As the image above shows…it’s already getting crowded at Timberline Resort this morning at 10:30am!
Check out the SNOW REPORT for all the details as far as slope and trail openings. This weekend will provide the BEST conditions of the season really NO MATTER which ski area is your favorite. Everybody has plenty of base and lots of terrain to play on. We’re seeing really nice corduroy at a lot of the ski areas and even some REAL powder and packed powder – the further north you head.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
This morning’s mountain blog will take you on a winding, bus tour of all of the mountaintops of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic so that we can SHOW you where the snow fell within the last 24-48 hours and within the last week. We’ll also show you where you can find the deepest snows where from 17-20″ of snow has fallen. Here’s a hint – there’s 14″ built up ON THE GROUND so if you’re looking for where to go to make a snow angel of significance you’ll need to head to Snowshoe, Canaan or Timberline Resort in West Virginia.
The bus is warming up as it IS very cold out there. While we’re getting it warm for you, I want to gripe a little. I’LL BET IT HASN’T SNOWED FIVE INCHES AT MY HOUSE THIS WINTER!!!
Hence the reason for my bus tour this morning. A LOT of you have headed up to the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia looking for some snow. Sure, there’s a good 1-2″ on the ground in some spots – like atop Sugar or Beech Mountain – but even up that way the winds blew so hard over the last couple of days it’s more like a frozen tundra!
Here’s a NICE shot looking down from the top of Beech Mountain towards Beech Mountain Parkway. You can click on the image to see an enlarged version of it. You can also CLICK HERE to see the LIVE VERSION of this camera.
WHO’S THIS BILL DANIELS GUY?
Somebody played an April Fool’s joke on a lot of us late on Friday. One of those “somebody’s” was God as I SAW it snowing hard at my office and there was a dusting of snow on the ground at home last evening. I also saw a TWEET that Brad Panovich re-tweeted from Bill Daniels late on Friday with the caption “4” of Snow at Sugar” and there was a very snowy photo posted. (See below)
As you can see above – the image caption may have said “4” of snow” but the rooftops and roadsides say otherwise. How about 1-2″???
The photos appears to be up at THE RESERVE on top of Sugar and there is a CoCoRaHs reporter up there who officially reported less than one of inch of new snow. It was PRETTY though!
Even Sugar is posting 2″ of snow from the last storm on January 30th. One COULD argue that they didn’t get that much, but with all the wind that was howling out and about on Friday – we’ll “give them that”.
Beech’s CoCoRaHs reporter up is reporting 1.1″ of snow for the COMBINED last 48 hours.
BAKERSVILLE, NC is the OFFICIAL “big winner” within the borders of the Tarheel state with 2.1″ of snow in the last 48 hours.
As I wrapped up the snow reports this morning for all of the North Carolina ski resorts – Beech and Sugar led the way with one-half to one-inch of new snow and perhaps 2-3″ or so in the last 48 HOURS!
It has snowed nearly every day for the last week! This has been the strangest winter so far.
ALL ABOARD…
Okay so the bus is warm and gassed up and since I know a LOT of you are wanting to see some snow, I figured we’d all go look for it together. My tour of the North Carolina mountains turned up just enough snow to make a snow ground-hog…but not a snowman…so let’s head over and into the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg, Tennessee – home to Ober Gatlinburg.
I’m REALLY liking Ober’s new website although I HAVE received more than a few emails from you guys who agree with me that the cool video that they’re displaying on the front page of their site is NOT from Ober. Tis kind of misleading. I’m sure I’ll hear from my buddy, John Cossaboom from over there.
By the way – NO NEW SNOW was reported from Ober either. So let’s drive on.
WE’RE HEADED TO VIRGINIA
Bryce Resort – nope. No new snow. Massanutten Resort – nope. No new snow. They DID add 2″ of base depth with some awesome man-made snow. Omni Homestead? Nope. No new snow.
SURELY Wintergreen Resort got some snow? They’re are my next sto–p. Ummm no. No new snow. They’re even sounding a little less confident about the PREVIOUSLY forecasted big snow event that was potentially hitting Sunday into Monday. They posted:
“The storm passing through the area tomorrow night into Monday remains a big unknown. Elevation is likely to play an important role for us with rain likely down in the valley. Look for additional information in tomorrow’s blog.”
So now I’m needing to gas up this bus tour as we’ve driven ALL across North Carolina, Tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia and STILL have not seen enough natural snow to make a snowman. Fasten your seat belts ladies and gentlemen as we head into the snow-prone climbs of West Virginia – by God – and I KNOW I saw it PUKING SNOW there on the LIVE CAMS every time I looked yesterday.
The first stop heading up I77 is Winterplace.
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner…sort of. Winterplace Resort is reporting ONE INCH of the White Gold and 3″ in the last 48 hours. As wind blown as everything is up there, I still think we MIGHT find enough snow to FINALLY start a good sized snowman. I KNEW I could count on West Virginia.
The graphic to the left shows a clip of David Lesher’s Canaan Snow data. As you can see… there 14″ on the ground right now! Let’s jump out and play a bit.
Next stop, I’ll head on over to Canaan Valley and Davis, West Virginia – home to both Timberline Resort and Canaan Valley Resort & Convention Center. I have grown to depend on old David Lesher of Canaan Mountain Snow for accurate snow reports.
