Before I dive into some quick details from around the region… I know that we have some Skisoutheast.com / Snowshoe Mountain Summit readers this morning! Man, what a great time we had at the Apres Ski Party at Hoots last night! Props to the VERY talented band, Laura Parquette, Bill Rock (not necessarily in that order!) for providing us a very cool venue for the party! Thanks also to PowderMonkey (Sonny), Brad Larsen, and the rest of the Snowshoe Family for a great start to what should be a super weekend.
It looks like we have about 150+ people here at Snowshoe this weekend…and perhaps 110-115 in attendance last night! For those of you who emailed early this morning – we missed you guys last night. I will try to answer your emails later in the day! I am headed out in a few minutes to do some quick meets and greets and then make some turns on Snowshoe’s freshly groomed snow! There’s still a lot of fun and activities ongoing all weekend. It looks like for the second year in a row, we’ll be attempting to do a group photo this morning with some major fog in the way!
We may have to save group photos for afternoon hours in the future. One of our members also made a great point that meeting prior to dropping the ropes means that a lot of you guys have to take shuttles to the Village area and hit Ball Hooter. (Okay, I never said I was that smart!) We’ll probably adjust that photo op time for subsequent Summits!
We’re certain to see a ton of you out and about on the slopes and around the resort today so be sure to give us a shout out! I all those who make it to the top of the Ball Hooter lift prior to 9am will be doing a quick group photo and then maker a few turns down the groomed trails and then hit the Boat House for some of those sweet waffles! If you have the same idea…see you there!
THANKS TO LAURA PARQUETTE, BILL ROCK, BRAD LARSEN and crew for being so accommodating!
Snowshoe Mountain’s peeps know how to make for a great time! We had a super band that entertained the crowd and they were also really cool about allowing us to take over the mic for about 10-15 minutes. We welcomed all in attendance and it was a pretty rowdy, but well-behaved crowd. We gave away a lot of hoodies and some other goodies for the person who traveled the longest distance to be with us. (Although some dude from England got the hoodie, I think maybe the people from St. Louis probably should have gotten the prize! If you guys are reading this…look me up and a hoodies is yours!
We also gave away a hoodie to Chris Alexander for bringing THE MOST people with him. He had 15 in attendance! It was cool as heck to see all those people walking around in SkiSoutheast.com Hoodies and tees last night! I think I know how one of those famous clothing designers feel at a fashion show!
As an impromtu thing, we were able to raise about $1400 for the Snowshoe Foundation, thanks to some quick cash raised through some donations via some shirts and hoodies. Thanks to the shortest member of our messageboard crew (MedicSkier, who is actually seven feet tall and growing!) for DONATING his skis to the Snowshoe Foundation cause. Some dude got a NICE set of skis for $75 which is c-r-a-z-y, but that’s the kind of guy Austin is. Very cool Austin.
It was a GREAT start to the Summit and I saw some old friends and met some new ones!
Thanks too to Snowshoe TV producer, Ed Schneider, who was EVERYWHERE last taking some sweet video. If you guys have visited Snowshoe this season you should know that Ed has made you guys famous! The SkiSoutheast.com Summit crowd is on the Snowshoe channel throughout the resort. We’re on ALL of the close circuit broadcasts and more. Thanks tons guys.
We have a lot more fun going down this weekend and a ton of music and fun throughout the weekend and we’ll be posting some here and there – but to my "brother from another mother" – Bill Rock, COO and President of Snowshoe Mountain Resort – YOU ARE THE MAN DUDE. Thanks my friend.
More later. If you missed it this year guys…man you should have been here!
NOW BACK TO OUR REGULAR "BROADCAST"!
Yikes! 54° at Wisp Resort! 50° at Canaan Valley! 58° this morning at Bryce Resort! 55° at Massanutten! 54° this morning at Appalachian Ski Mountain! 46° at Ski Beech! 44° at Sugar! THIS MORNING!
Those kind of mild morning temps takes the guesswork or research out of wondering which ski area made snow last night! Ummmm, none!
