Snowmaking in Progress! (At a chosen few…)

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(The lead photo and photo of the day is from Sugar Mountain on Friday as shot by reader, Joe Berry.)

I’m diving right into the news of the day as I’m working remotely from the midlands of South Carolina where I’ve drove down from the cooler climbs in the mountains of North Carolina to watch Clemson take South Carolina’s Gamecocks behind our own woodshed and lay a whooping on us. Good Luck to the Tigers in their quest for a second straight College Football Championship. With both Alabama and Miami losing ahead of them, you have to figure Clemson will be the Number One team in the land come Tuesday.

Now on to more pleasant subjects…sort of. If you don’t see your favorite ski area mentioned below, CHECK THE SNOW REPORT as they may have made snow, but they are not open as yet.

As for those resorts that ARE OPEN…

Sugar Mountain Resort is making snow this morning. The temp at 8am is 27° at their summit and 31° at the base and that is making for some much needed snowmaking to cover some thin areas on 5 slopes and trails they are operating with again on Sunday. Day and Night sessions are available and Sugar is self-reporting “thin areas”.

Sugar’s snowmaking will “bandaid up” those thin areas at least for today. Sugar is reporting “powder and frozen granular” conditions. I wouldn’t call it “powder” but that manmade powder is like GOLD right now!

Great shot of conditions at Sugar Mountain on Friday. Photo by Joe Berry (CLICK TO ENLARGE!)

One of our readers, Joe Berry posted a nice shot of the conditions at Sugar on Friday and he also shared this sentiment, “Hey mike! Got a couple pics of sugar this morning! I’ve seen it better but I’ve seen it a lot worse! Top to bottom coverage is holding quite nicely and Gunther and his peeps have done an excellent job! At least we get to ride!”

…and that is the darn truth.

Beech is making snow this morning. Click to Enlarge.

Beech Mountain Resort – 25° – They are making tons of snow and open for day sessions on the same 6 slopes as they operated with on Saturday.

Cataloochee Ski Area – 32° and they too are making snow to “pretty up” the snow for skiers and snowboarders today. Day sessions are available on the same 3 slopes as they played on Saturday.

Click to Enlarge and look at the right side of the image for some signs of snowmaking at Snowshoe this morning.

Snowshoe Mountain Resort – 23° – As has happened a lot this early in the new season, the colder air seems to be staying up in the West Virginia mountains. At first glance it didn’t appear that Snowshoe was making snow with those low 20 degree temps, but if you look closely at the Basin webcam, you can see they are mostly over on the Northern Territory (where most of the newbie skiers and riders will be).

Snowshoe is leading the way with the same 9 trails open for day sessions today.

The Rest?

Bryce Resort – 39° and no snowmaking.
Canaan Valley Resort – 28° and no snowmaking.
Massanutten Resort – 35° and no snowmaking.
Ober Gatlinburg – 36.9° and no snowmaking. TUBING IS OPEN.
Omni Homestead – 30° and no snowmaking.
Sapphire Valley – 32° and no snowmaking.
Timberline Resort – 28° and no snowmaking.
Wintergreen Resort – 33° and no snowmaking.
Winterplace Resort – 33° and no snowmaking.
Wisp Resort – 30° – no snowmaking
Wolf Ridge Resort – 36° and no snowmaking.

I think what the data above shows and supports is that the ski areas that are already open are now simply going to make snow at every chance to maintain what they have and stay open. Some of the ski areas (as shown above) could have made snow, but since they were not open and with questionable forecasts ahead, they opted not to. Of course there were also resorts that simply haven’t had the temperatures just yet.

Appalachian Ski Mountain made snow last week, but temps have not cooperated since. Click to Enlarge!

Some have emailed me about “why you guys haven’t covered App so far this season. Well that’s pretty simple – like a lot of ski areas, Appalachian Ski Mountain has not really been able to make much snow. Here’s a shot from this morning. Like a lot of our mountain resorts, they are waiting on some cold air to invade the area.

App’s peeps posted, “Unfortunately no snowmaking weather materialized as hoped overnight, and Appalachian Ski Mtn. is unable to open for skiing & snowboarding this Thanksgiving Weekend. The forecasted low for ASM was in the low 30’s, but calm winds and clear skies led to a significant inversion in temperatures, and the actual low for the top of the mountain overnight was 34.0 degrees.

We will be watching the weather in the days to come and plan to make snow and open for the season as soon as temperatures allow.”

Bear in mind that the weather station up there is showing 32° but that actual temp ON THE MOUNTAIN was a bit milder and those couple of degrees make all the difference in the world.

Enjoy the four ski areas that ARE OPEN and THINK COLD!

 

That will do it for me today. I want to say “thank you” for making this website a daily stop in your day. Pass the word or email a friend to pay us a visit. Also if you haven’t done so already, check out the messageboard. We have lots of industry insiders, ski patrol and instructors and lots of fellow skiers and snowboarders who are on there every day. Click over, join in on the conversation. It’s fun and it’s free.

Also check out all the Ski Resort Live Webcams and our Skier’s Weather

Email me anything, anytime at [email protected]

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