Tennessee Winter Special Olympics is at Ober Gatlinburg Today and Tuesday!
…and Wintergreen Resort welcomes the Virginia Special Olympics today
We’re a sucker for these young people, so for that reason alone Ober Gatlinburg gets top billing today…followed by Wintergreen!
Tennessee Winter Special Olympics Games
Monday & Tuesday, January 28 & 29, 2008 – 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Over 160 athletes with intellectual disabilities will compete in Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding and Speed Skating in divisions based on age and ability. The traditional lighting of the Special Olympics flame will take place on Monday morning at 8:30 on top of Ober Gatlinburg. Award presentation will begin at 1:00 pm on Tuesday.
Come cheer for these special athletes! For more information call 615-329-1375.
Ober Gatlinburg had a low of 34° this morning and they have the same 5 trails open for Monday. Go root for the participants and feel your heart warm up! Also check out the Photos of the Day section for Ober as we added numerous nice images.
As mentioned, Wintergreen Resort is hosting the Virginia Special Olympics today and Tuesday. Anna Marie Jones writes, "WELCOME VIRGINIA SPECIAL OLYMPICS! Wintergreen is proud to be the venue for this great event. Come visit today or tomorrow and cheer on these athletes. The consistent winter weather forecasted, will allow us to keep taking trails off our “need to open” list and provide more terrain for you. We will continue to make snow in the advanced section of our Terrain Park and on Upper Wild Turkey. With cold temperatures, our fully automated YORK snowmaking system can produce amazing results. Make plans to visit and enjoy some great skiing, riding and tubing!
Slopes: Today we will be skiing and riding on 23 slopes and trails and 5 lifts will be running. Tubing: The Plunge will be open today from 2pm – 9pm. The Slide will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10am – 6pm. Tubing tickets are on sale now over the web and in person. The best way to stay informed about what is happening up here is on the web."
Wisp Resort in Maryland is reporting 20° this morning and a bit of snow! They are reporting 2" more of the natural stuff and 50" on the season and Lori Epp stated, "stashes of powder still to be found!"
We’ll be up there this weekend, skiing from late in the day on Friday through Sunday AM, so if you’re up there or plan to be…look us up.
Wisp has 30 trails open today, snow tubing, mountain coaster and tons of great conditions. As Lori says, "It’s going to be an EPIC day at Wisp today."
We’ll go to Canaan Valley next as they have a great announcement to share!
Canaan Valley Resort Ski Area Fully Open! That’s 39 trails, and the Tube Park all in operation!
Bryan Brown, spokesperson for Canaan, wrote, "Mother Nature’s recent blast of cold weather and natural snowfall, coupled with careful early season grooming, has resulted in the opening of all ski and tubing trails at Canaan Valley Resort.
Mike Chaney, Director of Mountain Operations at Canaan Valley Resort, said, “If you’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to get back on your skis or snowboard, now is the time. We’ve opened all 39 trails, including Gravity – our infamous black diamond – and Timber Trail – our mile and a half beginner’s slope.”
Chaney said guests can get a preview of mountain conditions by visiting the resort’s new slope-side web cam at www.CanaanResort.com .
Canaan Valley Resort is also one of only six ski areas in the country to offer “Airboarding”. The latest in winter recreation, an Airboard allows a guest to “body-board” down the slopes. (We shared a great photo of that with you guys the other day.) Click here to see> Canaan Valley Ski Resort
The resort’s cross-country and snowshoeing trails, as well as the ice rink, are also open.
For those interested in skiing two mountains during their visit to Canaan Valley, they can check out the Ski The Valley Pass. This two-day lift ticket offers guests the option to ski both Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline when and how they want. Visit www.SkiTheValley.com for availability and more information.
For lodging or additional information, contact Canaan Valley Resort at 800-622-4121 or visit the website at www.CanaanResort.com .
Okay…on to other West Virginia Ski Areas!
Snowshoe Mountain is a cold 18° this morning and they are only 1 trail away from being 100% open as well! Only the very challenging, mogul field called "Lower Shays Revenge" is not open at this time. That gives Snowshoe 59 trails (the most in the region) and snow tubing and terrain parks all open today.
Current Features in the Mountaineer Terrain Park include: Single barrel rail, Up-gap-down rail, and a 20 ft kicker.
