David Long reports from Winterplace:
Today was my first trip to Winterplace and I must say I was quite surprised. I have heard mixed reviews of this place saying the snow is never good and coverage is usually thin. Well that was FAR from it today! Plenty of snow on and off the slopes. The base was at least 35" with snowmaking taking place around the clock. For those of you who have never been to Winterplace go during the week and go soon. The crowds were nonexistent and the snow was great. When I arrived I went into the lodge for my lift ticket and the processing was rather slow with only one person for all lift tickets and rentals but this is expected during the week at a slow point in the day so that was no problem. I didn’t rent equipment but I did look at the rental room and the way it works and I must say that it looks to be WAY more efficient than most resorts. Once out on the mountain the snowmakers were on over most of the resort. About 1:30ish the blowers turned off on most of the slopes.
That made things great. The terrain park was closed due to the snowmaking but the area had a few rollers that you could launch off of but most of them were covered in man made powder. I had a great time and found some runs that I really enjoyed. This place is worth visiting and spending a day there.
Oh and a PS…Ober Gatlinburg will open another slope (Ober Chute) this Wed. First new slope to open since December. Go play on the snow soon!!!
Kent Jackson reports from Sugar Monday Night:
Sugar has been having a Monday Night race series. I was there tonight and was able to get a few photos. Next Monday will be the last race and an awards banquet will follow. I plan to be there and I will send you names of the winners. I also skied a little and the conditions were nearly perfect! I am looking forwards to getting back there this weekend. Conditions were great for the night session.
Lorrie Tomlinson reports from Hawksnest on Monday:
Monday was a powder day at Hawksnest. Guns were cranking out fresh snow. A beautiful blue sky was overhead, but it was still very cold. The wind, although still present, had diminished considerably since Sunday. Snow guns were aimed on the tubing lanes also. Natural snowfall still occupies the yards and golf course on top of Seven Devils. Several feet of snow is piled to the sides where the DOT cleared the roads.
Lorrie Tomlinson reports from Hawksnest again on Tuesday:
Tuesday was another powder day at Hawksnest. I talked to Bruno as he checked the snow guns at the bottom of Top Gun. He said that TG will definitely open before the weekend. With all the snow emitting from those guns today, I believe it will be soon. I met one of the ski patrol guys, Ryan Hygon. I observed him assisting a lady who cut her finger. He was extremely courteous, as he ensured the woman would be okay. She was fine and plans to be at Hawksnest again tomorrow for Ladies Day. The day ended with a conversation with Bobby Darling, a recent competitor in the Nest Games. Bobby is also a student at ASU. He had the perfect summation for the day: "Hadn’t seen snow this good all season".
Rachel Reich reports from – all over!
Although Appalachian is the smallest resort I always seem to have fun here. Saturday was horrible at first with buckets of rain coming down, but everyone seemed to still be having a good time sitting in the lodge and watching skiers either bust or succeed in hitting the kickers in the park. Finally around one the rain stopped. The slopes were ok; there was good coverage, but still very slushy and the snow was getting pushed around a lot. It was nice when it started to snow but there wasn’t enough accumulation to make it soft and sweet.
Sugar Saturday night though was very nice. The line was long as usual but the snow was coming down pretty hard and accumulation started picking up around 7:30 or 8. The snow was getting piled up around the 3/4 mark but that seems to happen a lot at Sugar. It would have been better if they didn’t have the guns on it.
Hawksnest was amazing Sunday. The snow was soft anf fluffy, barely any ice, and although the wind was bad in the parking lot there was barely any up top. The edges of the slopes were all natural powder and it was like riding on heaven. We stayed until the lifts closed.
Jake Parrish reports:
This weekend I was lucky enough to ski Sat. Sun. and Monday with a friend so I got lots of skiing in this weekend, and what can I say it was simply amazing out. I love skiing 3 days straight; because you can build so much more confidence and do things you never thought you would see yourself doing. Anyways this weekend I took 2nd place, at the race at Hawksnest, I was .04 off the 1st place. I am still winning the overall by 10 points, and this Sunday at App is the final race, which is the championship race, there will be a overall points winner also. I will let you know what happens. Meanwhile my chances of going to Colorado in March are looking promising, if I stay were I am now I will be going. I will let you know on that also. Oh yea I sported my skinc sticker and shirt all weekend long, I actually had some people ask me about it….Thanks!
On-Snow Reporters:
We will keep a log of the best reporter’s submission, photos and reports. Trust us it is way to time consuming to post every pic…but send them…because we are tallying the scores. The winner of the Best On Snow Reporter for 2005-2006 will win $1000 in cash, a FREE Getaway Vacation and more. The contest will run from now through March 1st and we will choose the winner. Our choice will be based on the following and IN THE ORDER of importance.
Quality of Photos
Quality of Reports (well written, informative, unbiased)
Number of Photo Submissions
Number of Reports
Extra points will be given for getting smiling faces in the photos and including names and cities where you can.
Extra points will be awarded for creative ideas.
We will choose the winner based on how helpful and informative the reports have been.
As of 02/8/2006 here are the top vote getters. (We will only document the top three to five here throughout the season…and we may begin posting the top ten, depending on how close results are.)
We have a very close race going right now with only a few points (a day or two of posts) separately the top three.
1. Lorrie Tomlinson
2. Kent Jackson
3. Mark McKelvy