Here are some temps from around the region:
App – 40°
Cat – 36°
Sugar – 33°
Beech – 36°
Wolf – 40°
Looks like we’ve dodged the dreaded "r" word so far this Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Thursday and Friday could not have been much better. There was some heavy fog at some of the higher elevations. "Mellow Yellow" from the messageboard (along with theKENDOG and Xbox) reported a bit of heavy fog at Beech early in the day on Friday, but that cleared and there was some great riding happening at the North Carolina ski areas!
Ski Beech got some rave reviews from Jasen (Mellow) as he took his longboard up to rip up on Beech’s terrain. We’ll share that trip report with you at the bottom of this post, so be sure to check it out.
…back to the weather…
It’s going to be a cloudy weekend, but it looks like the precip will hold off for the most part. Highs today will hover in the upper 30s to low 40s. Look for some light, wintry mix possible later this evening with lows in the low 30s. There’s more of a chance for light drizzle on Sunday early, but the forecast is for that to turn into SNOW as temps fall. Monday should be MUCH COLDER with snow showers and highs near freezing and lows in the low 20s. (More of the same for Tuesday.) So look for snowmaking to resume perhaps Sunday night – but definately by Monday and potentially go around-the-clock through early Wednesday.
Here are some notables:
Appalachian Ski Mountain is reporting a dusting of snow overnight and groomed conditions on 8 of 10 trails. I know that they were previously reporting that they would have all ten trails open for this weekend, but evidently there was some hiccup that prevented that. We’ll try to get word a bit later. Our guess is that they want to get a little more snow on Hard Core and Thin Slice before opening those. THAT should happen with the snowmaking temps coming in on Monday. They ARE open for night skiing and they have their popular ice rink open.
Cataloochee Ski Area is reporting 36° this morning, a base of 21-60" and 8 of 14 trails open with groomed conditions. They are also open for night skiing as well. Tammy Brown wrote, "We have some of our terrain features including a new flatbox that will be available for you to ride at the top of Over Easy, right down from the Snack Shack, accessed by the Easy Way Triple Chairlift."
Cat also wants to remind you guys that Season Passes make for GREAT Christmas gifts! She writes, "Season Pass prices are the lowest they will be for this year through November 30. Pass pricing goes up December 1st! Don’t miss out on anymore of the fun and excitement of a great Cataloochee winter, call now 1-800-768-0285 and order your pass by phone or ONLINE! at www.Cataloochee.com Give the Gift of SNOW for Christmas!"
(I’ll take one Santa!)
Ski Beech is reporting 35° this morning and packed conditions on 5 of 15 trails with a base of 16-40". They are open for day skiing only right now. Beech’s ice rink opens on Saturday for some Holiday skating. You know it is indeed a new day at the Beech when Beech features not one, but two groomers carving up some snow on the front of their website. They added two, new Piston Bully 400s this season and according to the early reviews – they have been used to great success.
Jasen Vioral (Mellow Yellow on the messageboard) posted a trip report over on the messageboard from Friday and there were a bunch of people enjoying what he termed as "flat cord". That translates to – PHENOMENAL GROOMED CORDUROY – to you newbies! You can check out Jasen’s full trip report to Ski Beech by clicking here> Ski Beech Trip Report – It’s complete with photos.
Sugar Mountain – They are reporting a low of 33° this morning atop Sugar. They are offering 10 of 20 trails again today, which means that Tom Terrific is open for today. They have loose and frozen granular conditions and are open for day and night sessions. They also have their 10,000 square foot ice rink open.
Wolf Ridge Resort is reporting 40° this morning with 3 of 20 trails available. Neither tubing or terrain park are open just yet but they are skiing tonight as well. Michael Hampton is handling the communications/marketing over there again this year, after taking the last couple of seasons off and they are doing a great job of posting regular updates.
In closing I thought "TheKENDOG" made a great reference on Mellow’s messageboard trip report to Ski Beech from yesterday. Jasen rides a longboard like nobody else and Ken wrote, "…that skiboard thing you were riding is sick looking and you were carving the hell out of Shawneehaw, almost parallel to the ground."
Again, be sure to check out Jasen’s TR on the messageboard. More of you need to visit the messageboard. We now have 918 members and nearly 300 of those are actively posting in the last two weeks! It’s one of the best "virtual ski clubs" around. See trip reports, helpful (often playful) Q & A’s and more! Click here> SkiSoutheast Ski Forums Register and post away!
For more ski news for ALL of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski resorts click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com
Send your photos, videos, trip reports and comments to: [email protected]