The Spruce Glades Terrain Park features include: Unbow box,Flat down rail, 40 ft kicker, 25 ft kicker, 25 ft kicker, Up flat rail, Down rail, Rainbow box, 50 ft hip, Coffin box, Flat box, Flat rail, Flat down box, and Triangle box Mini battleship. New features being built nightly!
My new buddy, Laura Parquette writes, "Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. It doesn’t seem to want to stop around here and we’re loving it! Yesterday’s "light snow" coated the slopes with at least an inch of great powder and conditions seem to get even better every day (which is tough when they’re already almost perfect!) In addition to the natural snow, snowmaking did occur overnight. A gorgeous sunny day is in the forecast, and temps should warm up slightly for the next few days, although snow is once again in the forecast for Wednesday! We continue to have 234 acres of skiable terrain over 59slopes open, with just Lower Shay’s Revenge unopen.Silver Creek is 100% open, including night skiing and riding and the tubing hill. Our 4 Terrain Park areas are also in great shape, with features being built and improved nightly."
Timberline Resort is reporting 5° this morning which that matches the NWS report for there so we’re thinking that Canaan’s report may be incorrect for the temp. They also reported 1" of snow to take them to a region-leading 86.5" of snow on the season with 30 trails open and 17km of cross country terrain open as well!
(We received a few emails asking us about a report of 10" of snow yesterday up at Canaan and Timberline and that report is not correct! It took us a while to find the "culprit" but the SSAA is reporting that incorrectly this morning. They are also reporting 4" for Snowshoe, but they also had just an inch of new snow.)
Winterplace Resort is 100% open as well! That means that they have 28 trails of sweet conditions awaiting you guys today as well as terrain park and tubing fun!
For those keeping count, that gives the BIG FOUR ski areas of West Virginia 156 trails to ski and ride on today!
VIRGINIA SKI RESORT REPORT:
Bryce Resort is 100% with all 8 trails, terrain park and snow tubing open today!
Massanutten Resort is reporting 19° this morning and 11 of 14 trails open today…as well as terrain park and their popular tubing hill. They made snow last night and have a great base with groomed conditions for this Monday.
Wintergreen Resort – See Report above.
NORTH CAROLINA REPORT –
It took 83 days into the season for the largest ski area in the state to open, but Sugar Mountain is now 100% open with all 20 trails, terrain park, tubing, ice skating and more…ready for your pleasure.
Sugar and Cataloochee both opened on November 7th, 2007 (Sugar opened first at 9am and Cat opened at 1pm the same day) but neither of those resorts had managed to get all of their terrain open until this morning. Cataloochee still has 10 of 14 trails open.
Appalachian is 100% open as well.
THE STRING COMES TO AN END…
We had been on a string of some 15 days in a row with temperatures that were colder than normal and that streak will end today as the highs are expected to rise to around 53° or so and the forecasted low for Monday night is 32°. The normal high for this day is 41° and the low – 21°.
Get out and enjoy the BEST conditions of the season today. We’re in for a quick shot of rain on Tuesday. It won’t be anything but a late afternoon shower. Then a mix of wintry precip in forecasted for Thursday. Other than that the next week looks about normal for temps with no precip. That means that we’re probably in store for another great week and weekend ahead, so if you haven’t made reservations yet for this coming weekend…make them now.
Here’s some quick glance notes…
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 26° – Has not made snow the last two nights, but the base is great and the surface is groomed.
Cataloochee – 14° – They are open for DAY SKIING ONLY on Mondays and they have 10 groomed trails available. Tubing is closed until Thursday.
Hawksnest – 24° – We watched as one of the Cottom brothers was doing some early morning grooming and he was spending quite a bit of time on Top Gun and they are open today until 10pm on 10 of 12 trails, some terrain park features and snow tubing as well.
Sapphire Valley is reporting a "wet granular" base with both trails and their snow tubing hill open from 5pm to 9pm ONLY on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Ski Beech – 21° was the low this morning and they are reporting that they made snow in the last 24 hours, however no snowmaking today. They have 13 of 15 trails open and the terrain park is open as well as ice skating.
Sugar Mountain – 20° – They are 100% open for the first time this season! They have 20 trails open, snow tubing, terrain park and ice skating. They have a GREAT base with Groomed conditions!
Wolf Ridge – 24° – They have not updated their report as yet, but we think that they will have the same 16 trails open, terrain park and tubing.
Enjoy your day…
Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
Send your snow photos, videos, comments or emails to: [email protected]