After a brief bit of milder-than-the-zero-degree-days that we’ve seen a lot of lately, it is forecasted to turn back to cold and snowy across the entire region this weekend. There’s a 40% chance of snow for today across the mountains and lows tonight should dip to a snowmaking op of 21° across the higher peaks. The National Weather Service is still holding to no snow Sunday night into Monday however they show snow for Monday night. Ray’s Weather is forecasting nothing til Tuesday and then a mix. Brad was forecasting some snow Sunday night into Monday and then Tuesday into Wednesday as well. We’ll see how that pans out, but it will be COLD enough to make snow each of the next several nights and that means more terrain open everywhere although several ski areas in the state are already 100% open with others only one or a couple away from being fully open.
Santa’s doing his magical thing again this season. He’s somehow able to make an appearance skiing and in some cases snowboarding at multiple ski areas at the same time. He is, afterall, one cool dude!
Yesterday was the first time that I’ve seen reported base depths drop this season. Several areas are reporting a drop from yesterday but the conditions are awesome with tons of snow and that will only get better with more snowmaking temps coming back…
Speaking of temps… WOW our new HighCountryWeather.com website is getting rocked with new visits! Thanks for checking it out and we hope that you’ll spread the word that we’re bringing you guys a one stop shop for all of the ski areas’ forecasts and current data. We’re going to grow that website’s outreach in the future.
Here’s the tour…and let’s go backwards today.
Wolf Ridge Resort – 34° – No snowmaking. They opened 4 more trails to send them to 15 of 20 trails available for today. That’s the Upper Mountain (Old Breakaway slopes) that are now open. Rick Bussey reports, "SLOPES Groomed and in Great shape." Tubing is open as well.
No new natural snow was reported anywhere in the state of North Carolina for the first time in days. Beech’s CoCoRaHs reporter (which I think is still Gil Adams) is the only station reporting snow base still on the ground and that’s at 7.5" up on Beech Mountain. (This isn’t the ski area we’re talking about people – but the natural snow that’s on the ground like at Fred’s Mercantile and elsewhere.)
Sugar Mountain – 26° – They too are reporting snowmaking going on the AM and as long as temps allow. Sugar is open for day and night sessions on 17 of 20 trails and snow tubing is open – as is ice skating.
Sapphire Valley – 33° – No report. I know they PLANNED on opening yesterday however their own website reports that they were "planning to open December 17th". We try. That’s ALL we can do. We try and we try. We DID make a call and found out that they ARE open with both trails…the bunny hill and the intermediate slope. They are also offering their popular Frozen Falls Tubing Park as well.
Note: Not sure where Sarah got the 80" base depth from on the previous snow report from Friday, but Sapphire is reporting a much more appropriate 24-36" of groomed conditions today.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 32° – No Snowmaking – 100% open with all 16 trails open for day and night sessions and snow tubing is open as well. Great conditions await you at The Cat.
Beech Mountain Ski Resort – 27° – They ARE reporting new manmade snow – They are open with 14 of 15 trails, which is everything on the mountain with the lone exception of The Oz Run. They offer day and night sessions on a base of 34-60" of groomed conditions and ice skating is open as well.
Note: We’ve heard some very nice things about the conditions at Beech and the grooming up there so far this season. Not that it’s a surprise or anything – just saying!
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 26° – That was the recorded low last night at App, but it wasn’t long or consistent enough or something (wet bulb maybe) for them to make snow. App is 100% open with all (12) trails, including three terrain parks. They have ice skating open as well.
That’s it for the NC ski areas. Visit www.skiSoutheast.com for more conditions and reports from around the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atantic. Also visit:
www.HighCountryWeather.com
www.HighCountryWebCams.com
Send us your photos, videos and reports of your day on the slopes to [email protected] or [email protected] and we’ll post you up! Thanks for helping us spread the word of how great things are on the slopes!