Mild Week with Some Drizzle; The Weekend Ahead Looks Good!

The expected sprinkles did materialize on Sunday into this morning…and as expected, they didn’t seem to deter skiers from having fun at their favorite mountains.

Monday should be mostly sunny and according to some of the local weather forecasters we may see a record high temp in some areas of the mountains of North Carolina on Monday. Highs are expected to reach and perhaps exceed 60°.

Light showers are forecasted for Tuesday, maybe a sprinkle on Wednesday but cooler. More drizzle and light rain is forecasted for Thursday.

The good news is that the weather is forecasted to turn BACK to winterlike temps on Friday with highs around 44° and snowmaking lows around 26°. Saturday should be even colder with highs around 40° and lows near 24° and Sunday is ecpected to be EVEN colder with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s with a chance for natural snow as well.

So it appears that the North Carolina resorts will weather this upward, roller coaster trend better than the extended one a couple of weeks ago; that the conditions will hold up at most of the resorts with Appalachian, Cataloochee, Sugar and Wolf Ridge holding on to the best conditions this week, and then the snowguns should crank back up full bore Friday night and operate a lot of the entire weekend to make for a second consecutive nice weekend of skiing.

So if you have a trip planned, keep it…things should be nice this weekend and there’s a chance for some natural snow to boot. If you don’t have a trip planned…make plans now!

Here’s some noteworthy comments for today:

Ski Beech is already beginning to show a bit of thin coverage and bare spots. They were the last ski area in the state to begin making snow and with the late start and the fact that Mother Nature hasn’t been cooperative once they DID…it has been a fight to keep good conditions. They still report 7 trails open and some bare spots for today and tonight. There’s plenty of good, skiable terrain open today. 

Cataloochee is Day Skiing only today and Tube World is closed until Thursday as well.

Sapphire Valley DID get open this past weekend and we called over there this morning because they have not updated any of the reporting services or their own website since January 3rd, however the contact at the rec center told us that they are open with both slopes and the Frozen Falls Tubing Hill from 5pm-9pm on Monday.

We can’t report whether Sapphire has plans to remain open the rest of the week, but we’ll try to get an update on that and report about it later today.

Sugar Mountain looks pretty nice this morning with 12 trails open and while we received a couple of reports of some thin areas at trail merges, they have probably taken care of those with grooming and are ready for a good day of skiing and snowboarding…and tubing…and ice skating.

Sugar is hosting a Septuagenarian (70 & Older) Party to recognize Sugar’s "Senior Citizen Skiers". The party will be held at noon Tuesday in the Last Run Lounge.

Then on Saturday, January 12, 2008 Sugar will host a National Winter Trails Day.

The 13th annual National Winter Trails Day is coming back to Sugar Mountain Resort. The event offers children and adults new to snow sports the chance to try snowshoeing for FREE.

Until Next Time…Send your comments, photos and videos to: [email protected]  

See You On The Slopes!