Some mountains of the region have seen up to a foot of snow in the last week and Snowshoe Mountain, Canaan Valley Resort, Timberline Resort and Wisp Resort have all had some really good powder days – particularly Friday as documented with these videos below:

Snowshoe Mountain Resort

Canaan Valley Resort

Justin Harris shows us a touch of the snow and conditions and then shows of the conference center.

Massanutten Resort
Shows off their innovative tubing with ‘Northern Lights’!

Massanutten is bringing a new twist to everyone’s favorite wintertime activity! Every night, they offer an out-of-this-world experience as you zoom down their snow tubing hill to the glow of neon lights and pumping music.

Let’s Talk More About Count and Conditions

Now that I’ve shared some of the winter excitement in the area…let’s talk conditions and trail counts.

The truth is unless the name of your ski resort starts with ‘Snow’, ‘Cat’, ‘App’ or ‘Can’, the rest of the region’s ski areas have struggled to provide good terrain during the week of January 1st through the 8th. I should probably add that keeping good conditions was even a struggle for those four resorts. I really think if it were not for the continued investment in snow-making technologies there would have been very few ski areas open during that stretch.

Thankfully over the last three days, we’ve seen a return to great snow-making temperatures across the entire region, although there are still a few ski areas struggling for conditions. The good news is that most of the resorts in Southeast and mid-Atlanctic are looking TONS better today than just this past Tuesday. This is another case of ‘what a difference a couple of days can make’.

Be sure to check the SNOW REPORT for all the deets.

I’ve been really swamped lately and admittedly had not paid a lot of attention to trail counts, but as cold as it has been here in the High Country over the last three days – I will admit that I was surprised to see that some of our resorts are still pretty limited in terms of slope offerings. I’m not certain that I’ve seen a season recently where we are now at least six weeks into the season and most ski areas have not been able to offer the majority of their trails as OPEN.

This morning, here is a quick glance look at % of trails open:

Probably the biggest surprises (good and bad) are that the largest ski area in the region (Snowshoe) also has nearly the highest percentage of trails open. Beech Mountain Resort is a bit of a surprise except that temps and winds have held them back even for the last few days.

Since I’m on a ‘numbers’ kick this morning, let’s look at natural snowfall totals for the season:

As you can see, Snowshoe has passed Beech over the last week as the snowiest mountaintop in the region. (If you want to take Snowshoe’s report of snowfall this season, they still lead the way with 46″. They are only reporting snowfall past their opening day.)

* Editor’s note: Every time I post numbers like this, I receive emails and Facebook posts asking WHY we don’t mention Sugar Mountain. We’ve answered this several times, but we do not include Sugar Mountain in our FirsTrax reporting because they are not a SkiSoutheast member resort. We DO include them on our snow report, but we simply no longer feature information, photos or video shares on these featured posts.

More SNOW TALK…

Massanutten’s peeps are looking forward to the 6-10″ of snow in the forecast there in the Shenandoahs…

Here are the snowfall tallies for the last 24 hours…along with trail count and snowmaking updates:

Some Snow Photo Shares

Notables…

Canaan Valley Resort
We are preparing for another beautiful weekend here at Canaan Valley Resort. We received 7.1 total inches of snow from our last storm, with another storm approaching this morning. We are expecting snow to start around 10am, and continue through Sunday morning, with storm totals between 4 and 8 inches.

Today we will begin the day with 16 out of 47 trails open, while we continue to make snow on multiple trails across the mountain. Our natural snow trails will be examined by ski patrol and could open throughout the day, so please check our web site for updates.
We have opened operations at our cross country ski center located at our golf pro shop. Trails are still limited, with thin coverage in spots, but our golf course is available for skiing. We are also offering snow shoeing and sledding at our center. Canaan is our Photo of the Day!

Cataloochee Ski Area
Going Up!
Today we will be open on 14 trails with a 46-76″ base and a groomed surface with 3 aerial lifts and two conveyor lifts operating. Snowmaking is in progress to add even more terrain and will continue as temperatures permit. Please come prepared for conditions. Also note that Alley Cat Race Trail will closed from 9:30am-2:30pm for NASTAR Public Racing and Beginner’s Luck Learning Area is restricted only to our CAT Trackers Kidz Program on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-3pm. NASTAR Public Racing will begin at 10am and continue until 2pm. Cost for racing is $10 for 2 runs or $20 for unlimited runs. Goggles are required for racing.

