Notes and Quotes for Wednesday — Most all of the ski resorts in the southeast made snow…and with mild temps in the forecast for as far out as we can see…there will be no more snowmaking for a week or more. There’s PLENTY of snow on the slopes and skiing and riding will be great through this next week and weekend…but we need some more cold and snow. Get those prayers and snow dances going yet again people. Maybe we need to setup a team to keep that constant through each season rather than having to appeal for it. We’ll look into that!
On-Snow Reports of the Day"App was awesome today. There were a lot of people there, but no wait in the lift line. Those lift ops are great. Conditions were incredible. It was a warm day with no wind. – Dylan – "science" on the messageboard."
Bob Davies was at Ski Beech "The lines were long at times but moved pretty well. The snow was really incredible and other than a couple of icy spots, they were near perfect."
Cindy Stephard was at Cataloochee "I loved everything about today at The Cat. Conditions were sweet, the people were great and I’ll file another report again tomorrow."
Michael Barts was at Snowshoe "The conditions were GREAT on all of the slopes that I hit on Tuesday. The Cupp was more crowded than normal but in great shape as well and I skied Widowmaker on its first day of being open. It was incredible! Too cool! Hey I understand SkiSoutheast is HERE too. Let’s make some turns!"
Tammy Miller was at Winterplace "I have not been to Winterplace before but I was really impressed with the layout of the mountain. They have some really nice trails and the mountain is in great shape. if you haven’t been here before, you owe it to yourself to try them. I’ll be back!"
SkiNC.com and SkiSoutheast.com is again setting the standard in accurate reporting. Some resorts call new manmade snow "manmade snow", others call it "powder" or "manmade powder" and after it’s groomed some resorts call it "groomed" and some call it "packed powder". Surface conditions are confusing enough or so says a lot of you that email us with that very question.
We support the notion that only snow that falls from heaven should be called "powder" and therefore only AFTER a natural snowfall has been packed or groomed can it be called "packed powder."
Manmade snow is WONDERFUL, and it CAN sometimes be pretty fine stuff…but it’s not powder. One of our visitors wrote, "I’ve skied powder from North Carolina to West Virginia to Colorado to Utah and I know powder when I ski it. Why is it that when I look at a ski report for one resort they show packed powder and another right beside it reports manmade?"
SkiNC.com and SkiSoutheast.com has definately been influential in our cause to make for reporting that visitors can count on and to that end we’re appealing to all resorts to use terminology that doesn’t connotate or confuse potential visitors into thinking that it snowed overnight by reporting "powder" or "pack powder" when it isn’t. After a natural snowfall has had a couple of days to mesh in with manmade and frozen granular there MAY be some powder SOMEWHERE in there…but it’s five inches down. Enough said…but OUR ski reports will now reflect that stance in terminology. Thanks for the 765 people who have asked that question over the past few weeks. Okay, it was more like 20 but where there’s smoke there’s fire!
Appalachian is promoting their terrain park as the best operated in North Carolina and that seems to be the consensus of people on our messageboards. It now open and we have some pretty good shots in the photo gallery.
Hawksnest There was no word from Hawksnest as of the time of this report as to whether or not they got their technical difficulties worked out with the upper terrain chairlift. We’ll update you when we can. Otherwise call ahead for slope openings. They had (5) trails open yesterday.
Sapphire ValleyThey have not updated their own website since December 11th, and we’ve had no regular updates. As of 12/27 they were operating with two slopes and hoping to get their new tubing park going. The Southeastern Ski Area Association website is still showing them as closed. We have received a couple of emails about that…but just know that they are wrong…we are accurate…they ARE open.
Sugar has opened their tubing hill.
Canaan Valley is STILL being reported as NOT OPEN according the Southeastern Ski Areas Association. As mentioned about Sapphire Valley, we don’t attest to data on that website, but we CAN tell those of you who emailed us about it that THEY ARE OPEN and doing just fine thank you! Canaan has a good two to three foot base with nine trails operating. You guys just need to quit looking at other websites! We’ll keep you informed.
Snowshoe These guys have got it going on. They have now got all of their slopes open except Lower Shays Revenge and on top of that…they are ALL groomed and ready for you to explore. We road over Widowmaker two days ago when they were blasting that hill with snowmaking and it was incredible to see how much snow they put down. We have some video of it and will show you as soon as we get it back to our office and encode it.
Timberline – We have still received numerous emails about Timberline’s own website not being updated since December 26th, however we CAN NOW tell you guys that they are now updating us and our information is as up-to-date as possible. Check the ski report for the latest update from Timberline (3:40pm on Tuesday).
Speaking of Timberline Resort, they have a lot planned for tomorrow night and New Year’s Eve. They have a great event planned for 7pm til 11pm tomorrow night in the Fireside Grill with Paul Venier, as seen on Comedy Central. The for New Year’s Eve they have a buffet dinner planned from 7pm to 9pm and then dancing and partying from 9am to 1am in the Timbers Pub. You must be at least 21 years of age. If you are…it sounds like a lot of fun.
See you tomorrow!