Happy opening day to the Omni Homestead.
The Virginia resort kicks off its 2023-2024 season today, with chairlifts spinning from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There’s a 10-inch base with groomed conditions, and a lane of tubing open. The mountain is open from Thursday through Sunday each week all season.
Matt Laws has more information on that here.
Challenge Accepted
With just a few days left until Christmas, I am back in New England. I was with my dad yesterday, when all of a sudden he stood up and said “welp, I’ve got to go pick up my new snowboard.”
No, he didn’t buy himself a present just days before the big day. He won it, he told me, through a raffle at Boston’s Snowbound Expo last month. The nonprofit that auctioned it off is called Challenge Accepted, and it provides heliboarding experiences to U.S. military veterans with physical and mental disabilities.
“For many veterans with disabilities, their last experience in a helicopter may have been being dropped into a hot zone or medevacuated out of one,” the organization’s mission statement says. “Challenge Accepted’s mission is to replace those memories with an extraordinary, extreme, and positive experience.”
The group gets veterans into the backcountry, and focuses on small groups between six and eight. The program also offers educational instruction on backcountry terrain and wilderness safety, yoga, mindfulness, health and wellness planning, and music therapy.
The program kicked off in February with a trip to Sugarloaf Mountain. In February 2024, the group is taking a trip to Sun Valley, Idaho.
I’ll have an interview with co-founder Mike Reilly soon, but until then, check out their website, and send it in the direction of any veterans you might know who could benefit.
Here’s what’s going on in the southeast today:
Timberline
If there’s any resort that’s firing on all cylinders, it’s Timberline. Open with a whopping 19 of 20 trails open, all of the open terrain has been machine groomed and there are snowmaking mounds on Thunderstruck for some bumpy terrain options.
Off the Wall opens today. Thunderstruck and White Lightning are also open for the steep and deep lovers out there.
Discord user Dojo was there yesterday, and said that while there were holiday crowds, the wait for a chairlift was only around three minutes long.
Appalachian Ski Mountain
It’s a Saturday, so you know what that means: late-night skiing at App from 5 p.m. until midnight. That continues every Friday and Saturday night through March 16.
Christmas came a little bit early at App’s terrain park, and it is stacked with 12 features in two parks.
The features include a drop rail, hip/small jump, table top, a-frame box, flat-down box, and skinny box.
Wintergreen
Night skiing kicks off at Wintergreen today. It’s been a bit warm in that part of Virginia so far this winter, but as we get further into the winter, that should change.
Reader David Perault was at the mountain yesterday morning with his son, and reported some amazing conditions. Here’s what he had to say.
My son and I slipped out to Wintergreen yesterday morning for some pre-holiday crowd runs. Amazing conditions. I had spoken with a worker over the summer and he shared that the resort had fixed some snowmaking bottlenecks – primarily electrical junctions and pipes. Hidden investments that the public is not aware of, but we could really tell a difference. Eagle’s Swoop was as fine as I have seen it, and although they did not have a ton of slopes open, those that were open had deep coverage. The upcoming weather should not hurt them at all.”
Snowshoe
I am once again, fired up about just how great Silver Creek looks on the ResortCams. I haven’t yet gotten out that way, but it will be one of the first trips I take after the
Our grooming team has served up some scrumptious corduroy for you. Rope drops at 9AM so be ready to dig in. Mountaineer Park is open at Silver Creek with some fun features ready for shreddin’. For your safety and the safety of others, please ski/ride under control at all times and follow all safety signage while on the slopes; slow signs, closed ropes, etc. Take your on-mountain experience up a notch by downloading the Snowshoe mobile app today! Track your stats, earn badges, navigate the mountain, and be the first to know about operational updates!
Saturday Hype Video
I leave you on this Christmas Eve-Eve with some footage from Caite Zeliff. The freeeskier from New Hampshire now calls Alaska home. She was in Teton Gravity Research’s Stoke the Fire, then signed on to be featured in Matchstick Production’s films last year. And she rips steep lines.
She did an interview with Freeskier Magazine in March, and touches a huge range of topics, from self care to being a professional skier as a woman, and even talks about being intimidated by 16-year-old boys throwing triple backflips.
Same here, Caite.
Thanks to everyone that has already joined us on Discord.
Think snow!
Think cold!
Click here to join us on our new SkiSoutheast Discord channel. It is a great way to meet new snow loving friends and shares experiences, ask questions, and more!
And as always, email me at [email protected] with your thoughts and photos. I want to see powder day pictures!