Welcome to the 2020-21 season, Snowshoe and Ober Gatlinburg!
The two resorts are kicking off their season today to bring our total of open resorts to five.
Slope conditions look great across the region, but the weather forecast looks a little blah with some underdeveloped snow at times.
However, you can’t rain on our parade.
When the rope drops at 4848′, they will be playing on 50 acres as they are offering 12 open trails (including Cross Cut and Gandy Dancer) with the Ballhooter, Powder Monkey, and Skidder lifts in operation.
Snowshoe is reporting a 45″ base with a groomed surface.
Kenny is set to provide on-snow coverage today from Snowshoe and did an early morning Facebook live from outside rope drop.
Be sure to be on the lookout for more coverage from Kenny over on Instagram and Facebook throughout the day and weekend.
At Ober Gatlinburg, the rope will drop at noon with five trails (including Mogul Rodge and Upper Bear) and three lifts in operation. They are reporting a 20-30″ base with a groomed surface.
Snowshoe and Ober Gatlinburg join Appalachian Ski Mountain, Cataloochee, and Sugar Mountain as open resorts.
App, who opened yesterday for both day and night sessions, is reporting a 12-20″ base with a groomed surface. They are playing on eight trails with five lifts in operation.
App Ski Mountain is also celebrating their anniversary weekend, which means they will roll back ticket prices back to the original 1962 price of $5. You must register online before noon the day before to get the special rate.
Cataloochee is open to the top as they are playing on an 18-28″ base with a machine worked/packed powder surface. They have eight trails and three lifts open today.
Sugar Mountain is playing on seven trails serviced by three lifts today. They are reporting a 17-47″ base with a manmade and frozen granular surface.
Sugar is offering day and night sessions today.
As I mentioned earlier, we will have some underdeveloped snow move through the area, but that will turn to actual snow later tonight and tomorrow.
While the amounts won’t be too heavy (anywhere from a light dusting to a couple of inches), it will be great to have some natural powder to play on and snowmaking should also fire back up to refresh the slopes over the weekend.
Overall, the pattern looks great for the next week.
Beech Mountain will join the fray on Saturday to bring the total to six on the first weekend of December.
Other target opening dates that we know include:
Wolf Ridge – Friday, Dec. 11
Sapphire Valley – Saturday, Dec. 12
Winterplace – Saturday, Dec. 12
Canaan Valley – Saturday, Dec. 19 (they announced on Wednesday they were pushing things back a week)
Timberline is also shooting for Dec. 19, but they may open earlier than that date.
These are weather-permitting of course, and we will provide any updates (and additions) as we receive them.
If you hit the slopes this weekend, be sure to send us over your photos -we would love to see them!
That does it for today, but until next time, #ThinkSnow!
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