Those mild temps have not yet melted all of the NATURAL snow that was up top on Sugar and Beech Mountains. We’re seeing quite a bit of snow still laying in the woods from the Beech Alpen Inn cam atop Beech. The base depth snow on the ski areas themselves have dropped a few inches here and there, but the slopes all look really nice across all of the ski areas. Perhaps our favorite shot was looking at the base cam shot at Cataloochee this morning. That hill looks very inviting! The sunrise coming up on the Sugar Big Red cam wasn’t bad either!
Don’t forget that you can watch a ton of LIVE views at our sister website of www.HighCountryWebCams.com
Warning! The mild temps and base snow is causing some foggy, early conditions. That should clear up as the sun comes out.
Speaking of sister websites… I had a subscription report sent to me that shows that our latest traffic numbers are pretty impressive. Across our SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNorthCarolina.com, HighCountryWebCams.com and HighCountryWeather.com websites we are seeing daily traffic totals of more than 60,000 unique visitors per day! That’s pretty impressive for March visitor numbers. That translates into more than 200,000 people that have been on the website in the last 30 days (a lot of you guys are near-daily visitors!) Those figures are down substantially since January and February, which is indicative of the fact that a lot of skiers and snowboarders start experiencing Spring Fever off the mountain.
We "diehards" know that there’s plenty of skiing and riding yet to do within this season! According to the forecast, we should see a few more days of mild temps and then some SNOW reenters the forecast next Thursday and Friday! So there’s some time left for those of you who have not hit the slopes yet this season (and for those who HAVE but need another "snow fix". The conditions will be plenty good today. Look for soft, easy-to-carve snow conditions and nothing in the way of thin coverage out there on the slopes of your favorite ski area.
(We’re seeing signs of some thinning areas at a few ski areas…but those are a day or two away as far as we can tell.) So get out and enjoy some Spring-like skiing and riding today! Take the sunscreen with yoU!!!
Resort notes:
Snowshoe Mountain – be sure to check out the Homegrown Music Festival action, including the Homegrown Games of Winter beginning at Noon on the Shavers Center patio. The Homegrown Festival just begins the March fun at Snowshoe. With great conditions, free events and beautiful weather, March is like a whole nother season on the mountain. On top of all that, March is value season at Snowshoe, so you can ski and ride for some of the lowest prices of the year. IF you haven’t alread, call 877-441-4FUN and plan your Snowshoe escape TODAY!
Wintergreen Resort – SUN, LOTS OF SNOW & MARDI GRAS! Mardi Gras weekend is here with a full day of fun planed for today and a Slopestyle Terrain Park Event tomorrow. Come up, have fun and show your support for Wintergreen Adaptive Sports. LOTS OF SNOW! The big storm Sunday night into Monday dropped 10 inches on our mountain, this place is beautiful and the conditions are fantastic. The final 2 weekends are packed full of activities: Spring Fling and a Rail Jam next weekend followed up with The Slide and Splash Bash on Saturday March 21st. All of the cold weather this winter has allowed us to pile 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!
Bryce Resort – They are celebrating their WINTERFEST festival today. See http://brycere2.ipower.com//WinterFest.html for more details!
Ober Gatlinburg – They are celebrating SPRING FLING on Sunday!
Cataloochee Ski Area – Don’t forget this Sunday, March 8 is the biggest and best season pass sale of this year and next. Pass prices on this day will be the lowest of the year and if you are a new pass holder, you can ski for the rest of this year and next on this pass! Don’t forget on this day there will be special pricing not only on midweek passes for every pass we offer as well! What a deal! These special prices (including our midweek season pass for $169) will be available from 8:30am – 4:30pm only on Sunday, March 8. You can purchase here at the area or call in between the hours of 8:30am-4:30pm on that Sunday only. Our early season pricing special at its next tier will continue from March 9 through March 31 Pass pricing will go up on April 1. Don’t miss out, get the best deal on March 8.
Sugar Mountain – There is a Spyder Sample sale going on right now! Receive 30% off all 2009-10 Spyder Sample items. Quantities and sizes are limited, so come early. Additionally you’ll receive up to 60% off other Spyder Sample items. You won’t find this kind of a sale anywhere else!
March Madness begins March 9, 2009 and runs through the end of the season. Sugar offers up to 25% savings on lift tickets, rental equipment, and lessons everyday. Some restrictions do apply.
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]