women. For the park crowd, on Sunday we have our Slopestyle Terrain Park Event. Come up for some fun!"
Wintergreen offers 21 trails today and additional trails will open when today’s race events finish.
Ober Gatlinburg is making snow at 15° this morning and they have 6 trails open including Mogul Ridge which is not groomed (popular with the mogul peeps).
The ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia were all hoping and expecting anywhere from 2-4" of snow to fall on Thursday. That never materialized. Most areas saw some nice dustings of snow to create some beautiful scenery. Frigid temperatures have made it possible for all of the ski areas that WANTED to make snow – to do so. Conditions are great all across the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski region.
We have SO much to share with you guys today that we’re just going to give you what you need to know for today and then we’ll post numerous updates all day. Some pertains to the SkiNC / Ski Beech Summit for Saturday, some of the news is to announce several contests, and we also want to share meteorologists Matthew East and Brad Panovich’s weekend skier’s forecasts. We have all of that to share with you today, so first let’s get to the top news that we need to share early.
That is…
The conditions will be GREAT no matter which resort you choose to head to today! All of the ski areas made snow and several still are. Check the SLOPE CONDITIONS page for details of such. All of the resorts saw a dusting of snow on Thursday but the 2-4" was a bust. The sun came in and out all day yesterday and while snow fell – creating a gorgeous bit of après-ski ambience – it wasn’t what we were expecting. I won’t steal Brad and Matthew’s thunder but a quick summary is that the ski areas of North Carolina will be enjoying lots of sun and some snow flurries throughout the weekend. Saturday’s SkiNC / Ski Beech Summit should be blessed with great weather with highs in the teens early, 20s and into the 30s mid morning – and peak into the low 40s later in the day. Snow will fall later in the evening. Sunday looks awesome with early snow flurries and highs in the 20s and lows in the low teens.
Our ski areas are experiencing really SWEET conditions right now and we can tell you that Appalachian, Cataloochee and Sugar Mountain are all 100% open with everything in awesome condition to ride. Ski Beech is open with all of the front side of the mountain open, with the exception of Upper Southern Star and we’re thinking that we might see that slope open for the weekend. Wolf Ridge is open with 11 of 20 trails and very nice conditions as well. All of the tubing hills are operating – terrain parks are setup and ready to hit…so this will be a stellar weekend for skiers and snowboarders.
STAYING POSITIVE…
I want to keep the tone of today positive as it should be because we have some sweet conditions going on out there, but I have to report that we probably going to cease reporting on a few "ski areas" across the region. Sapphire Valley just doesn’t care to even update their own reports or tell the hoped-for guests what the heck is happening over there. After watching them only update their own website 4 times this entire season, and after seeing that their last web update was on February 13th – seven days ago, and after calling the "SNOW REPORT PHONE LINE" only to hear, "We’re open on Mondays from … and Friday’s from…." There was no mention of how many slopes were open, tubing, snowmaking, temperature, nothing. Since they don’t care, we’re ceasing reporting on them. When and if they ever decide to operate as a ski area again, we’ll begin sharing that news. So unless that happens, today is the last time we’ll report on Sapphire.
Ditto The Homestead Resort in Virginia. They have a beautiful place as it is more of a high end spa, getaway destination kind of place that just happens to have 5 trails to ski and ride. However they just don’t post reports anymore. They at least made attempts to keep their fans posted a couple of years ago. However we’ve seen them maybe update the national reporting services twice this season. They have updated us perhaps five times. They don’t even post a ski report on their own VERY NICE website so since they don’t care – neither do we. This will speed up our mornings around here – not to have to track down someone to get SOMETHING in the way of slope openings over there. If you are fans of either of the ski areas, we recommend calling them for a report, although it will be hard to find someone who knows what’s going on. Facts are facts.
THANKS BRAD MORETZ…
I had a nice conversation with Appalachian Ski Mountain’s Brad Moretz yesterday and it was related to the paragraph above as we were discussing LOST SKI AREAS. He made some great suggestions and we’ll be moving forward on those early next week. He was telling us about several ski areas – some in North Carolina – that have long since closed down ski ops. At one point North Carolina had several ski areas and even as late as a season ago we lost another one (Hawksnest) and now the state only claims six ski areas, although on five are operating as such. We’ll be covering some information on those lost ski areas for those interested in that kind of thing. It is always interesting to talk about these and we’re going to begin that series and have some fun with it – next week. Stay tuned!
If you’ve been waiting for those contests to post and more Summit updates, they’re headed your way! Check back shortly!
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]