Yea baby! NOW we’re seeing where the snow is! David is reporting 4.2″ of new snow in the last 24 hours; 6.7″ in the last 48; and 21″ of snow in the last TEN DAYS. I TOLD you that it’s been snowing regularly for the last week or so…it’s just ALL been blown up to West Virginia!
I’ve seen enough snow falling from the sky at my office in Foscoe for there to be at least 3-4″ on the ground. However, our ground is dusted with snow, while it’s ALL UP HERE in good old WV.
By the way Canaan and Timberline have now see 77.6″ of natural snowfall on the season. STILL well under where they’d normally be at this point in the season. However they ARE catching up pretty quickly. We’re about one-way into the season for the WV reports which traditionally remain open through the end of March…so those ski areas are now only about a foot off of normal.
Canaan Valley Resort’s ops must have seen my reporting of the fact that they were not 100% open because THIS MORNING they now ARE 100% open with all 44 trails. They’re emailed snow report is reporting NO NIGHT SKIING but they ARE open for night sessions tonight.
Anyone want to build a SNOW FAMILY! IGLOO! There’s plenty enough snow!
So while we’ve FINALLY found some REAL snow to play in around Davis, West Virginia let’s head to Pocahontas County and Snowshoe Mountain. I’ve already stated that it was BOMBING SNOW every time I looked in on the LIVE CAMS on Friday. So let’s drive on up Hwy 219 and see what’s up there.
SURPRISINGLY Snowshoe is only reporting 3″ of snow – officially – in the last 24 hours. I actually received two emails from people reporting close to a foot. THERE ARE some exuberant peeps out there in snow-loving-land!
Snowshoe’s 3″ in the 24 hours makes it nearly 20″ of snow in the last 8 days and now 78″ on the season. There’s a good FOOT of snow on the ground if you want to click off the skis and venture between the slopes and play in the deep snow.
Come to think of it – while 3″ of new snow and a foot on the ground is nothing to sneeze at, if you guys had seen the snow coming down midday on Friday you’d have thought a foot of new snow would have fallen. I have not seen that kind of snowfall this season except during my trip to Colorado at Christmas.
The LAST stop on our tour this morning will be in Garrett County, Maryland within that little notch in Northwest Maryland that SHOULD be part of West Virginia. Hmmm…Wisp is reporting NO new snow and only 3″ in the last 48 hours. Nothing to see here…so let’s get on back to the High Country, as I have more complaining to do!
IT’S GROUNDHOG DAY ALL OVER AGAIN…WITHOUT THE SNOW! (AT LEAST FOR THE HIGH COUNTRY.)
As the LIVE CAM capture from this morning at Boone shows…there’s no real evidence that it snowed HARD during portions of the day on Friday. I SAW it bombing snow around midday. Where the heck did it go?
When I left the office on Friday afternoon there was around one-half inch of snow on my truck.
I get up this morning and my yard is bare. Downtown Boone and Blowing Rock show LITTLE in the way of snow – with only a dusting on rooftops.
Before I start getting emails with – “BUT IT’S SNOWED A FOOT (OR EVEN FOUR INCHES) AT SUGAR OR BANNER ELK” – no it didn’t.
Here’s a look at beautiful downtown Banner Elk around Lees McRae. You MIGHT be able to scrape up a couple of decent snowballs there – which is better than at my house where I would be hard pressed to find enough to make ONE.
Okay…so MAYBE there’s an inch or perhaps 2″ of snow on the ground at Lees McCrae…but good grief it snowed HARD on Friday. Where’s all the snow?
MY COUNTRY NEEDS ME AND I’M HERE FOR THEM. IT’S TIME FOR WAR!!!
I have been remiss in my duties as we should have declared war in terms of doing WHATEVER we could to help jump start nature. We’re now ready to request any snow dances or prayers for snow from you guys. Feel free to email me any that you want to film or photograph. In the meantime, I’m going out in my backyard and burning old “Frankie the Snowman” and I’ll share that tomorrow.
Something’s gotta give. I’ve got the Joneses for some snow! Frankie’s going down. Picture Joan of Arc burning at the stake.
FOUND A NEW FAN OF THE SITE YESTERDAY
It’s always nice running into fans of the site. Last night I was over in Blowing Rock at Outback Steak House and saw a young teen come in wearing one of the first, old-school, SKINC hoodies. (Like the one shown to the right…)
We were waiting to be seated and as he came close I asked him where he got the hoodie and he said that he had just purchased it on the website THIS WEEK. That’s odd because even though we PLAN to reopen our online store on the site – we haven’t yet. I figured that he may have been mistaken and I said, “You mean like eBay or something?” He repeated, “No, I bought it on SkiSoutheast or SkiNC.”
I let it go…but I asked him if he was a fan of the site and he replied that he was but added, “MY DAD is the real fan because he got me on the site.”
That’s when it hit me – really for the first time – that we’re NOW into our SECOND GENERATION of fans. A lot of people who began visiting and following the website back in the late 90s are now parents with kids – who THEY have introduced to the site.
It’s Humbling…
I introduced myself to “Justin from Charlotte” and told him that I was one of the people who wrote for the site and he perked up and said, “I was hoping to get to the SkiSoutheast Summit, and I think my DAD is, but I can’t make it.”
Damn – he does read this stuff….
That’s going to do it for me today. The temps are forecasted to be NICE all day today so I’m betting it will be a SPECIAL day to ski or ride. Have fun out there and send me some photos and videos.