Something I forgot to mention yesterday is the positive impact a good snowfall has on a ski resort, with respect to snow making. At many (if not most) ski resorts in the Southeast, the largest expenditure is going to be snow-making. There is just no way around the electricity, along with the water it takes to pump uphill. With a good snowfall, ski areas let mother nature do most of the work, and it is a relief overall. When this happens, they can really focus their efforts on a high quality experience for us all.
An analogy would be a relatively low fire season with respect to the United States Forest Service, and their budget. The largest part of the USFS budget comes with the act of putting out wildfires. When we get a low fire season, the USFS can spend that money on maintenance and making REAL IMPROVEMENTS to the National Forest, instead of fire mitigation.
We are already starting to feel the impacts of a good snow year:
VA gets better with age . . .
Bryce: Big news out of Bryce today, “We are now just one trail away from being fully open!” Bryce opens Locher Bowl, White Lightning, & Revenuer’s Run.
Massanutten: “Lift 3 will open Friday along with some Freestyle features on Lower Nutten-to-it”.
Wintergreen: Is reporting a 42+” base, with 9 slopes and 3 lifts running today. Their base depth grew by 3″ (of machine-made snow) last night to add outstanding coverage to an already deep base.
Omni Homestead: opens on December 22nd to 18″ of snow from the storm.
NC mountains are super-charged . . .
Cataloochee: 100% open. Cat is reporting Packed-Powder Conditions with the Meadow snow still holding nicely. If you guys are looking for a great deal, today is Family Day. Here are the details:
“A child 17 and under will receive a free lift ticket when accompanied by a parent purchasing a full price adult day or half day lift ticket. Regular rental and lesson rates apply.”
Appalachian Ski Mountain: 100% open. Here is the news from the Terrain Park . . . “The Appal Jack, Appal Jam, and Appal Top Terrain Parks are open with features for all abilities including a small jump, small table top, and medium jump.”
Beech: Is reporting Packed-Powder Conditions, with 14 slopes and 4 lifts open. Their base depth also grew by 2″ last night to add fantastic coverage throughout the resort.
Wolf Ridge: Wolf add a little more coverage to their depth today, but had to trim down the slope count. They are operating on 8 slopes served by 3 lifts.
Eastern TN felt a quake last night! . . . no impact at Ober
Ober Gatlinburg: had a real nice opening yesterday, and they even made a little snow last night! They have 3 slopes open along with 4 features in their terrain park.
The big dog gets bigger . . .
Snowshoe: skiing on 118 acres today. Get ready for a big Silver Creek opening this Friday.
By this weekend, 14 of 16 resorts will be open and operating. The additional resorts to add-in are:
Canaan, Wisp, Timberline, and Sapphire. This is a first time in a while that the base depths are looking GOOD for opening day at ALL of these resorts.
We are just waiting to hear on Winterplace, but I imagine they are itching to drop the ropes soon!
That’s all for today.
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