Yes, yes, yes we’re going to see a batch of rain Friday and Saturday before we see the white stuff, BUT according to Meteorologist Matthew East – we will see snow on Sunday and into Monday.
We have received a TRUCKLOAD of emails from you guys about how SkiSugar.com (Sugar Mountain’s website) is pointing to Business Ethics Magazine this morning…and we’ll get to that in a moment, because that IS news – like it or not. However, SNOW trumps in-house family squabbles every day. Sorry – conspiracy theorists – you’ll have to wait for a moment or two.
BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING…
SNOW IS IN THE FORECAST. So why the "caps"? We’ve gotten a fair amount of snow around these parts, and some of the ski areas into West Virginia and Maryland have already surpassed their annual snowfall totals for the season. A case in point is Snowshoe Mountain which has already received 183" and we still have all of March to go! Canaan and Timberline have seen 170.6" on the season and that is well over their normal/average snowfall tally per season. Ditto for Wisp Resort which at 112" is now a FOOT over their average snow totals for a season.
However some of the Virginia ski areas have had very little at all! Massanutten has seen only 8" of snow on the season and Wintergreen only 10". The North Carolina ski areas have fared much better with Ski Beech leading the snow parade with 52.8" of snow on the season. That is below their annual snowfall of 80"…but again, we have March left to play with. Word is that Ski Beech may stay open through March 22nd, so some of the natural stuff might fall after they close for the season.
So snow has definately been pretty decent this season, but it has been a while since we’ve seen HEAVY snow that totaled more than perhaps 8" or more around the North Carolina or Virginia Mountains. That is why the CAPS went on above.
According to one of our resident meteorologists, Matthew East as much as a FOOT of snow will fall during the height of the snowstorm on Sunday. The question is WHERE it may fall. We haven’t heard from our weather buddy, Brad Panovich yet (we usually DO when there’s big snow in the forecast) but Matthew seems to think that the way things look right now the mountains of North Carolina will see more substantial snows from this storm than those resort areas further north. He’s thinking that the track will create some heavier snow from mid day on Sunday into Sunday night with some snow flying early Sunday and Monday morning. He forecasts that snow rates will be at a peak during the 1pm-1am time period and that heavy snow will fall in the North Carolina mountains.
He DOES hedge a little by saying that this storm COULD track differently to cause heavy snow to fall in the Upstate South Carolina area or Piedmont North Carolina.
We will hope for the NC Mountain track.
According to Matthew, he expects the southern Virginia mountains to pick up some good snow totals and the WV and Western Maryland areas to get more snow as well…just not quite the substantial share that NC should see.
We’ll see. I hope he’s right and this thing doesn’t go "bust" on us!
THINK SNOW!!!
Check out Matthew’s LATEST Skiers Forecast Video by clicking here!
THIS MORNING WAS A MILD ONE…
It isn’t every morning in February that a person can walk out headed to work in a short sleeved golf shirt this time of year. At this time of year a 43° morning feels more like the 60s. The word for today and Saturday weatherwise is RAIN and there’s even a chance for an isolated thunderstorm or two for Friday. Saturday looks like heavier rain and then winter returns in a big way Sunday with SNOW and highs in the upper 20s and low 30s. As of now it looks like the snowmaking crews at the ski areas will have to wait until sometime Sunday to crank up the snowguns again. That’s okay – there’s TONS of snow on the slopes and although you’ll have to dodge some consistent rain today and Saturday – there will plenty of snow base under you if you choose to do that!
SUGAR MOUNTAIN HAVING WEB PROBLEMS?
<SkiSugar.com shows this website this morning. Someone is not happy.
I went to check their slope report for today to update ours and their website now points to www.Business-Ethics.com. For those unaware of how that could have happened – ONLY SOMEONE WITHIN SUGAR’S EMPLOY could have made that change. There will no doubt be those inside and out of Sugar’s family that will want to point the blame for that "error" to others outside of their organization, but it simply isn’t possible to change a domain record to point elsewhere without knowing the usernames and passwords for control of that. It is safe to say that some Sugar employee isn’t too happy. For PR reasons I am certain Sugar will say that they got hacked…but that didn’t happen.
There are other so-called "Sugar-haters" out their and that is a shame because it is a great mountain and well ran. Somebody crossed a line up there that should not have been crossed and I for one hope that they catch the person responsible for doing that. It’s not cool. I realize that whomever within Sugar’s current or past employment that is mad enough to post this situation is obviously claiming that Sugar’s business ethics are in question. However, isn’t it true that whomever did THIS is unethical? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me. They obviously have some inner office squabbles going on and I’m betting that someone within that admin office either just lost a job or will very shortly.
One last comment on Sugar and I simply HAVE to move on. There are some people out there that are unhappy with Sugar. That is a shame because it is a GREAT ski hill. Whatever feelings there are that are personal towards anyone working at Sugar…have NOTHING to do with the fact that they offer a great product up there to ski and ride on. They deserve your business and I am asking our audience to disregard whatever family squabbles they are having within their own family…and cease the petty commentaries on the messageboard.
DON’T TALK ABOUT THE RAIN!?! PLEASE…
I would not possibly mention names here, but one of my clients called me yesterday and we were discussing their booking for this weekend and he mentioned that reservations were looking pretty light and his reasoning was – "because you go and tell people that rain is on the way."
Well that IS our job here on this website, right?!?!
We led today with the fact that we ALSO have perhaps a FOOT of snow in the forecast as well!
Like it or not, according to the National Weather Service – up to 1-2" of RAIN is forecasted for Saturday.
No tour – just notes today – Check the SLOPE REPORT for details.
Since Sugar is having web problems today – here’s the details over there:
They have 100% of their terrain open (all 20 trails) and they are reporting Wet Granular conditions and tubing and ice skating is open. Boss Hawg plays in the main lodge from 4-6pm.
Ski Beech is celebrating Mardi Gras this weekend! They are giving away beads up there this weekend but you have to earn them. I know they are a family resort, so we’ll have to check into how you earn them!
The Homestead is reporting that they are forecasted to see pretty heavy rains today that MAY force them to close their tubing hill. Call ahead if you’re thinking of heading that way. Thanks for the heads up John!
Wintergreen Resort – Anne Marie shared, "The next 4 weekends are packed full of activities: the final Freestyle Double Cross, Slopestyle, Rail Jam and The Slide and Splash Bash! This coming weekend we are saying thanks to our WPI Members and HEAD Pro Skier and Freeride Champion Grete Eliason will be here making turns with guests and helping out with the Freestyle Double Cross. HEAD will provide demos all weekend and the Oakley O Lab will be here showing off their products. Live music, great food, Grete here for a visit, great snow, and a great boardercross event, you should come up for some fun! The first part of this week was nice and cold. All of the cold weather allowed us to continue pilling up snow on our core trails in anticipation of skiing and riding all the way through to the Slide and Splash Bash on the 21st of March. If you like skiing and riding in March, Wintergreen will have snow for you!"
Canaan Valley – Man I can’t think of the last time I saw them in the 50s during morning hours! They are reporting 54° at 6am. They are in very good shape though with 32 trails and tons of snow on the ground.
We emailed Sapphire Valley about the fact that they had evidently forgotten to tell the world about their conditions via the Southeastern Ski Association website, ours, NC Ski Areas, or even their website. Evidently they’ve also forgotten how to check and answer emails. It has now been since DECEMBER 8th since they reported to the NC Ski Areas, and since February 13th since they updated their own website. Jeesh!
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