Today should be a "Chamber of Commerce" day on MLK day as the highs will only be around freezing and there will be lots of sun to make it feel even warmer!
All of the resorts were reporting "Packed Powder" for their conditions today and we tweaked those to read "Groomed and Manmade Powder" as all of the resorts reported anywhere from ZERO inches of manmade – to the average of about 2-4" of base growth. Of course the exception was Sugar which is reporting that they increased their minimum and maximum base across ALL 19 open trails by 10" since Sunday morning while "not directing snowguns on our guests."
Can anyone say, "Marketing Numbers?"
Here’s the fast summary of what you’ll find out there today…with PERFECT – PERFECT conditions everywhere. Sugar has the most terrain open in the state with 19 trails…and several of the resorts opened new terrain this morning!
Appalachian – 10° – 100% open with 10 trails and made 6" of machine made snow.
Cataloochee – 4° – 10 trails open for day skiing only. Tubing til 6pm today.
Hawksnest – .5° – 10 trails of 13. Only Upper Sock em Dog, Narrow Guage and Old Blue have not been opened as yet and Hawksnest reports that Upper Sock em Dog will open soon. Hawksnest is doing something unusual and we think it might have something to do with what we wrote Sunday evening about traffic, however they are offering WEEKDAY RATES TODAY on MLK Monday.
Justin Grimes wrote, "That is a tremendous savings over other resorts that charge holiday rates on MLK Monday."
Yup…it is!
Sapphire Valley – NO REPORT, but truthfully the little resort that happens to include a couple of slopes and a tubing park probably thinks that there’s no reason to update a report that is the same day in and day out if the weather permits. …and the weather permits right now, so they probably have the same 2 slopes open and the tubing park!
Ski Beech – 5° and they now have 12 trails open. The only ones they have left to open are Upper and Lower White Lightning, Upper and Lower Southern Star, and the Oz Run. They are making snow in selected areas today…and we’ve seen snowing going on with some if not all of those trails.
The low at Beech last night was 5°, but it is already 23° at 8:20am, so conditions should be PRIMO on Monday.
Sugar Mountain – The low overnight was 0°, but it is already 22° atop Sugar as well and they have opened everything up for today except for "Sugar Bear", but that means that 19 trails are open. Sugar continues to stay ahead of everybody else in the state as far as open terrain is concerned and that is due to some awesome snowmaking. Not QUITE what they are reporting, but AWESOME nonetheless. (Remember that Sugar had thin coverage and bare spots 8 days ago and while all of the NC ski areas have grown their base by 20-30", Sugar is reporting a growth of 70" in the same period. They ARE good, but we’re saying those are marketing numbers. Anyone want to challenge us on that? We’ll come up. Let’s keep it real guys.)
Wolf Ridge – They are at 9° this morning with the same 7 trails open for MLK day today.
Enjoy your day…
Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
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