It’s current 9.9° atop Sugar Mountain’s 1200 vertical and another 2" of natural snow has fallen on top of the 2" that they received this past weekend. Sugar opened yesterday, Monday, November 17th for the 2008-2009 ski and snowboarding season with 2 trails and a base of 10-20". We have a nice trip report that we’ll share with you guys later this morning. Today, Sugar upped that a notch and now is open to the top of their mountain with five trails, serviced by two lifts and a base of 10-30" of manmade powder topped by 2" of natural snow – on top of the 2" that they received this weekend.
Sugar Mountain is the only ski area in the Southeast or Mid Atlantic area that is open for business right now. Several plan to open by the weekend and all are making snow to beat the band. We’re compiling a lot of information to share with you guys – pertaining to opening day announcements, etc and we’ll post that later today or Wednesday.
Since Sugar is open right now, let’s give them the props. They have the Summit #1 lift in operation to the top of their 1200-foot vertical, servicing Northridge, Switchback, and Load Off, in addition to Upper & Lower Flying Mile. With forecasters predicting cold temperatures accompanied by sporadic snow showers throughout the week, look for Easy Street to open and night skiing to be open by the end of the week. Right now they are offering Lift/slope tickets for $30 for a full day session and $20 for a half day. Snow Day rates are also in effect for several of the area counties.
Sugar’s 10,000 square foot outdoor ice rink is scheduled to open on Saturday, November 22, 2008, weather permitting.
Today is a snow day for Ashe, Avery, Carter, Mitchell and Watauga county schools!
Ray Russell of Ray’s Weather says that today will be the coldest day since February (maybe since January) and the coldest November 18 in 50 years. (How’s THAT for some "Climate change"?!?) Temperatures will be very cold with blustery winds today. Wednesday will be chilly but somewhat milder than today. The next cold blast is expected Thursday afternoon through Friday.
Check back in just a bit for more information about how much snow fell and where…
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