The title to this story is pretty impressive huh?! Appalachian, Cataloochee and Sugar Mountain are always the first to make snow and get open in the region and it’s pretty cool that those three NC resorts are three of the four resorts open in the region. (Snowshoe in West Virginia is the other Southeast / Mid Atlantic report open.)
There was a lot of snowmaking accomplished since Thursday and Friday across the region and that is good news as the transformation from thin to nice coverage is amazing! We say it all of the time but it bears repeating – our snowmaking crews of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic are simply THE BEST in the entire country.
Check the slope conditions page for further details, but we thought we’d take you guys on a little tour of each of the resorts that are open this morning and show you:
a) The difference in base depths over the last 24 hours – to show how much snow was put down.
b) The difference in temps from just 24 hours earlier (8am Saturday morning).
Before we dive in, the temps have now risen a bit as expected, so the snow guns are off until Thursday or so in the North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia mountains…and until perhaps Tuesday around Snowshoe, Timberline, Winterplace and Wisp Resorts. So get out to YOUR favorite mountain (the ones that are open this early) and make some turns with NO SNOW GUNS running!
Here we go:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 35° this morning (it was 19° 24 hours earlier) and they are showing a base of 12-24" this morning (up 2-6" from yesterday) and are riding on 3 trails with 2 lifts operating. They have 6 Terrain Park features open! Lodge opens at 8 am and slopes are open at 9 am. Ice skating is open as well!
Cataloochee Ski Area – 32° this morning (it was 18° 24 hours earlier) and they are reporting a base of 22-30" this morning (up 6-8" from yesterday) and they have opened another trail for today. That makes 4 trails open for day skiing only today. Cat will be closed Monday-Thursday this week as they are still operating under their earlier season scheduling.
Sugar Mountain – 42° this morning (it was 15° 24 hours earlier!) and they are reporting the same 8-24" that they were showing 24 hours earlier. However, I was up at Sugar on Saturday and they were definately focusing snowmaking on areas that they has not made snow prior…so they certainly blasted a lot of snow in the last 24 hours. Sugar is operating on 5 trails today for day and NIGHT SKIING as well. (We have some great video to share with you guys from Sugar on Saturday and we’ll try to get that running later so check back this afternoon!)
That’s it from the resorts that are open. We can tell you that Hawksnest Resort made a fair amount of snow to put their first coverage on their hill. They are shooting to open their tubing hill first (next weekend weather permitting) and then the slopes. They are showing 43° this morning (it was 22° 24 hours earlier)
There’s been no snowmaking as yet at Ski Beech or Sapphire Valley. Wolf Ridge HAS made snow a day or two and according to Justin Blythe in their marketing department, "We were pushing for a Thanksgiving opening but the weather didn’t cooperate… "
The weather ahead for the North Carolina mountains:
Our "team meteorologists" will certainly provide more detailed information for us this week, but it looks pretty much like the really cold (snowmaking) air will stay away from us until sometime at least Thursday with SOME snowmaking ops on Thursday and Friday nights, but the consistent cold does not look promising until December 2nd or 3rd as we reported yesterday. There appears to be a good chance of a blast of winter temps coming to our area the first week of December and THAT is when we’ll see resorts really kicking into action.
So get out and enjoy the resorts that are open. Today will be the best conditions as a little rain is expected Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday should be nice but mild.
See you on the slopes…
Until Next Time…
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