Photo of the Day: Admit it, you guys knew I’d have something like this under my tree, right?
Check the SNOW REPORT as some ski areas will not be offering skiing or snowboarding for night sessions on Christmas Eve and some are not opening until Noon or 1pm; and others are not open on Christmas Day at all. Again, check the SNOW REPORT and the comments in the “Remarks” section.
It’s Christmas Eve and it is Sunday, so welcome to my usual Sunday ramble, but with a Holiday flair.
Since it is Christmas Eve, I thought I’d share this Snow Report from Snowshoe Mountain this morning:
Twas the day before Christmas and out on the snow, the corduroy was glistening and ready to go! Ok, we’ll spare you from any further cheesy rhymes in this update but it is going to be a fantastic Christmas Eve here on the mountain. More sunshine and comfortable temperatures are expected throughout the day. Safety Tip: The forward/downhill skier has the right of way. Stay under control and give folks plenty of space as you go around them. Be courteous, it is Christmas after all! Santa will be making one last stop by the mountain today. Catch him in the Village from 4:30 to 5:00 or at the Bear’s Den from 6:00 to 7:00 for photos and last-minute wish list requests!
Well done…but I WAS hoping for a bit more “cheese”.
Since I’m in the post sharing mode/mood, I will share a quick email from a long-time, reader/viewer, Rebecca Smith. However, before I do, let me share that we receive a LOT of emails to SkiSoutheast’s SkiMail Inbox from people asking questions that are obviously meant for a specific ski resort. An example would be like Rebecca’s who wrote:
I am coming to ski with my three best friends in the world. We are arriving January 17th and wondered how much tickets will be for us to ski everyday?
You see, a lot of people think we are mind readers. In this case, I don’t know WHICH ski resort they are going to; I don’t know how many days SHE is calling a week – it could be through that Sunday (six days) or she could be asking about a literal week. We don’t know what we don’t know.
I really do try to answer every email that comes in. I’ll admit to being pretty tardy with some. But I replied to Rebecca, with “Rebecca, to answer that question I would need to know which ski resort you are inquiring about and how many days?”
She answered,
“Oh I thought SkiSoutheast was a ski resort. By the way, your answer kind of tells me you are not that happy with your job. Just remember that money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy you a lift ticket and that’s kind of the same thing.”
A-c-t-u-a-l-l-y, Rebecca, I love my job. It is really more of our passion, I promise. I HAVE seen that cute quote you sent us…many times…but thanks for sending that along.
Further, Unorganized thoughts…and Shares…
Appalachian Ski Mountain is opening from 1-10pm on Christmas Day and offering 50% OFF of lift tickets purchased ONLINE today, Christmas Eve. ALL ticket proceeds go towards building a new Ski Patrol Facility. (Anyone want to venture a guess as to who the facility will be named after? (I have two or three strong candidates, but let’s not spoil the surprise.)
Cataloochee Ski Area
Man I am not sure how we missed this, but check out all of the plans for the NC Smokies Ice Fest Weekend January 26-28, 2024. We may have to try and be there!
Click HERE to see MORE information on the NC Smokies Ice Fest Weekend!
Dan Parks Shares a New Davis, WV, Tucker County News link:
We’ve seen and shared some national magazine articles and polls making some observations about some of our ski towns of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic recently. Dan Parks, who owns a nice vacation rental property on Timberline Mountain, has recently started a new newsletter called “Country Roads News” and he reached out to me on Wednesday, wondering if our readers might find his content interesting. I did, so here’s the link:
The post link above covers some claims about how affordable homes are in the area. I’ll leave it to you guys to determine the answers to that.
(By the way, I’ve stayed at Dan’s Awesome Slopeside rental and highly recommend it)
Hatley Pointe “Update”
(Note the quotations) – We’ve seen a lot of chatter on Social Media about Hatley Point. Our SkiSoutheast Discord Channel has had a few people chiming in with their thoughts and “interpretations” of some of Hatley’s Social Media video posts. First – while those posts have understandably NOT be very revealing, they HAVE been awesome.
