Another weekend is here and with it has arrived some stellar skiing and snowboarding conditions. After a hiccup in the middle of the week, the last 36 hours or so has seen the cold, manmade snow, and natural snow all return to the mountains in the region. Today is shaping up to be the choice pick of the weekend as tomorrow looks a little on the wet side.
For what seems like a sub-par season thus far, in terms of natural snow at least, we really have lucked out with the timing of these windows where winter actually makes an appearance. The week after Christmas saw the coldest weather we’ve seen this season, MLK weekend saw cold and a bit of natural snow arrive just in time, and now this weekend is shaping up to be a good one as well (at least the first half). While this weekend isn’t a holiday weekend, we’re pretty much in peak season now and you would expect a good amount of visitors flocking to the mountains. The weather has been up and down all winter, but thankfully those upticks have occurred during important time periods and many visitors have scored quality skiing and snowboarding conditions. Today is going to be another one of those days where weekend guests hit it good. I mean, just look at this view from Timberline this morning.
Sensational. So yeah, today looks to feature those quality skiing and snowboarding conditions. While the past week was once again an adventure, with a rain/sleet/wintry mix event bookended by cold and some minor natural snow amounts, today features relatively seasonal temps with bluebird skies, good snow, and a solid amount of open terrain. The sunshine and comfortable temps should make for an excellent day on snow.
Not doing the morning report anymore (has it really been 5 years?), I’m a lot of times out of the loop in terms of knowing the amount of open terrain and what not in the region. I was somewhat surprised this morning to see how many open trails we have though. A good number of the ski areas are approaching having 100% of their terrain open. Appalachian Ski Mountain, Bryce Resort, and Timberline Mountain both reached that mark today. Several others aren’t far behind. While natural snow has been on the meager side, those snowmakers will just keep doing what they do best whenever they can.
Notables
- Make sure to watch Winter X Games all weekend long. North Carolina native Zeb Powell will be competing in the Snowboard Knuckle Huck competition tomorrow night. That dude does some WILD things.
- Whoopdedoo is open at Sugar Mountain. It’s a double black diamond and probably the second steepest run in the region behind…
- …Lower’s Shay’s Revenge, which makes it’s season debut today at Snowshoe. A double black diamond as well, Lower Shay’s is pretty freaking steep.
- It’s going to be a busy, busy day at all of the ski areas. Make sure to check ahead for availability if you don’t already have reservations. A few resorts mention being sold out of lift tickets and/or rentals on their site.
- Somehow I made it this far in the post having failed to mention that Wisp Resort is reporting 3″ of new snow this morning. Shame on me. Looks good up there though!
The Weather
We’re in for another eventful week. Enjoy the day today because starting tomorrow we’ll have a few days of dreary conditions with some underdeveloped snow. That theme will continue through the work week, although the ski areas in West Virginia and Maryland might benefit from the higher latitude as they might see precipitation in the form of snow beginning on Tuesday. As of right now, it doesn’t look like anything major major, but it sure beats rain!
We’ll just have to keep an eye on things and see how it all pans out.