It’s Tuesday and we’ve got another beautiful morning…well at least down here in Charlotte anyways. It looks like a lot of clouds are streaming into the mountains as most of the webcams show grey skies across the region ahead of, unfortunately, some rain today and tonight. It’s hard to get too bummed about it after the weekend that we had. The fact that there is still a ton of snow on the ground in the mountains makes it much easier to handle as well. A little bit of rain doesn’t put too much of a damper on things when there is still 1-3 feet of snow on the ground from a few days ago.
Brad Panovich sent us his latest forecast yesterday and talks about that wetness today and the weather for the rest of the week.
Things are going to calm down this week. I think we’re still all recovering from this past weekend’s storm. I know I am. Last week I was glued to my computer checking weather models, forecast discussions, and weather forums constantly. I’m much more relaxed this week and am already looking forward to riding this weekend in some spring-esque conditions. Sunny and 50 degrees! Still deciding on where to go as it’s going to be good everywhere. I’m contemplating going north to West Virginia or Virginia and checking out conditions up that way.
Open Trails by the Numbers
I talked yesterday about how the open trail counts have shot up drastically. I decided to do the math today as I’ve had my coffee and got an amazing night of sleep. Let’s go state by state…
North Carolina
We’re currently at 78 of 81 trails down here. That’s 96.3%, not too shabby! Two of those missing trails are at Sapphire who is always closed Tuesday to Thursday, so really the only trail not open in the state is The Oz Run at Beech.
Virginia
All 55 trails are open up that way. My quick math tells me that comes out to 100%. Fantastic conditions await you with plenty of stuff to ski and board. Two plus feet of snow will do that for ya!
West Virginia
Wild and wonderful West Virginia currently has 157 of 174 trails open. That comes out to 90.2%. Percentage wise that is lower than NC or VA, but they have A LOT more terrain to offer right now. I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Winterplace is now at 100% open with all 27 of their trails. Snowshoe is leading the region right now with 53 open trails on a few hundred acres. The Davis area is in prime form right now as Canaan Valley is still operating with all 47 of their trails open and Timberline has 30. There’s still 21 inches of snow on the ground according to David Lesher.
Tennessee
Ober Gatlinburg is skiing and riding on 8 of 10 trails. I’d imagine we’ll see the final two open in the coming days.
Maryland
Wisp Resort is open on 32 of 34 trails, which comes out to 94%. Nice!
All in all, 334 of 354 trails are open in the Southeast right now. That comes out to 94.4%. What a miracle January it has been. This winter has been a roller coaster of emotions, as it usually is here in the region. December was miserable, January has been fantastic, let’s hope the final two months don’t disappoint.
It is rather mind boggling when you think that we’ve gone from abysmal, historically bad conditions just 26 days ago to near peak season conditions now. Such is winter weather in the Southeast!
Snow Days
Depending on where you are, it still might be a snow day due to the roads still being icy and what not. Ridiculously, the schools are still out here in Charlotte. Anyways, some resorts offer discounted lift tickets whenever the kiddies are out of school. For instance, Massanutten has a School’s Out Special today, where you can get a $35 lift ticket if your school is cancelled for weather. I’m not sure if all resorts offer something like this, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are looking for something to do today. Call ahead to wherever you’re going and see if they are offering anything.
One final thing, Snowshoe posted an amazing photo gallery from this weekend’s storm. Whoever their photographer is they did an outstanding job of getting some top notch photos. You can CLICK HERE to view the entire thing. I think my favorite photo from the gallery is this one…
Anyways, check out the link when you have some spare time. It’s really cool.
Enjoy your Tuesday and make some turns if you can. There’s still a ton of snow to be had!