Page 1 of 2

New Member

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 6:24 pm
by Woodsrider427
Hello All, new member here from Wake Forest, NC. I used to ski a bit up north back 20+ years ago and then my daughter got me back into it last year when she wanted to take a friend skiing for her 16th birthday at the end of January. Needless to say we are both officially hooked. I bought her and myself all new gear and we skiied 7 days last year towards the end of the season. We plan to ski as much as possible this season and have already booked two Snowshoe trips.
We are are heading up to the NC mountains for Thanksgiving weekend (rented a cabin with my sisters family before we knew there would even be any possibility of skiing) and will be bringing are skis. Anyone have any guess as to how crowded it might be on Thanksgiving day? And would I be better off at Sugar or Appalachian? I hate to start off with questions, but just thought I would ask. I hope to maybe meet some of you one day. Thanks!!

Re: New Member

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 6:50 pm
by NoleSki
Hello Woodsrider....

Welcome to the boards. I've been stalking this site for 2 years now. Web Cams are the best.

For a family with maybe not so much experience skiiing, I would suggest App. They have great snow, a family fun atmosphere, no booze, and the trails are not as long as some of the other resorts but are great for building sliding skills imho.

Now, that doesn't mean that Sugar doesn't has it's merits. It's new lift speeds you to the top in 5 mins but that also puts a lot of traffic up top at once. Crowds are heavy sometimes starting down an icy chute. Early in the season at Sugar, the snow and trail width coverage may be more challenging for skiers not used to bigger crowds on narrower trails. Expect Sugar to be busier than App.

My favorite resort in that area is Beech! Highest slopes, fewer people, little further drive but well worth the atmosphere and the bar on top of the mountain. Beech also tends to wait to open later to provide a better base a product for it's loyal sliders.

Hope this helps, enjoy.

Good luck!

Re: New Member

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 7:45 pm
by Woodsrider427
Thanks for the feedback NoleSki, Beech may be an option if we wait until Friday when they open. The crowds are definitely a concern, especially for my daughter, as she is not as experienced as I am (although I was quite rusty last year the first few times and I am getting older!!!). We were fortunate last year that most of our days were during the week.

Re: New Member

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 10:04 pm
by yardsale
i could be totally off base but i wouldn't worry about crowds this time of year. its still early season so the masses haven't thought about skiing yet. noleski was pretty spot on with his descriptions of the mountains.

Re: New Member

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 10:27 pm
by Woodsrider427
That's a good point, never thought of it that way. I hope you're right. Thanks.

Re: New Member

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:59 am
by Aasnider
Welcome to the board! We are hoping to get out of town some time Friday and I will probably ride at Sugar on Saturday. It all depends on what you like and your skill set though.
IMO:
I like to get in as many turns and as much vertical as I can in a day. I usually only go 5 or 6 times a year so I go hard all day when I do make it up the hill. I personally am not a huge fan of App. The runs are pretty short and I'm not much for the terrain park, but you can still get a lot of turns in if its not too crowded, just too much on and off the lift for me. Plus we usually stay with family in Newland and App is a haul from there whereas Sugar and Beech are within 15 to 30 minutes from them. This time of year I almost always go to Sugar, especially with the high speed quad. As Nole ski said the lift will get you base to summit in 5 minutes. Then (depending on your route down) it's about a mile and a half down and about a 1200ft vertical. This being said I almost never go to Sugar (especially on a weekend or holiday) once we get into the season a little more and crowds pick up as yardsale said. During the "peak" season I prefer beech as they have less crowds, a better (more friendly) atmosphere, and still have fairly long runs.

Re: New Member

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:00 am
by yardsale
Aasnider wrote: During the "peak" season I prefer beech as they have less crowds, a better (more friendly) atmosphere, and still have fairly long runs.
IMO beech weekend crowds have been a shitshow the past few years, but maybe the rope tow will alleviate it some

Re: New Member

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:02 am
by Aasnider
Yardsale: I agree that beech still gets crowded, in just thinking it's less crowded that sugar. Maybe I'm basing this off a trip I had to sugar on MLK weekend, granted this was with the old lift system, but literally a 40 min wait to get on the base lift. It was insane!

Re: New Member

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:06 am
by Woodsrider427
Thanks for the feedback Aasnider, looks like Sugar only has one run open from the top so could be interesting depending on the crowd this weekend. Hopefully during peak season we can get enough weekday runs in to avoid some of the crowds. I can usually sneak away one day a week being self-employed but it's a little tougher for my daughter with school. Maybe we'll see you out there. Thanks.

Re: New Member

Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:37 pm
by davidski
welcome to the board -- so what did you end up doing?