Another week is here. It’s the final week of February to be exact. I consider the ski season to run from November to March, so it’s crazy to think that the season is almost 80% over. Where is the time going? We’re now also only 11 days away from the Summit at Snowshoe Mountain (woo!) and I’ll talk more about that (again) down the page.
Once again, I weenied out and didn’t go riding at all. I am seriously slacking this year. The milder temps, foggy conditions, and wet weather wasn’t doing it for me. It was weird to be scrolling through Twitter on Saturday and see one of the ski areas advertising their golf courses being open.
🌅We've got all three 9's open for play at Stoney Creek Golf Course! Enjoy the milder temps with a round of golf!⛳ pic.twitter.com/r7eyXQvLs5
— Wintergreen Resort (@WintergreenVA) February 20, 2016
I couldn’t ride on Saturday as I had some plans, but I think I made a good call on hanging out around the house on Sunday as it looked like the rain moved in yesterday afternoon based on the weather station data I’m seeing. I’m looking at station data and in general it looks like half an inch to over an inch fell at the ski areas in the past 24 hours. Bummer.
Usually I like to share a bunch of social media posts on Monday that give a good recap of the weekend, but they are few and far between today. The weather yesterday and Saturday must not have made for many photogenic shots at the resorts. I will share the latest “This Week at Winterplace” video that was posted by Tom Wagner on Friday though. I’m a big fan of video and I wish more resorts posted stuff like this.
The Week Ahead
This is going to be one of those textbook roller coaster of emotion weeks that we frequently get here in the Southeast. I wish I had some better news about the weather for the next few days, but unfortunately it looks kind of crummy. Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday feature gray skies and some underdeveloped snow mainly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hey, we gotta fill those snowmaking ponds, right?
A strong, and I mean strong, low pressure system pushes a cold front through Wednesday. Cold air finally returns Wednesday night and we’ll see that underdeveloped snow fully develop. Snow showers and snowmaking on Thursday and Friday should allow for the resorts to recover for the weekend.
The natural snow that falls on Thursday and Friday will be thanks to Northwest flow. The reason that I mention that is because the last Northwest flow event produced some pretty good totals for North Carolina and West Virginia. I’m rather optimistic of some of the totals we might see again based on model data I’m looking at. The fact that both the GFS and Euro are showing decent amounts of snow behind the frontal passage this far out is a great sign. It’s doubtful that we’ll see as much snow from the last Northwest flow event, but Friday morning could produce a mini-powder day somewhere in the region.
So like I said, roller coaster week. We just have to get through the next few days and come Thursday we’ll be talking about snow once again.
More Summit Talk
Another day, another reminder about the 2016 Ski Southeast Summit at Snowshoe Mountain. As I already mentioned, we’re only 11 days away now! I think Mike emailed me over the weekend and said we’re up to 70-something people now. Not bad for less than a week in.
Apparently some people are having a hard time getting the code for the discounts. The email is probably going to your spam folder. So to combat any problems with that, here is the code to use when making reservations over the phone with Snowshoe.
51B559
Just give Snowshoe that code, mention you’re with Ski Southeast and they will hook you up with 20% off your lodging at one of the five places below…
- Expedition
- Highland House
- Mountain Lodge
- Rimfire
- Summit
And then you’ll also get free Sunday lift tickets as well. To read more about the event and to sign up just visit the page below.
https://www.skisoutheast.com/2016-ski-southeast-summit-at-snowshoe-mountain/
That’s about it for today. Stay positive with the weather and what not. Snow and colder temperatures aren’t too far away!