Many have flat out emailed us that Hatley Pointe has already decided NOT to open at all this winter, and we have NOT seen nor heard ANY evidence of that. I can tell you that I have personally been in communication with new owner and CEO, Deborah Hatley. After just purchasing the ski area (in March of 2023) from Orville English, they did come out with an, almost impossible goal of opening in mid-December. They quickly addressed that with some Social Media posts and while they have played their cards much closer to their vest, they DO seem to have it as a goal to open soon…even if it is to show people what they are going to be able to deliver next season. While Mrs. Hatley has not confided ANYTHING IN ME regarding an opening date, if I had to guess, I saying they will shoot for January 13-15 (MLK Weekend) and if that is too soon, perhaps they could open early in February to prep for President’s Day weekend, giving them time to work out all the kinks AND have a huge 4-day, Holiday weekend to impress the accountants.
We’ll see.
Massanutten Resort –
Don’t forget that Massanutten will be hosting their FIRST EVER HeArt & SOUL Winter Fest in two weeks.
Massanutten is ALSO Hosting Their FIRST EVER SkiSOUTHEAST SUMMIT FEBRUARY 9-11th and YOU are INVITED!
It is early and my quick count of registerees says we already have 56+/- coming. Come JOIN US! We will be giving away t-shirt, stickers, beanies, hoodies, plus there will be a Saturday Apres Ski Party and Sunday morning First Tracks! Did I mention 10% discount on lodging and lift ticket discounts and more!?!?
Honoring Sepp Kober…
I loved reading this…
In 1959, Sepp Kober brought skiing to our resort (The Homestead) and each year, we honor his legacy by taking a portrait of him to the top of the slopes on the first day of the season. Saturday, we continued that tradition as his son, Sepp, carried the portrait and placed it to officially begin the season.
Simply excellent.
The Weather…it is Going to Do, What it is Going to Do…
The most asked questions right now on every phone call to every accommodations center at every ski mountain in the region is related to, “Should I stay or should I go?”
Frame the question any other way you want to, but people are looking at the weather forecast, depending on your specific ski mountain, and they are trying to decide whether to leave all of the hard-earned money on the table and hope for the best “river card(s)” (cold air and/or snow) and stay with the plan.
I have spoken with numerous lodging clients and they are share that this is not their first rodeo and they expect all things to go as they are intended…meaning that they will go with the flow.
I and eighteen of my closest family and friends will be hanging out at Canaan Valley Resort, Snowshoe Mountain, and Timberline Mountain for the fast-approaching, December 26-Jan 1st Holiday ski week. The forecast can always turn on a dime in these wonderful mountains of ours, but right now I’m kind of loving what I’m seeing. If the pattern holds, we should see:
Tuesday:
Some light rain on our travel day up, Tuesday, the 26th. Nothing wrong with that. We may NOT get any slope time Tuesday evening as there could be as much as one-half inch of rain possible.
Wednesday: DAY TWO
Some rain to begin the day and changing to SNOW Wednesday night.
Then Thursday-Saturday looks like REALLY, nice cold temperatures and more snow.
We could see a flip flop of some rain to snow to more “under-developed snow” (rain), but we will play with what we are provided with. Rainy days are good for cozing up in a warm blanket, in front of a fire and watching a movie or playing a few rounds of our favorite games.
(By the way, snow showers and snowmaking, colder temperatures should be in place for most of our ski areas once we get through that Monday-Wednesday wet period. Use it wisely!
By the way, if you are new to skiing and/or you are just young and have not yet experienced a ski getaway, I may try to compile some short video pieces daily to give newbies a feel for what to expect.
I’ll turn things back over to new FirsTrax reporter, Josh Sullivan for the week ahead…and I know that Kenny Griffin, Matt Laws, and I will be sharing some scenes from the week ahead.
Again, Merry Christmas Everyone.
THINK SNOW!
THINK COLD!
Also click here to Join Us on our New, SkiSoutheast Discord Channel. It is a GREAT way to meet new snow loving friends and shares experiences, ask questions and more!
Until Then, THINK COLD. THINK SNOW!
Email me at [email protected]