“It may not be pretty or what we expected for February 23 but we are doing our best to provide a good experience and stay open and folks are still having fun, that’s what its about.” That is the first sentence in Cataloochee’s snow report this morning and I love it. We all know conditions are less than ideal right now but if you decide to get some turns in and go in with the right mindset you’re going to have a good time.
It was cooler yesterday up in the northern part of the region, but in general it was another mild day once again. The good news is that the temps won’t get any warmer than they have been. They’ll be close though over the next few days, so there’s that. Some showers are still in the forecast too for the weekend. This February sucks.
Here’s Brad Panovich’s latest forecast. Unfortunately, the short to mid term forecast is melancholy but there is some hope for late next week of the return of snow and cooler weather.
I mentioned yesterday how frustrating it is to see cooler temps return for early March. Normally that would be awesome, but it’s going to be too little, too late for many ski areas. That said, several resorts should be able to hold on until then and next weekend is looking promising. The possibility of Northwest flow snow for our Ski Southeast Summit at Snowshoe is getting me pretty pumped. I am also positive that Snowshoe will make snow as well if the temps allow it. They are one of the few ski areas who will make snow to the very end of the season. The other being App Ski Mountain. I’ve been to App before on the final day of the season in late March and they had made snow the night before.
By the time next weekend rolls around it will have been 3 or 4 weeks since I snowboarded. That might be the longest stretch I’ve ever had in the middle of a season. I’ve been slacking.
After a week of talking about closures, I’m happy to mention that we have a couple re-openings today. Timberline is back open today on 7 trails and will remain so through Sunday I’d imagine. They usually shut down during mid-week late in the season. The Omni Homestead is back open as well. Sunday is the final day for them this season and it looks like they are offering 25 dollar lift tickets this weekend.
One quick note about Canaan, they are showing only 4 open trails today but that is to save snow. Joe Stevens informed me that they will be back up to 20 open trails tomorrow.
With the forecast being what it is, the final weekend of February might be it for a few additional resorts. I won’t speculate on any potential closings this weekend, but make sure to check back in each day this weekend as Mike will keep you all updated. Some ski areas are in much better shape than others, but there’s still enough snow at all of the open resorts to have some fun. Get it while you can!