9:am Update! This just in – Santa is making yet another stop on his Ski Tour around the region!
SANTA AND FRIENDS VISIT SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN – Snowshoe, W.Va. – The holidays are in full swing at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in snow-covered West Virginia. Santa Claus and his friends were spotted on the slopes making some turns in the resort’s expanded terrain park. Santa is young at heart and does act like a kid every now and then. It seems he likes to get off the ground whenever possible.
Santa joined Mrs. Claus, The Grinch (he’s on Santa’s side now), one of his trusty elves and the Snowshoe Hare on the slopes. This is the 17th straight year that Santa has slipped away from the North Pole for a little fun at Snowshoe Mountain before his big night.
Nearly all 57 slopes at the Southeast’s largest winter resort are now operating as the holiday weekend quickly approaches. Santa also took advantage of some snow tubing, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing at Snowshoe on his time off before the big day.
We have another of those pesky temperature inversion things happening again this morning in the NC Mountains. Valley temperatures are much colder than on top.
Maggie Valley, home to Cataloochee Ski Area is reporting 12° as of this writing at 7am, whereas the highest ski area, Ski Beech on top of Beech Mountain is reporting in with 29°. Another little oddity is that jumped off the weather data is that Banner Elk, which is just ten minutes away from Beech Mountain is TWENTY DEGREES COLDER than Beech Mountain this morning – with a 9° reading. Strange but true!
Inversions are not happening up at Snowshoe! They are reporting 13° this morning at their 4848′ elevation.
Those cold temps have allowed ALL of the Southeast ski areas to amass some of the deepest base depths that we have seen in years. It’s hard to argue whether they are altogether marketing numbers or the real thing the way Mother Nature has cooperated thus far this winter. Wisp, Timberline, Cataloochee, Appalachian and Sugar are all reporting AVERAGE Maximum Base Depths of over five feet. I wish we could get a consensus on what that means. We know what it’s supose to mean, but regardless of who’s dictionary you look in – ALL of the ski areas have what may be the best snow conditions going into this all-important Holiday Season that they have seen in years. Cataloochee is saying that they have NEVER had a base depth as deep as they have RIGHT NOW and they are reporting 32-80" of base. That is saying that they have an average maximum base depth of more than 6.6 FEET of snow on all nine open trails today. Ski Beech, which is usually very conservative with their base reporting is showing the deepest base that we can remember – with a 28-40" base!
So expect a LOT of snow underfoot and some of the sweetest conditions in many Decembers for your Holiday Ski Trip.
We’ve received some emails alluding to the fact that our Photos of the Day feature was still behind. Yes…but not for the reason you may think. We have no bugs anymore and things are now running like the well-oiled machine that IS SkiNC and SkiSoutheast. However, our Photos of the Day feature is important to us. We have tons of up-to-date images that we WILL post, but we are actually re-posting ALL of the best thus far for the season. We kept them all and we are coming up to date with each hour that passes. If you want a treat, hit refresh often through today and you’ll see a new image posted often as we are re-compliling all of the best from all of the ski areas. We should have them all caught up today.
On-Snow Reporters – we have not forgotten about you. All of your reports and photos are being posted today as well and so is any points going towards our On-Snow Reporter of the year – which right now has Lorrie Tomlinson in first place, followed closely by three others. Keep them coming and we’ll catch up today.
Massanutten added another trail opening today, as did Wintergreen which has the most open terrain of the Virginia resorts. Wintergreen also reported that they MADE 6" of snow in the last 24 hours.
Snowshoe is reporting that the weather looks to continue to be clear throughout the day today and tomorrow with highs in the low 30’s. Fifty five trails are open at Snowshoe Mountain today, awaiting only the infamous Upper and Lower Shays Revenge. With 39 guns blasting across Shays, our snowmakers hope to have the 1,500 foot drop black diamond open as early as tomorrow! All lifts except the handle tow at Silver Creek are running today. All trails execpt Choker were groomed overnight. Don’t forget to check out this evening’s Christmas Carol Dinner Theatre in the Big Top. Call 5982 for tickets. Happy Holidays!
Winterplace Resort opened three more trails today for a total of 19 slopes to play on!
Cataloochee opened another trail today, as did Ski Beech. Beech opened their Meadows Terrain area.
The weather is looking GREAT for skiing and riding today through the weekend and SNOW SHOWERS are still in the forecast for Christmas Day! I’m dreaming of a White Christmas, with every turn of skiing I see. With the…
See you guys on the slopes. I may be heading to Ski Beech tonight. I’ll be wearing a SkiNC Hoodie if anyone wants to make a few turns.
Until Next Time!
Be sure to email photos, snow reports and comments to: [email protected]