March has picked up right where February left off (imagine that!). This first week of March has brought in another big storm of the season. Let’s take a look at the snowfall.
24 Hour Snowfall:
App Ski Mountain: 4.6”
Beech Mountain Resort: 2”
Cataloochee Ski Area: 0.5”
Sugar Mountain: 1”
Bryce Resort: 7”
Massanutten: 6” –>
The Homestead: 3.9”
Wintergreen Resort: 5.1”
Canaan Valley: 4”
Snowshoe Mountain: 6”
Timberline Resort: 4”
Winterplace: 4”
Wisp Resort: 2”
Ober Gatlinburg: Trace
For all of you keeping score at home, that is all of the currently open Southeast and Mid-Atlantic member resorts. As a result, most of the schools surrounding the resorts are closed today. The kids have missed a lot of school this year – that’s always a good sign!
There are lots of great pictures coming out of the resorts yesterday and this morning, too many to show here. But I can give you a taste.
Wintergreen got theirs – along with just about everyone else!
Wintergreen was received the Honor Award for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia (ACEC/VA) for making “a decade of improvements in 120 days” by installing a new public water supply tank system that more than doubled the central Virginia ski destination’s snowmaking capability.
If you have not been up to Wintergreen this season, you’re sure missing out. They have pumped a lot of money into the mountain – not just on the slopes but also renovations to buildings and restaurants. Plus, Wintergreen is for sale to the right person (with the right bank account)!
A day late for the SkiSoutheasters who made it up to Snowshoe over the weekend.
This storm is significant in a couple of ways. For starters, it’s always good to add to your base, and still doing so in March is outstanding. Second, and maybe more important, it sends out a clear message to everyone that the resorts are still cranking. It’s easier for people to get in the skiing or riding mood when there is either snow in their backyard or all over the TV screen. We don’t want people getting the wrong impression and moving on to getting their boat ready for the summer.
It’s really shaping up to be one of the better seasons of recent memory. Last year the season was extended as March and April saw some significant snow. We’re looking good to go deep this year as well but the difference between this year and last is that this year many of the resorts opened up the earliest they ever have, or at least in a long while, and they have been able to maintain great conditions since then – with few exceptions. So all in all, start to finish, this should be a banner year for the resorts. This is of course good for us, as it gives them caplital to dump back into the mountain.
Most of the National Weather Service Alerts have expired already this morning. Appalachian Ski Mountain is under a Winter Weather Advisory until 9am. It should clear up a bit today to partly sunny with temps expected to hit the low 40’s down here in North Carolina and parts of Virginia, while West Virginia and Wisp should see the mid-30’s.
Layer up and get out if you can, Tick-Tock!
Before I go, let me leave you with a pic of Cataloochee this morning from the webcams. I love it when the clouds settle into the valleys like this.
Take Care!
Tim Bahlke
Drop me an email at [email protected] to let me know what you think or with suggestions on what we could be doing better.