The onboard themometer on my truck this morning registered the word "ice" on it and then displayed 32°. As I got to the office and checked around the Southeast’s ski area weather stations I see that it is 21° at Snowshoe Mountain. 22° at Sugar Mountain, 27° at Cataloochee Ski Area and 26° at Massanutten Resort in Virginia. Wisp Resort in Western Maryland was registering 20° and none of those ski areas were making snow. That doesn’t surprise me except that Wisp is reporting thin cover and Spring Conditions and yet they plan on skiing and riding for the first two weekends in April. All of the others mentioned except Sugar Mountain (and Wisp) are planning on closing for the season on Sunday, March 22nd. Sugar plans to ski and ride on until probably March 29th, although they have not released a closing date as yet.
Notice that Appalachian Ski Mountain was not mentioned above, and that is because it is 29° at App this morning and they are making snow! They had previously announced that they will make snow Friday and Saturday nights but the temps dipped low enough last night and early this morning and they are blasting their trail system with fresh, manmade powder this morning. If you have not skied at Appalachian in recent years you don’t really quite understand what we mean my BLASTING their slopes with snow. When they are going full bore with their snowmaking system their is no place to escape as they can blast every square inch of their terrain with an amazing arsenal of snowmaking equipment. They will turn that system off just prior to opening this morning and then go back at it as soon as temps allow tonight. Appalachian Ski Mountain would have already have been able to boast that they are providing the best Spring Snow in the region even prior to the snowmaking session, so visitors will have an awesome coating of new snow to ride today and this weekend.
We’ve talked about all of the other ski area’s finishing weekend activities, so let’s go ahead and make this "Appalachian Ski Mountain Day" at SkiSoutheast.com. They will be hosting their annual Meltdown Games NEXT Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29th. Brad Moretz and his crew say, "Winter isn’t over until we say it is!"
There will be a full weekend of crazy events you won’t see any other time of the year, with lots of splashes, snow, sun, and skin. Break out your beachwear or favorite Hawaiian surfwear for their season ending pond skimming contest. You don’t even have to make it all the way across our 80’ long slush pond to win a prize in this event. Also premiering – a new impossible rail contest, an event never seen in this region.
All events are free with your ski ticket. Take your best shot at over 30 prize categories. Drew Stanley, Appalachian’s Marketing Director, says, "Thanks to all the event sponsors who made these games possible: Skullcandy, Atomic, Red Bull, Burton, Forum, Smith Optics, Salomon, Spyder, 686, Rip Curl, Nordica, Volcom, Electric, Roxy, Dragon, Mental, Dakine, Line, 686, Rossignol, Spy, Bern, Screamer, Wigwam, Seirus, Kombi, POW, and Chaos."
In addition to the zany events mentioned above, they will be hosting a Cardboard Box Derby, Ski and Snowboard Big Air, Trash Bag Downhill Race, High Ollie Contest, Pond Skim and Costume Contest (TeleDave you should be there again!), Slush Pond Tug o’ War (teams of 3) and a Chinese Downhill.
BE SURE TO REVIEW THE LAST SEVERAL DAYS POSTS FOR EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS THIS WEEKEND AND NEXT AT SEVERAL OTHER SKI AREAS. Click here to go to the ARCHIVES PAGE
SPRING HAS SPRUNG, WINTER IS DONE, LOOK OUT SLOPES, HERE I COME!
As mentioned earlier, this morning is the coldest morning of the last week or more around much of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic and yet at 7:44am, as I was sitting here at my keyboard, I felt a strange sensation come over me. Suddenly I felt an urge to throw on a pair of shorts, strip down to a tee shirt (sorry for the visual) and hit the lake. That sensation was the advent of Spring. While it IS officially Spring, the weather will feel a bit more like late Fall or early Winter today and even somewhat on Saturday. Sun dominates the forecast and with cold temps at night, that will mean that the slopes will be VERY, VERY nice for the next few days. Yes, there are some thin cover and bare spots out there, but this particular version of the first day of Spring skiing will be darn nice all across the region. There’s plenty of good, skiable terrain and with some sweet grooming each morning, the skiing and snowboarding will be great!
Cataloochee was doing some high-powered grooming this morning as we watched via their live webcam. It bears repeating that they have plenty of good terrain to ride, but they did announce on Thursday, "Due to warn weather and no snowmaking temps in the forecast Cataloochee Ski Area will be closing on Sunday, March 22nd at 4:30pm for the season. There is still lots of snow on the slopes and we like to close out on good conditions. Come join the fun while it lasts!"
We don’t know how many more snow tubing enthusiasts are still looking for another slide down the mountain this season, but if there are some of you still out there, Hawksnest is still open through Sunday. They will call it quits after Sunday tubing sessions.
Sugar Mountain really looks great this morning! Even though they didn’t make snow, we zoomed into and panned around via the LIVE SUGAR CAM and it really looks great up their this morning. If you’re into making turn after turn after turn without a lift line, today is the day!
Massanutten Resort is showing 30° this morning but not making snow. They have reduced their trail offerings to 10 for today and tonight.
Wintergreen is also at 30° and they have 15 trails and snow tubing open for day and night sessions. Check the last few daily posts as they have a LOT of events going on for this closing weekend of fun.
Snowshoe Mountain is showing 21° and hard packed snow, groomed and some variable conditions and thin cover conditions and 35 trails open for today. Remember that this is Snowshoe’s "Last Hurrah Weekend" and they too have a ton of activities going on. Check out Snowshoe’s "Last Hurrah" events by clicking here!
Winterplace Resort reopened the four slopes that they had closed yesterday. They are again at 100% open and looking good. They will be closing for the season on Sunday.
That’s it for today. Check the SLOPE REPORT for more news and have a great day!
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