Check the Slope Conditions page for all the details, night skiing, etc.
I’m out doing some first tracks at Snowshoe Mountain so here the early morning updates.
Snowshoe Mountain is reporting 23° and we heard the snowmaking machines crank up late yesterday evening and they were making a cloud of snow over here on the Soaring Eagle side of the mountain. Snowshoe will offer 51 trails today and Snowshoe’s Director of Mountain Operations, Tex Ritter, is making some focused snow on numerous trails. Laura Parquette, Snowshoe’s Mountain Resort Communications Manager, writes, "Well it’s beginning to feel a bit more like winter again as temperatures dropped overnight. This cooler air allows our expert snowmaking crew to fire up the snowguns on several slopes today. All open terrain was groomed overnight and should offer hard packed snow with nice corduroy conditions for skiers and riders to enjoy on this gorgeous sunny day. The forecast is also looking favorable on the mountain as weather experts are calling for snow for the next two days! If you’re looking for more freestyle action, now is a great time to get your grind on in the Spruce Glades Terrain Park. Be sure to check out the new wall ride feature that the park crew just added at the bottom of this slope. Probable openings in the near future include Widow Maker, J-Hook, Upper Shays, Choker, Knot Bumper, Camp 4, and Skip Jack. 2009 is right around the corner and with all of the New Year celebrations offered on the mountain, availability is filling up quickly! Call 1-877-441-4FUN and make your reservations today!"
Wisp Resort reported 23° at 6am and thet are making snow. They have 21 trails open today, as well as the terrain park, mountain coaster and tubing park. Wisp reports groomed/frozen granular conditions and they made snow on 3 trails overnight.
Canaan Valley’s website is reporting 27° this AM, but their ski report is reporting 34° and the latter must be the more accurate as Canaan is NOT making snow just yet. So it appears that they will be waiting on somewhat colder temperature to arrive Monday night and crank up their snowguns.
Canaan has 10 trails open today and David Vance reports, "TIMBER TRAIL and B-Slope Now Open!"
Timberline Resort is reporting 36° at 7:47am, so that means that the snowguns are off there as well. It’s crazy how it is 23° at Wisp and Snowshoe – and yet the Tucker County resorts are sandwiched in the middle with a pocket of temps that are some 10-12° milder. Nevertheless, Timberline will make snow tonight as temps dive colder still.
Jessica Scowcroft, Marketing/Public Relations Manager for Timberline, wrote, "It’s going to be a beautiful day! We are able to start making snow again. This is a great week to go skiing. Call and make reservation now for our New Years Eve Party. Check out the website for details."
Winterplace Resort has updated their report to reflect a date of December 29th, but it is identical to yesterday’s report so we’re kind of wondering if it can be a new one. Why? Because THEY are reporting that it is 49° at 7am, and the NWS is reporting 28° at Ghent, WV. We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that they are having some web issues this AM and that they ARE making snow and they will have Manmade and Frozen Granular conditions on the same 18 trails they had open on Sunday. They have tubing open as well.
As we now get into Virginia, we’re seeing a pocket of moderating temperatures and no snowmaking.
Wintergreen Resort’s weather station reports 31° but the humidity or some important ingredient is missing as they have not been able to fire up their system. Something within that high-tech, computer-controlled environment said that things were not quite able to do their magic. They will be able to make snow tonight, but for today they will drop 3 trails and offer 6 slopes open and tubing.
Bryce Resort is at 37° at 8am and obviously that isn’t cold enough to make snow. Conditions will be pretty good though as Bryce has plenty of snow to cover their 7 available slopes and tubing park for today.
Massanutten Resort is close to the Blue Ridge Observatory in Dyke, VA and they are at 3250′ and reporting 30.4° at 8am. Massanutten Resort is reporting 34° and no snowmaking. Close but no cigar for this morning, but they too should be able to make snow tonight.
They will offer 8 trails for Monday and 7 lanes of snowtubing.
The Homestead has not updated a report this AM, so we’ll keep them at NO snowmaking and the same 3 trails open for today.
Ober Gatlinburg in Tennessee is experiencing temperatures that are 21° colder than Sunday morning’s low, but they are still reporting a "no snowmaking" temp of 38° this morning. The recent mild weather has forced them to drop another trail and they offer 4 slopes open for Monday til 10pm.
Appalachian Ski Mountain is reporting 33° on the weather station, but their on-mountain report is showing a low of 37° and that means that they are waiting one more night for snow making temps to occur. They have 8 trails open, both terrain parks, ice skating and really nice conditions for Monday.
Cataloochee is reporting temps just above snowmaking temperatures. They will have 5 trails open and tubing as well.
Sapphire Valley has both slopes open and tubing.
Ski Beech IS making snow and that will help greatly as they are showing some thin coverage on 4 open trails from Lower shawneehaw and down for today.
Sugar is also making snow at 28° with 11 trails, ice skating and tubing open for today.
Wolf Resort has not updated their report.
As always, be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news about ALL of the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic including more photos of the day, more snow news, more videos…and just MORE!
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