As I was about to begin posting the latest news pertaining to the few ski areas still open for the 2008-2009 season, I received an email from Martin McLean of Greenville, South Carolina saying, "You guys really have this ski stuff nailed. A friend of mine was planning on heading up next weekend to go ski at Sugar and I told him that according this past weekend’s story you felt they’d probably not be open. He argued with me that there would be no way that Sugar would close up this early. I showed him the article and he still argued that it wouldn’t happen. Well I was just over on their website and they have announced that they will close tomorrow. Way to go. You kept me from making plans that we’d have had to cancel."
Thanks Martin. Actually Sugar is closing AFTER Tuesday’s day sessions. We’ve alluded to the fact that we have previously raised Nostradamus’ mummified body and put him on staff. It really wasn’t all that hard to accurately predict some early closings once we got that quatrain-spouting dummy/mummy talking!
THE REAL STORY…
<Sugar’s Switchback on Sunday
Actually it was much easier to forecast some earlier than anticipated closures when we took one look at the forecast for the week ahead – AFTER having a glance at several photos and clips that you guys sent us recently!
After what will go down as Sugar Mountain’s best season on record, they will pull the plug on the season after Tuesday’s day session of skiing and snowboarding. They will offer ONE more night of skiing Monday night and then ski tommorow and then close up. Frankly, they were open on Sunday with some really tough going on the Switchback portion of their slopes that connects Upper and Lower Flying Mile. We kind of thought that they might just close up after Sunday’s sessions, but they have decided to close Tuesday instead.
They DO have some really nice terrain to ski on from the 3/4th station down and there’s plenty of snow (though chocky) up on Tom Terrific.
So that will leave Appalachian as the lone ski area in the state of North Carolina operating through this Sunday, March 29th. They will be hosting their meltdown games which will include some pond skimming and other fun (previously written about). The pond skimming could take on more meaning since according to the weather forecasts, we will see not only continued mild weather, but as much as two to four inches of rain between Wednesday and Sunday. (Sugar OBVIOUSLY had Nostradamus on staff as well!)
All of the Virginia ski areas are closed for the season. Ditto for all of the West Virginia ski areas with the lone exception of Timberline, which plans to reopen on Friday for the weekend. If their hopes hold up – they plan on doing the same thing the following weekend before pulling the plug on the season.
Wisp Resort is OPEN today and this week, albeit with one half of the trails they had open on Sunday. They now offer 8 trails today (no night skiing, tubing or coastering). They will reopen tubing for the weekend (according to their plans) and then keep on keeping on until the second weekend in April.
I-d-o-n-t-k-n-o-w……
Actually right now Appalachian is the "class of the field" with all ten trails open with VERY NICE SNOW right now. Wisp and Sugar are hanging, with both having some good terrain to ride.
JOE STEVENS CLOSES HIS COLUMN FOR THE SEASON WITH HIS 4TH ANNUAL "SNOWIES"
As usual, Joe gives out some accolades and we think you’ll enjoy his column today. Thanks to Joe for "doing his thing" this season and providing us with some insight into the industry from his viewpoint.
This is probably one of the last posts that we will do this season as we’re moving on to other things. We will post the ski resort for the remaining resorts and days, but with our traffic down to about 1/100th of what is was a month ago, we’re thinking that it’s time to move onto other sports and venues.
We invite you to visit www.GolfNorthCarolina.com (a new website will debut within two weeks) and we will also be putting up a new www.GolfSC.com and one for West Virginia as well! We also have a new www.HighCountryWebCams.com website in the works, and www.HighCountryOutdoors.com will take on a new look and concept – all in the coming weeks! So stay tuned!
That’s it for now. Check the SLOPE REPORT for more news and have a great day!
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