I awoke this morning to a blanket of white outside. It really is a pretty snow. There’s a little bit of slickness underneath, making things a little bit sketchy, but overall, there’s nothing wrong with the roads. My guess is by 9am or so things will be moving right along. Here in the High Country it looks like we’re in for another inch or so tonight and another inch or so tomorrow, so nothing major, but just enough of our favorite stuff to lay down a nice little top coat on the ski hills. There’s plenty more to come, though!!
Mike and I were discussing this morning that we’re supposed to get more snow this weekend, and we’ve received a new Ski Forecast from our number one weatherman Brad Panovich this morning, so we’ll be sure to comment on that as soon as possible. To all the weather gurus who were predicting a mild end to the month of December and January, me thinks you might be wrong. Brad’s evening forecast on WCNC last night says to look out for major weather coming in to the region on Monday and into Tuesday. Here’s are some breif forecast highlights, but he sure to check out the entire video!
Here’s what we’re looking at…three storms.
Storm #1: Thursday’s Storm is moving away and up the east coast, and brought about 2 inches to the North Carolina Ski Areas
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Storm #2: Friday’s Storm- A typical Alberta Clipper moving down from Alberta Canada. Expect 3-6 inches all along the Appalachian Mountain Spine. NC Mountains should get about 6-10 inches of snow, and higher elevations including Snowshoe Mountain may pull down as much as 8-10 inches. This will be low moisture snow and will be powdery and fluffy…so look for some major powder turns this weekend!
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Storm #3: Tuesday’s Storm- Brad says with this storm we’re looking at a possible mother load of snow for the North Carolina Mountains as this storm is tracking a little more south. Stay tuned through the weekend for more updates on this third system!!
Brad says there will be tons of natural snow and plenty of opportunities to make snow over the next week. He closed his report out by saying…"This is going to be a long, great ski season!! I like his style!!
Cheers to the first snows of 2011…may there be many more!
North Carolina Ski Areas…
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 23°- Over half an inch (.7 in) of new snow this morning!! That’s a season total of 41.2 inches, and brings App’s average base to 66-94 inches. No new snowmaking last night due to undesirable temperatures and humidity, but thanks to Mother Nature there’s some fresh stuff anyways. App is open on all 12 slopes today. A park report from Wednesday shows some fun features including: small tabletop, roller, 16′ flat box, 17′ juice box, 30′ RG rainbow rail/hip combo, 21′ corrugated tube, several medium tabletops, and an A-frame spine.
Beech Mountain – 17°- With two inches of new snow Beech is off to a great start this year! Snowmaking is fired up too, so expect awesome firsttrax this morning!! The additional two inches from this storm bring Beech’s total to 69 inches!! They are open today on 15 of 15 slopes with 5 lifts. This weekend is Beech’s Winterfest Celebration. Among the festivities are a Chili, Chowder, Soups, and Stews Cook-off and the Monster Energy Bathing Beauties Swimwear Competition!
Cataloochee – 27°- Open today with 1.2 inches of new snow! Cataloochee is skiing and riding today on 100% of the mountain with groomed surfaces. Cat is offering day, twilight, and night sessions. Tube World is open today also.
Sapphire Valley – 32°- Open today with just over half an inch of fresh natural snow, that’s 13.1 inches on the season. Sapphire is a true testament to snowmaking ops, if you make snow, they will come…sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Sugar Mountain – 20°- 2.6 inches of new snow at Sugar this morning brings the season total to an impressive 61 inches! Sugar is open on all 20 trails today and the Tubing Park will have it’s last session today at 4pm.
Wolf Ridge – 31°- The most snow of the North Carolina ski areas fell at Sugar and at Wolf Ridge near Mars Hill. With 2.5 inches of new snow their season total to 58.5 inches. They are skiing and riding on 11 trails today and offering specials for homeschoolers and kids who are out of school due to the weather!!
Virginia Ski Areas
Bryce Resort – 27°- Great conditions thanks to cold temperatures and great snowmaking opportunities! Open today on 7 slopes, so there’s plenty of wonderful terrain to hit up!!
Massanutten – 25°- Open on 100% of the mountain today for day and night sessions. Snowmaking is in progress on limited terrain. Tubing is open.
Wintergreen – 20°- Tons of overnight snowmaking on almost all the slopes means conditions at Wintergreen this morning will be prime!
West Virginia Ski Areas
Canaan Valley – 13°- Only a trace of snow fell at Canaan. Oddly enough the NC areas have received more snow from this storm! Canaan is bombing the mountain with snowmaking so look for continuing great conditions!!
Snowshoe Mountain – 15°- Open today with 52 trails and 12 lifts. Snowmaking has been bombing the mountain around the clock since Sunday making for awesome conditions. Timberjack Terrain Park is closed today and is under heavy snowmaking for a rebuild early next week. Mountaineer, the large park, is getting blasted with snow as well, so a build is expected there in the next few days! A storm system for the weekend may dump over 6 inches of snow in West Virginia and it’ll be their first snow of 2011! Snowmaking will continue on Shay’s, the bottom have is being left ungroomed so look for those signature bumps.
Timberline – 13°- A trace of snow fell at Timberline as they are gearing up for Saturday’s Rail Jam. Timberline is open on 30 of 39 trails and is snowmaking on limited terrain. Storms forecast for the area should make for great conditions into next week!!
Winterplace – 18°- Winterplace is open today with 26 of 28 trails. Several days of snowmaking with snow forecast mean great conditions in West Virginia!! Tubing is also open today!!
Maryland
Wisp Resort – 17°- Open today on 28 of 32 trails with 8 lifts operating. The Terrain Parks are groomed and re-cut for lots of freestyle shredding. It’s Season Pass Swap day and McDonald’s Day at Wisp. If you’re not into skiing or riding there are plenty of other fun things like riding the Mountain Coaster or tubing for you to do!
Tennessee
Ober Gatlinburg – 32°- Our favorite weather source CoCoRahs isn’t reporting any snow for the Ober area as of yet, so we’re sticking with that report. The area is open today with 7 of 9 trails for both day and night sessions! Alpine Way and Grizzly are the only two slopes not open so hopefully we’ll see those opening up soon!!
THINK COLD!! THINK (Motherloads of) SNOW!!!
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