How about Kenny’s video post yesterday – pretty darn cool! In Kenny’s words, I was not brave enough to head up to Beech yesterday and face the cold. Sitting on a chair with negative temps plus the wind chill is just not what I consider to be a good time. However, things at Beech Mountain (and the other resorts) are all around just better today.
Here was Beech yesterday…
I WILL be at App on Sunday to cover the opening ceremony for the NC Winter Special Olympics and then the games on Monday. As Kenny mentioned yesterday, he’s heading up to Beech today so keep an eye on the message board for this trip report. He always does it up right.
Compared to yesterday, today is going to be balmy. The morning temp at Beech 
yesterday when Kenny updated the snow report was -4 and this morning they are seeing 17. Also in North Carolina, Cataloochee’s temp was around 4 yesterday and 24 today. Not everyone is warming up at the same pace however. Up in West Virginia, Canaan Valley was seeing -3 yesterday and only 2 today. Snowshoe is at -6 this morning.
We may complain about the crazy cold temps but the resorts are loving it. They are pumping out snow and opening terrain like they are on a mission. At the time of putting this report together this morning (it’s currently 7:20), of the resorts who have reported in so far, Canaan Valley in West Virginia and Wintergreen in Virginia are the big movers. Canaan opened up 4 additional runs while Wintergreen added 4-6” to their base and opened up 3 more runs; the double black diamond Lower Cliffhanger, the green Lower Diamond Hill, and another terrain park. By the way, the temp at Wintergreen was 2.4 degrees yesterday and 11.2 today.
Like I said everyone is taking advantage of the cold temps. Appalachian added 2-4” to their base to bring it up to 38-64” – that is over 5 feet of snow on the high end! Cataloochee also added 2” and you’ll be riding on 36-50” of snow as you head up there today. Ober over in Tennessee upped their base by 4-6” to 26-30” and also added a run, so you’ll be riding on 6 of their 9 runs today. Ober has been issued a Special Weather Statement by the National Weather Service for the possibility of more snow starting Sunday night. Our most northern resort, Wisp, has also opened up an additional run and has 25 of its 32 runs open for business.
What a difference a day makes. The winds have died down, the temps are up a bit to a more manageable level, and the sun will be out at most of the resorts. Definitely a great day to hit the slopes. Kenny sure knows how to pick them!
The View from the Top of Beech
Snowshoe just reported in and they got ANOTHER 3” of snow last night bringing them up to 6” in the last 24 hours. They’ve also opened up some additional terrain and now have 51 trails open to bring them up to 194 acres. With clear skies it is the very definition of a blue bird day! Still cold though so bundle up.
Be sure to keep an eye on the message boards over the weekend. With these great conditions, I’m sure a lot of you will be hitting the slopes and we are all looking forward to the trip reports.
Take care out there today and enjoy the awesome conditions at the mountains. This is what it is all about!
Tim Bahlke
Drop me an email at [email protected] to let me know what you think or with suggestions on what we could be doing better.