Today we offer three sessions of skiing and riding: day skiing from 8:30am-4:30pm, twilight skiing from 1pm-10pm and night skiing from 6pm until 10pm with a morning or afternoon half day rate available.

Tube World, located in Maggie Valley across from Ghost Town in the Sky, four miles from the ski area is open from 10am to 10pm with 1 hour 45 minute sessions available beginning at 10, 12, 2, 4, 6, and 8pm. Wee Bowl our childrens snowplay area is open as well. Reservations for Tube World are recommended and must be made 24 hours in advance. If you do not have a reservation, tubing is on a first come, first served basis and if the session you wish to tube is sold out you may purchase a session for later in the day.
Don’t forget in celebration of National Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month, Cataloochee is offering a special $59 beginning lesson, lift and rental package for persons age 8 and above. Offer is valid any non-holiday Monday through Friday for the month of January and it’s only available by purchasing online. Packages must be purchased 24 hours in advance and only a limited number of packages are available each day.

Massanutten Resort
Winter Storm Warning in effect for Saturday and Sunday with 6″- 10″ snow expected at elevation. Snow is expected to begin mid-morning today and continue into Sunday. We’ll be skiing and riding on all 1,110′ of vertical drop with 6 trails for all levels of ability. Pacesetter opens on Sunday. The recent snowmaking and forecasted snow will make for some awesome sliding this weekend. We’ll be open today from 9:00 am – 9:00 pm. SNOWMAKING IS IN PROGRESS PRIMARILY ON CLOSED TRAILS!

Ober Gatlinburg
Today Mogul, Upper Bear, Cub Way, Castle Run and Ski School will open at 9 am with a 24”-36” base. Trails are machined groomed and ready for you! Looks like rain is in the forecast, but for “periods of rain this afternoon.” That being the forecast, Pack along your rain coat and realize that it might not rain for very long. Weather changes here in the mountains quite frequently. Have a great day!!

Oglebay Resort OPENS today for the first time this season. They are a resort that just happens to have a ski trail to play on and it is open today. Yep that’s 1 slope open.

Omni Homestead
Good morning! Winter sports have returned to The Omni Homestead!
Today we are open for skiing and snowboarding. Mini snowmobiles are open too!

Base: 24” of groomed, packed powder
# of Trails: 4 (2 intermediate, 2 beginner)
# of Lifts: 2

Hours of operation:
Rental Shop 8:30AM-5PM
Lift access 9AM-4:30PM

Snowshoe Mountain
It’s going to be a snowy Saturday here at the Shoe! And that’s just the way we like it. We got about a foot of snow in the last 3 days, and it’s already snowing again this morning. We’re expecting Mother Nature to keep dishing it out through Sunday evening, so it’s time to head to the mountain. Our snowmaking team has been maxing out this nice stretch of cold temps and the trail count is going up. Expect Sawmill to open today in the South Mountain area. The Snowshoe Ski Team will be training on Widowmaker until 11AM this morning.

Subaru WinterFest is set up in the Village today so be sure to stop by and check out all the cool stuff they’ve got going on.

Timberline Resort
They are working as best as they can right now and they do have 4 trails operating. Some people have emailed us about the webcam “ghosting” some images and that is simply because the internet there is just not good enough to push a steady stream. The camera is working perfectly fine.

Wisp Resort
Powder Days Have Arrived
Deep Creek Lake received about 2” inches of natural snow overnight, adding a cushy layer to our snow base. Wisp Resort started making snow late Wednesday morning when a window opened with low temps and relatively moderate humidity. Overnight our snowmaking guns pumped 9,800 to 10,400 gallons of water per minute on a number of trails. Our guns have pumped 97 million gallons of water to date, with about 24 million gallons since late Wednesday morning. Although winds are still a bit unpredictable, they are losing quite a bit of power, allowing for us to direct snow to certain locations. We will continue making snow today and for the next several days. Today’s temperatures are a High of 25 degrees and a low of 15. Great day to get out here and catch a good powder day!
That will do it for today.

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