Hello everyone and Happy early Easter. It’s Kenny here with you all this morning. Appnet business has been busy, so Mike let me focus on that stuff once I got back from my snowboard trip out west and he has been with you guys every morning since. I figured I’d let him sleep in this morning since we have the day off and get one last report in for the season.
It’s been two and a half weeks since I last did this morning report, and oh so much has changed. When I left to go to Tahoe, conditions here were pretty stellar. Almost everyone was open, trails counts were great as were the base depths. As soon as I left, things started to go to crap. I kept up with some social media and read the morning reports while I was out there, so I knew how quickly the resorts were closing up. I would be talking on the phone with my girlfriend telling her how it was 30 degrees and nuking snow and she would inform me it was 80 degrees and sunny.
I had a feeling it was going to be an early season anyways thanks to a bad November and December. I didn’t really grasp just how much conditions had deteriorated until I looked at the webcams while in the airport on my way back home. I was astounded! And bummed.
The season is essentially going to end up being only about 12-13 weeks long, with 10 of those being good. Let’s be honest, it didn’t really get going until after New Year’s. I think I had only ridden a single day before the calendar turned. But oh were January and February so good to us…so good. For instance, Snowshoe is reporting 124″ of snow this season and 109 of those inches fell during January and February. They are going to end up well below their average of 180″, but to have 109″ of snow in two months is pretty awesome, even for some places out west.
Random thought…Isn’t it amazing though how quickly Mother Nature can take away the snow? Two plus months of snow and snowmaking can be wiped out in the span of on to two weeks. It always happens quickly which is why I kept speculating on snowmaking back at the end of February. Kudos to the resorts and their managers who battle Mother Nature every year.
Easter Weekend Slush
The holiday weekend gives us three remaining open ski areas in the Southeast. Those are Snowshoe Mountain, Appalachian Ski Mountain, and Cataloochee. A couple of my buddies are actually at App Ski Mountain today and tried to get me to go, but I won’t lie I have the Spring fever and plan on going out and cruising around Lake Norman today. I have officially traded in my snowboard for a wakeskate for the next 7 months. My season ended by hiking out of waist deep snow at Sugar Bowl in Tahoe.
The forecast for the weekend shows more mild temperatures, which means slushy snow conditions. That said, the lows tonight look somewhat chilly especially up towards Snowshoe where they could touch the freezing mark. We won’t be seeing any snowmaking but those cooler temperatures overnight should harden the snow up for tomorrow morning, setting the stage for a fantastic spring skiing day tomorrow.
Here’s a quick rundown of the three resorts…
Appalachian Ski Mountain
ASM is offering 9 trails and 6 open lifts today. Both terrain parks are open and they look to have a bunch of features in them based on what I see on the webcam. Snow wise…it’s looking decent out there but the sides are creeping in a lot. App has planned on year to be open through April 2nd, but looking at the weather and the fact that it’s a ghost town out there right now I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull the plug this weekend after their annual Meltdown Games. On their Facebook page they responded to someone asking about the closing date by saying they are “hoping” to stay open until April 2nd. So we shall see.
Cataloochee
Cat closes for the season tomorrow and is limping to the finish line. I don’t mean that in a derogatory terms it’s just that they have spent the majority of the last few months with all 18 slopes open, so it’s weird for me to see only 4 on their snow report. They have a 12-24″ base with 3 lifts operating. There’s still time to vote for Cataloochee for the National Snowmaking award. You can do so by CLICKING HERE.
Snowshoe
The Shoe continues to impress by still having 40 trails open today on 175 acres. Their base is down to 15 inches so there will probably be some thin spots in places. They will close up shop for the season on Sunday. Here’s a shot from out there yesterday and you can see it looks pretty dang good still!
They also posted this video on their Facebook page which gives an even better idea of how the conditions are right now.
So there you have it. Three resorts remain and this could be the final weekend if App decides to call it. If you are thinking of getting some turns in this weekend but are still unsure, just do it! It’s going to be a long 7-8 months until you get to do so again!
It’s been a challenging season to say the least and let’s hope next season starts before January! This is my final post until November probably, so I’d like to thank all of you who visit the site on a daily/semi-daily basis and read what we have to offer. A big thanks to Joe Stevens and Randy Johnson for helping to contribute to the site this year. The same goes to David McCue for his excellent articles throughout the season of which I have heard excellent feedback. Looking forward to working with all three of these fellas again next year!
I am already looking forward to next season and have some ideas about how to improve the site. Hopefully we can expand on the live broadcasts and do more on location stuff. We’ll work on planning that stuff this off season.
I am signing off for now. See you all in the Fall! Think cold and think snow!