Temperatures around the region this morning are SO much more like they should be for this time of the year although we’re seeing some temperature anomalies We’re seeing 22° at Fred’s Mercantile up on Beech Mountain, but 36° at Ski Beech, 21° at Sugar, 28° at Cataloochee, 24° at Hawksnest, and 29° at Wolf Ridge.
It doesn’t seem possible but one of the weather stations in Blowing Rock is reporting 28° at 7:55am and yet it is 40° at Appalachian. Obviously Appalachian did not make snow. They really don’t need it as they have a huge base of 67-92". Ski Beech did not make snow either though and they could use some. Based on the stations up there, we’re not sure if they had the temps to make snow. We’ll check on that and see if they could have and just didn’t – or they just were not able to.
Check out the quick report from the ski areas below to see who was able to make snow and what’s happening for today.
The forecast for today is mostly cloudy skies and highs that will reach into the low to mid 40s. Things will dip back into the low to mid 20s again this evening with some light snow showers that may give some areas at the highest elevations maybe an inch of snow. Monday is looking very sunny with highs in the upper 20s and low 30s – and lows Monday night in the teens.
Next Thursday and Friday is looking snowy and cold as well, which sets things up nicely for next weekend’s SkiNC / Ski Beech Summit. We’ll talk more about that and some exciting news that Ryan Costin up at Beech shared with us yesterday.
We invite you guys to check the slope report page for all of the details, but here’s a quick glance of some notables for today:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 40° – Did not make snow overnight – Base of 67-92" – 100% open with 10 trails, both terrain parks and ice skating for day and night sessions.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 28° – Made Snow – Base of 32-80" – 100% open with 14 trails. They are open for day and night sessions today because it is a holiday weekend. Cat is not making snow this morning. Tubing is open as well!
Hawksnest’s Tubing Park is open with 17 lanes of snow tubing.
Ski Beech – 36° – Did not make snow – Reporting a base of 30-60 (but they have reported the same base for two weeks) – They have 11 of 15 trails open for day and night sessions.
Sugar Mountain – 21° low at the Summit and 26° low at the base. They are reporting 22° and 27° as of 8:21am. They ARE making snow and did so overnight. Snowmaking will continue as long as temps allow. That is making for some very nice conditions for today on 100% of their terrain and ice skating and snow tubing are all open. Sugar is reporting a base of 36-72"
Wolf Ridge Resort – 29° – Did not make snow – Reporting a base of 50-70" and 12 trails open. They are reporting "Wet Granular" conditions but we’re betting because they just didn’t pay attention to that. They will have loose and frozen granular conditions for today and tonight. They DID post this statement on their website, "The slopes have continued to be in excellent condition this season with an above average snow base considering the extreme weather changes."
CAMERAS, CAMERAS, CAMERAS…
We worked a good bit on some of the ski area camera systems in an effort to brings some LIVE video to some of them. We’ll be toying with those over the next could of days and get you additional views. Be sure to visit www.HighCountryWebCams.com for the most comprehensive list of cameras.
Sugar is making snow. There was so much snow/ice on the camera that we had to pan it around to one of Sugar Ski & Country Club’s units. So it is kind of useless this morning. Once the sun comes out we should be able to get you a better view.
SKINC / SKI BEECH SUMMIT UPDATE
We have about 110 people planning to attend Ski Beech next Saturday, February 21st. YOU SHOULD TOO. Join the messageboard (it’s free) and get 50% off your lift pass and come join the fun and meet some SkiNC friends. Click here for more information!
Check out the messageboard for more details –
We’re still finalizing some ideas…but the biggest part of the fun will be hanging out with some great friends, meeting some new ones, and helping out a couple of great causes. The Ski Beech Ski Patrol is having a cookout to raise money for their efforts and 20% of the revenue generated is going to the "Helena Jolly Education Fund". Helena Jolly is the young daughter of Jon Jolly, one of Ski Beech’s longtime employees, passed away of a heart attack back on October 14, 2008. Jon Jolly, aka parisandrewsdaddy, was great friend to many people on the messageboard, and he was a great asset to the messageboard in general. Jon was a very giving person, and he went out of his way to help people out with gear, information, etc.
Now it is our chance to give back to him by contributing to his daughter’s educational fund. I can’t think of a better way to honor our friend than to help with his daughter’s education. The easiest way to help is to come to the Summit, eat drink and be merry! Also Ryan Costin of Ski Beech wrote, "Mike, I have contacted John Jolly’s wife and extended the invitation to the events on Saturday. I am hoping Helena and herself will be able to attend and at this point they are scheduled to do so. We will have a raffle with stuff donated from business’s all over the area and Ski Beech is going to put up a season pass for next year. All proceeds will go to the educational fund. The cook out will begin around 11:00am on the View Haus porch with burgers, hot dogs, chips, beer and other snacks and drinks. Again, a portion of these proceeds will go toward the educational fund as well. We will have a DJ on the porch throughout the day providing music and creating a positive atmosphere. The raffle will take place at 4:30 on the View Haus porch and should create a good time for a meet and greet between Beech Mountain staff members and Skinc members. The night will finish with a band in the BeechTree with no cover charge, but it will be a 21 and over event. We are planning more events during the day and should have something finalized at the beginning of this week."
WAY TO GO SKI BEECH!!!
Guys and gals…get over to the messageboard – sign up – ski at 50% and come enjoy yourselves AND have a great time while helping out a great cause as well!
Lots more is happening around the region…Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]