Around 7pm or so on Saturday night I had an opportunity to chat with Len Bauer of Sugar Mountain. Len is a buddy of mine and a 42 year veteran teaching skiing and snowboarding. He’s the Ski & Snowboard School Director at Sugar, a position he has held for 31 years (as well as teaching there for 36 years). So Saturday was HIS first Saturday of the new season and when I saw him I shared how great Sugar looked when I drove past it on Friday afternoon.
He quickly shared, “Mike I could not BELIEVE how busy we were today and we already know that Sunday and Monday is going to see huge crowds as a ton of people are in the mountains for Thanksgiving.”
All three of the open resorts for this first weekend of the 2022-2023 Ski & Snowboarding season are located in North Carolina and as I checked out the LIVE CAMS at Appalachian Ski Mountain, Cataloochee Ski Area, and Sugar Mountain Resort traffic was indeed very brisk. Conditions were indeed awesome with the limited terrain open looking near mid-season form.
Photo of the Day above shows off Beech Mountain Resort’s new “Christmas Village”. Sweet huh?
Today is MY first weekend reporting on the region and that makes today my first Sunday of the season. Sunday’s provide me my day to put on my “Digital Nomad” hat and just ramble without any real organization.
So Let’s Get Ready to ….. R-A-M-B-L-E…
First things first. It is so early in the new season that I can (hopefully) be forgiven for mentioning something not related to snow, weather, skiing or snowboarding. How about my University of South Carolina Gamecocks for completely dismantling the 5th ranked, Tennessee Volunteers 63-38 Saturday night? For those unaware – that score was NOT from a men’s basketball game, but from last night’s football game. Just wow.
BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!
Temperatures are some twenty-plus degrees colder than normal for this time in November across our entire area. We’re seeing 10° at several locations and snowmaking is happening at a premium right now. Check out the SNOW REPORT for temperatures at each ski mountain.
In terms of NATURAL SNOWFALL, Snowshoe Mountain’s official NWS station reported another TRACE of snow and 10° this morning. Ditto that for Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline Mountain where it was ALSO 10° this morning. They ALSO picked up ANOTHER 0.6″ of new snow. That is 5″ of new snow in the last four days for the Tucker County, West Virginia ski areas.
I LOVE SOME LIVE CAMS
Most of our longtime readers know that ResortCams.com is a sister-website to SkiSoutheast.com and something we started doing way back in 2000. Fast forward to 2022 and the quality of the camera systems to deliver 4k imagery to an unlimited audience is astonishing. Every time a new camera is put into our system I marvel at how cool (and valuable) they are.
My two favorites right now, until more new ones come online, are:
The New Skidder Camera at Snowshoe Mountain replaces the old, Shavers Center camera and as awesome as those views were – this new Skidder Cam is simply amazing. Check out the whales below and the clarity of that camera.
My next favorite camera right now is the Town of Beech Mountain Sledding Hill camera.
Of course, you can view ALL of our Partner Cameras here> Ski Resort Live Webcams
WINTERPLACE RESORT CAM SPOTTING WHALES
Check out the great deals available for you from Black Friday through Cyber Monday!
▪️Buy One Adult Lift Ticket- Get a JR/SR Lift Ticket for FREE
▪️Family Pack-Get 2 Adult Lift Tickets and 2 Junior/Senior Tickets for only $250
▪️Friends Pack- 4 Adult Lift Tickets for $27
▪️Buy 1 Ski Wee Ticket, get $25 off a second ticket
Gift Cards are always available and make great gifts!
SPEAKING OF SNOWMAKING…
Check out this cool POV video that Snowshoe Mountain posted showing a snippet in the day in the life of…
WOLF RIDGE RESORT SHOWING SOME SNOWMAKING VIDEO
I wish their webcam was that good!
QUICK GLANCE SNOW REPORT
You can see the Full snow report here:
Cataloochee Ski Area leads the way on Sunday with 11 of 18 trails open with a reported base of 18-23″. They are open to the top!
Sugar Mountain is offering 8 of 21 slopes open with a base of 25-60″. With temperatures in the low and mid-teens, resorts can churn out some manmade gold.
Appalachian Ski Mountain is open today AND also Sunday night (the only resort offering night sessions right now) with 7 of 12 slopes open and some terrain features on AppalJack. They are reporting a base of 32-64″. So upper New York is not the only part of the United States reporting 5-6 feet of snow. Of course, our snow is manmade.
I wonder how deep some of those Snowshoe Mountain whales are right now?
Also, note how well Snowshoe’s grooming crews are farming that snow even now, three days ahead of their opening day Wednesday. They do an unequalled job of creating a nice, soft, perfectly groomed surface.
Beech Mountain Resort is OPEN with TUBING today.
OBER MOUNTAIN IS OPEN FOR TUBING AS WELL!
Notice also that Ober has installed a nice tunnel to protect their guests from snowmaking as they are tugged back up to the top.
MASSANUTTEN RESORT GIVING AWAY A SEASON PASS!
What are the odds? Enter to win your FREE 2022-2023 Ski Season Lift ticket! A perfect year to enter as we celebrate the opening of three new trails on the mountain in celebration for our 50th year of snow sports!
One lucky skier or snowboarder will win a 2022-23 Adult Full Season Pass with unlimited skiing and snowboarding! Valid every day that the slopes are open with no restrictions.
Enter The FREE SEASON PASS GIVEAWAY NOW!
Submit your entry by Friday, December 2, 2022. The winner will be selected randomly and announced Monday, December 5, 2022, around 12:00pm EST on our official Facebook page and notified via email within 3 days of selection.
SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN
They will open for the season Wednesday, November 23rd (the day before Thanksgiving) with some amazing, opening day conditions. They made snow again last night and this morning and they also picked up 0.5″ of natural snow. NWS officially calling it a TRACE.
EVER WONDER HOW MUCH SNOW OUR RESORTS CAN MAKE IN A SHORT WINDOW?
Snowshoe reports: Our snowmakers could cover an entire football field with 27 feet of snow in just 12 hours. Pretty wild right? We’re just days away from kicking off the season and the mountain is looking the part…
TIMBERLINE MOUNTAIN
Timberline announced:
Sneak Peek Day
All that turkey won’t be the only reason you’re tired on Thanksgiving! Timberline Mountain is opening for a Sneak Peek Day on Wednesday, November 23rd from 12pm-4:30pm!
Thanksgiving Day – Operations Suspended
The mountain will suspend operations November 24th for Thanksgiving Day.
Preview Weekend
Timberline Mountain will resume operations for Preview Weekend on Friday, November 25th through Sunday, November 27th!
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