I’m calling it – it's a Bluebird Day! I’m also going to go ahead and warn you now that you might see a lot of pictures in this post. I don’t come into the day with much of a plan when it comes to the daily First Trax article (I know this doesn’t surprise many of you), and today I’m running a bit late as a I got caught up looking at the cams this morning. The pictures coming from the slopes today are to die for.
And a good morning to you Canaan!
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again today – WOW, what a wonderful weekend!
A few of our member resort received some more snow since we last spoke. Here’s where we stand today:
Appalachian Ski Mountain: 4”
Beech Mountain: 3”
Cataloochee: Trace
Sugar Mountain: 1.5”
Canaan Valley: 3.1”
Snowshoe: 5”
Timberline: 3.1”
Winterplace: 4”
Wisp: 12”
Ober: 1.5” –>
Take a look at Wisp, another 12” – that leaves them with over 2 feet of snow in the past 72 hours alone!
Snowshoe's 5" has enabled them to open the mountain 100% for the first time this year. That's right, 251 acres of skiing and boarding pleasure!
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which I’ve referenced a number of times this year, stated that early February would be colder than normal with the snowiest periods happening mid and late February. We’re just past the midway point for the month and I have to say that the old almanac has proven itself to be more right than wrong for this season. Let’s hope their predictions for the end of the month hold true!
Beech is just about perfect this morning!
We’ve been hammering home the message these past few days that this is one of the busiest ski weekends of the year for the resorts. Well it turns out that for this season, this may very well be THE busiest weekend of the year. Wintergreen is still looking at the numbers, but expects that yesterday was the busiest so far this season. I know I’ve sent more than a few parties up that way this weekend.
Let’s take a little picture tour of what yesterday looked like at a couple of the resorts, shall we…
Let’s start close to home with Beech Mountain. Here is the base at Beech around 1:30 yesterday afternoon.
And here is Shawneehaw around the same time.
Heading up to West Virginia, here is Canaan Valley mid-day yesterday.
And let’s round out our journey at the top of Snowshoe…
To say that these past few days have been great on the slopes is just not enough. We’ve waited a few years for conditions like this to return to the Southeast. As you get out today you will most likely see one of two things depending on where you go. If you’re up in Maryland, West Virginia, or Virginia you have a chance of seeing MORE SNOW TODAY! If you are down here in North Carolina or Tennessee, you will be greeted with blue skies for days. Either way, you just can’t go wrong.
So, get outside and enjoy these conditions. You’ll be telling your grandkids about this someday!
Take Care!
Tim Bahlke
Drop me an email at [email protected] to let me know what you think or with suggestions on what we could be doing better.