Happy Friday. Just one more sleep until a ski area near you is open for the weekend.
Beech Mountain Resort, Snowshoe Mountain, Bryce Resort, Timberline Mountain, and Massanutten will all be open for skiing and riding tomorrow, December 2. Massanutten season pass holders get a special sneak preview later today. The slopes will be open from noon to 4 p.m., so if you’re sitting at your desk, start sneezing now so your boss will know you’re “sick” in time for you to get first chair today.
(For legal purposes, that was just a joke. SkiSoutheast does not encourage taking advantage of your employer’s sick day policy.)
Snow tubing at Massanutten starts today from 4 to 8 p.m. Season passes can be picked up from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Appalachian Ski Mountain
Opening day at App looked like one heck of a party.
Discord users BryceMoor and Maadiissun were there. Here’s what BryceMoor had to say about it:
Opening night was really good. Really blew my expectations away. It wasn’t too crowded. Me and @maadiissun pretty much had the slopes to ourselves and the lines weren’t long at all when we were there. Did a total of seven runs and those were pretty much everything that was open, except for some terrain park stuff. Excellent coverage too speaking of the terrain. Even got to throw some man made pow around at 5-6 p.m. It wasn’t very icy either except for the traffic going into the big terrain park and around Orchard Run.”
Good news for park rats: Both Appljack and Appl Jam are open for business. Thank a park crew member while you’re over there! The features look primo.
Good news for anyone looking to ski and ride on the cheap this weekend. App is celebrating its anniversary weekend with prices reminiscent of the 1980s. Both Saturday and Sunday will cost just $10 a person to get on the mountain. Advanced reservation is required.
Beech
Just a reminder that Beech will have complimentary coffee and treats from its First Chair Coffee shop, and giveaways from Blackstrap tomorrow. Skiing and snowboarding will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The first tubing session starts at 10 a.m. Check Beech’s website later today for its trail report.
Beech has added RFID ticketing for the 2023-2024 season, so to speed up the process, make sure to book your lift tickets online.
Sugar Mountain
The Kendog – also known as SkiSoutheast’s Kenny Griffin – was at Sugar for an afternoon session yesterday. He took some video from the chairlift, and it looks like good stuff from top-to-bottom. You can watch that here.
Here’s what he had to say about his day:
Pleasantly surprised is how I would describe my afternoon. The coverage was far better than I was expecting, both in terms of side-to-side coverage and depth. It’s amazing how much snow they put down in just a couple of days. There were a number of fun little rollers to catch some air on and the fact that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky or a single snow gun on made for a pretty sick first day on snow for me.”
Night skiing and riding returns today. Sessions start at 6 p.m. and go until 10 p.m.
Hatley Pointe
For skiers who were excited to get to the newest ski area in the southeast, you’re going to have to wait just a little bit longer. Hatley Pointe announced yesterday that it will not open in December, like originally intended. Here’s what the email had to say:
As you all know, we have been working extremely hard to get the mountain ready for this winter season. Due to unexpected project delays, we want to inform you that we will be unable to meet our projected opening date this December. We are still committed to opening this winter season and we will keep everyone updated as we near project completion.
For anyone who has purchased passes, you will be given the option for a full refund, or to transfer your pass for a future date.
For any questions or concerns please reach out to [email protected].”
The mountain formerly known as Wolf Ridge was taken over by new owners Deb and David Hatley, who have rebranded the ski area as a boutique mountain resort. Sitting just about 40 minutes north of Asheville, ownership tasked itself with completely overhauling a lot of the infrastructure. That includes demolishing buildings, adding two full bars, a coffee shop, and private locker rooms, and updating its technology to support RFID ticketing. There are also upgrades to the rental gear, ski patrol building, and HVAC system, just to name a few. Here’s a video outlining it all in detail.
Taking you into the weekend
I’ll be at the Raleigh Warren Miller showing on Saturday, and riding Beech and App on Sunday and Monday. Feel free to introduce yourself! Hopefully we can take a few laps together.
Keep skiing the east. And reach out to me at [email protected] with thoughts.