Merry Christmas Eve – EVE – Everyone!
There’s more terrain open and more resorts operating at 100% as of today than at any point thus far on the new season and more trails are scheduled to open tomorrow, and Friday, and beyond! What a great Christmas present for those of us who love to ride the white! This should be one of the sweetest Christmas to New Year periods in several years!
Thursday and Friday will be a bit wet, with some underdeveloped snow 🙁
The good news is that we WILL have a WHITE CHRISTMAS at all of the ski areas as there is so much snow on the ground and surrounding mountains that the little bit of rain coming in for Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day won’t take that away.
Meteorologist Brad Panovich was talking a little "downer" in his forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with some rain and freezing rain mix across the region, but you guys need to be visiting with family on Christmas Day anyway!
If you’re going to dodge the rain on Christmas Day and hit the slopes there will be plenty of snow cover still on the ground so we WILL have a WHITE CHRISTMAS! (We’re still seeing more than a foot of natural snow pretty much everywhere in the region as of today with piles of snow and perfect scenery abounds. A little rain on Christmas Day will not take that away.
Then COLD arctic air is coming back in Christmas night and over the weekend with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens and 20s with tons more snowmaking and snow showers in the forecast. So Holiday week is looking VERY, VERY nice.
We heard from some of our crew that the skiing was AWESOME last night at Ski Beech. Lisa Herring of our staff said that whoever did the grooming between sessions on Tuesday did an awesome job and they enjoyed it a ton.
We’re certain the same can be said across any skier area you choose to ride today.
That’s it for now. We’re heading out for a little Christmas office gathering in Banner Elk…so here’s the tour:
Wisp Resort is open with 23 of 32 trails, snow tubing, terrain park, ice skating, mountain coaster and a patridge in a pear tree – all for day and night sessions with GREAT conditions!
Canaan Valley is open with 31 of 39 trails for day sessions only today. They have the sweet ice skating rink open and their Tube park will open Saturday, Dec. 26th. A kind of cool feature that David and the guys report on at Canaan is that they have 88% of their green slopes open, 76% of their blues and 79% of their black diamonds are open.
Snowshoe Mountain has added several more open trails to the mix and now have 43 of 60 trails available for today and the Silvercreek trails are open for night skiing as well. Snow tubing, snowmobiling and horse drawn sleigh rides are all operating at The Shoe.
Laura Parquette was in the Christmas spirit this morning as she wrote, "Snowshoe is giving out our gifts early this year, opening additional terrain. Today the Silver Creek area will get a step closer to being 100% open. Bear Claw will open with the Flying Eagle life, as well several of our intermediate runs. The Timberjack Terrain Garden will make its season debut with 6 features. Over at the Snowshoe area, Camp 99 in the Soaring Eagle trail system will also open today, and tomorrow, our famous Cupp Run in the Western Territory will open, offering skiers and riders 1.5 miles and 1,500 vertical feet of pure enjoyment! Our snowmaking and grooming teams have done an amazing job over the last two weeks, opening new terrain and keeping the slopes in amazing shape. Last weekend’s 28" of snow continues to provide great conditions across the mountain, and more natural snow may be in the forecast for the end of the week. Regardless, this Holiday season will be one to remember at Snowshoe, with some of the best conditions in recent memory. And if you’re joining up on the slopes today, keep an eye out for the big man himself, Santa Claus. Santa and friends will be making a few turns today, getting in a little fun before they begin their big journey on Christmas Eve. If you haven’t made plans to get up here, what are you waiting for? Conditions are absolutely amazing and it’s time to get out and enjoy the snow. Availability still remains for this weekend, as well as limited availability next week."
Woohoo! Camp 99 and Sawmill are open!
Timberline Resort is open with 22 of 37 trails for day sessions today. Timberline wants us to invite you guys to a Traditional Christmas dinner by the fireplace, 1 pm till closing in the Fireside Grill on Christmas Day and evening! Timberline has ALL SIX of their double black trails open (three with natural snow)!
Winterplace Resort is open with 19 of 28 trails for day and night sessions! Tubing is open as well. Winterplace said that they are working on Wood’s Run, Plunge, Nose Dive, Buttermilk and Milkshake to get open soon and "We hope to open Plunge and Nose Dive before the weekend!"
Bryce Resort is 100% open with all 8 trails and snow tubing. They are still offering day sessions only for today.
Massanutten Resort is 100% open with all 14 trails and 6 lanes of snow tubing for day and night sessions. Mass has both of their terrain parks open as well!
Wintergreen Resort added 5 more open trails to the mix today and now have 21 of 26 trails open for day and night sessions. They also have their progression park and tubing park open!
Anne Marie Jones posted, "Devils Elbow, The Gap, Lower Cliffhanger and our Progression Terrain Park ALL OPEN TODAY! All of this natural snow and the cold temperatures forecasted for the next 10 days will allow us to get slopes open and provide incredible conditions."
Ober Gatlinburg is open with 5 of 8 trails and snow tubing and their HUGE indoor ice skating arena and fun shops, etc. Ober could not make snow overnight but should get back to it to open more terrain soon!
Appalachian Ski Mountain is 100% open today! That’s all three terrain parks, ice skating and amazing conditions for your day and night on the slopes! Conditions just don’t get much better in December than they are today at App!
Beech Mountain Resort is holding with 9 of 15 trails open for today but we suspect that more will open any day now. Ice skating is open as well. Robbins Run was getting some rave reviews on Tuesday and we were seeing some AMAZING views from the camera up on White Lightning from Tuesday.
Cataloochee Ski Area is 100% open today with the Cat Cage Terrain Park and Tubing open with a base of 44" plus of manmade and packed powder for day and night sessions. Tube World is open as well!
Hawksnest Tubing & Zip Lining is looking pretty this morning as Lenny and crew were out grooming the lanes this AM.
Sapphire Valley Ski Area is OPEN – contrary to several reporting services. We spoke with RJ over there this morning and they have both slopes open and the Frozen Falls Tubing Park. Skiing is from 9am to 9pm and Tubing is from 10am to 8pm.
Sugar Mountain is holding with 16 of 20 slopes open for day and night sessions today. They also have their very sweet ice rink open and tubing is now open as well. Conditions are AWESOME at Sugar right now!
Wolf Ridge Resort is still reporting 18 of 20 trails open and they have their fun-filled tubing park open as well. Several reports have come to us that are describing a lot of Wolf’s open terrain as open with the natural snow that fell this past weekend. They are also making snow to build base and open for day and night sessions.
You can check the snow reports for all of the ski resorts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and North Carolina via https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php as well as videos, photos and more.
Send your comments, videos, photos, trip reports and questions to: [email protected]
SSAA: 0 for 26 app8not11/saphopen /homestwrg/timbclosed/self 25/26
Sug 30.5bech 23/12/21
be 14+4+1 su 20+4+1.5