Yikes! 54° this morning at Appalachian Ski Mountain! 46° at Ski Beech! 44° at Sugar! THIS MORNING! Some of the ski areas will no doubt see 70° readings and higher for today!
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 comes back into 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:
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.
Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
Send your comments, photos, videos and trip reports to: [email protected]