A blustery wind was bombing the rear of my home last night. Occasionally the winds are directed just right (or wrong) and a wind tunnel of sorts is created coming over Grandfather Mountain and down and into Sleepy Hollow…and then back up and into my yard. …or so it seems. Winter is only a few days old, but it was the windiest night of the winter thus far.
All that wind was ushering in some colder air that allowed for most every ski resort in the region to make snow. In fact, the only resorts that were not able to make snow were:
Ober Gatlinburg
Sapphire Valley
Wolf Ridge Resort – No report, no cams, 33°
I was looking around at the conditions being reported late last night as my crew was packing up for a week-long ski and snowboard getaway. We’re fortunate to be heading to the snowiest spot in the region right now (Snowshoe Mountain). I was checking out the conditions – as anyone who is headed to a mountain for skiing would do – and I had to shake my head at the comparison of what the West Virginia ski areas have had to work with – compared to the rest of the resorts in the region.
My buddy, Ed Schneider who serves and Snowshoe Mountain Producer, sent me some vids of the conditions on December 23rd and I’ve posted one of those on the video link.
"Megan" from Snowshoe’s Ski and Snowboard School is featured showing our newbie visitors a few tips on getting up when you’ve fallen on the snow. I posted it because it shows some amazing snow coverage at the Pocahontas County ski resort. You can check out that video and tons more at https://www.skisoutheast.com/videos/
It’s crazy but we’d made preparations with all of the ski resorts to do a much improved job of making good use of videos from all of the ski areas this winter and so far there’s not been a lot to video. Nevertheless, we’ve gotten more response from Winterplace, Snowshoe and other mountains. Hopefully we can get some real winter weather in here and we’ll get around to showing off more of what our region has to offer in terms of skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, mountain coastering and more.
I’m making an early start headed to Snowshoe Mountain myself so be sure to check out the snow report for all of the conditions. Remember that you can click around the region and see LIVE CAMS and weather content for every ski area by simply clicking on the resort links right on the front page of the site. We have more information for more ski resorts in one place than any other resource out there,
Make good use of it… and do us a favor and tell your friends.
The GREAT news as I was doing this morning’s update is that every ski area that made snow looks tons better this morning. As far as trails are concerned all of the ski areas across the region are on limited terrain with most opting to simply get the most base they could on a few trails to weather any mild days ahead.
So if you’re riding the snow today or heading off to your own getaway this week, things look better and there’s some cold, snowmaking temps for a night or two ahead. So lets make the best of it.
I’m hitting the road now. Hopefully you’re hitting the slopes today or doing the same as I am – on your way!
Email me your comments, thoughts, photos, vids or anything else you like to [email protected]
Check out www.HighCountryWeather.com
www.HighCountryWebCams.com
www.SkiSoutheast.com