Okay my fellow, snow-loving souls. If you don’t want to get gut-punched this morning, turn away from the screen and discontinue reading this morning’s FirsTrax. (I’ll give you a moment…….)
Okay, you were warned.
Winter is 58% over. Gone. If you consider that the official start to most ski & snowboarding seasons is around Thanksgiving Day/Weekend and move forward on the calendar until the last days of March (and MAYBE a day or two into April) each year – you’ll count about 133 days (+/- a day or two) that we get to play on the snow each winter. Some ski areas don’t open til later and some close by mid-March, but loosely accounting for those ski areas, we are on DAY 77 today. That leaves us with +/- 56 days to ride the snow for the 2022-2023 Winter Season here in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.
Bummer huh?
But hey, that’s not as bad as I have been gut-punched by many of you within my SkiMail inbox. If we are to believe most of those of you who have emailed me since January 1st, ski season is already over.
Hey people! It isn’t over until our ski area mountain ops and crews say it’s over!
Photo of the Day! Kristen Skeweris and friends at Wisp Resort this past week. More photos of Kristen’s are shown below.
S
SkiSoutheast Si kept a low profile on Thursday. Word has it that the rodent version of the CIA (cute indigenous animals) was spying on “Si” with some kind of balloon that was seen hovering at 60,000′ in elevation this week. The spy chatter is that Si was making threats to Punxsutawney Phil because Phil had already decided to announce an early Spring on Thursday morning. Somebody got to Phil and switched the prediction, which allowed Si to lay low.
Still wondering why that balloon hasn’t been blown out of the sky! Could you imagine if that “made in China” balloon makes it over West Virginia!?!?! They’ve got guns and rifles that will shoot to 60,000′! Haha.
Let’s Get to Some Reader Shares Today
I really want to shout out to our Bryce Resort patroller buddy, Bill Nabers who has been feeding us with nice photos from Bryce Resort in Virginia all season long. Thanks Brother Bill. Late on Friday, he posted, “Today was a cold and windy but fun day. Yes that is snowmaking on Revenuer’s Run and Locher Bowl. They made snow all day long.”
SkiSoutheast Ski was sporting the OLD logo on Groundhog Day (Thursday). Our understanding is that they wouldn’t let him out of witLESS protection long enough to change shirts.
Regardless, he accomplished his mission to ensure that Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil made the proper call for six more weeks of winter.
In case you missed it, Phil, Si and Wintergreen’s critter ALL predicted six more weeks of winter. Some might argue that we haven’t yet HAD six weeks of winter, but that is a story for another day…
…perhaps during Sunday’s Ramble.
Here is another couple of photos from Kristen Skeweris of Wisp, Deep Creek Lake and Railey Realty.
Here is a quick VIDEO TOUR of all of the mountains this morning via ResortCams.com
…and a Quick Glance View of What’s Happening and Available at Each Ski Resort
15° Appalachian Ski Mountain – 10 of 12 slopes open. Hard Core and Thin SliceAppalachian Ski Mountain Saying they added 16″ of base in the last 24 hours
19° Beech Mountain Resort – 15 of 17 slopes open. Everything is open except for the old Oz Run (now called West Bowl) and Carolina Caribbean.
9° Bryce Resort – 100% with all (9) slopes.
6° Canaan Valley Resort – 19 of 47 slopes open. They ARE making snow on unopened trails in an effort to expand open terrain in the coming days. (So they’re trying!) David Lesher shared that the 6.7 inches of new snow since Jan 25 has upped the season total to 39.8″ but the shortfall since Dec 1 through today is still more than 43 inches. The snowfall drought continues.
(But it looks beautiful and wintry today!)
23° Cataloochee Ski Area – is open with 17 of 18 trails (all except Wild Cat Glade) and they even had a TRACE of natural snow. Conditions look awesome at Cat this morning.
6° Massanutten Resort – 19 of 23 slopes and trails are open today! Lots of snowmaking happening and The ‘Nut is excited to debut “Slot”, their newest Black Diamond trail makes its debut today along with the re-opening of Meadow and Boardwalk. Lower Nutten-To-It Terrain Park will be closed Saturday morning for USASA Event. Pacesetter will be closed Sunday morning for USASA Event.
23° Ober Mountain – 6 of 10 slopes open from 9am until 9pm. Snowtubing looks great this morning as well. Ober is making snow across the mountain as long as temps allow today.
21° Sapphire Valley Resort – playing with 4 tubing runs and both slopes after making a lot of snow last night. They are 100% open.
4° Snowshoe Mountain – 57 of 61 slopes and trails open including 100% of the Western Territory. Snowshoe picked up about 1″ of new snow over the last 24 hours to take them to 36.5″ on the season. Snowshoe’s marketing peeps posted, “Our snowmakers and groomers have been hard it, and we’re still rocking with the most skiable terrain in the region. Come and get it while the getting is good! Widowmaker will be closed for ski racing this weekend.”
23° Sugar Mountain Resort – 17 of 21 slopes open for today. Sugar is open for night skiing, tubing and skating as well.
15° Omni Homestead Resort – 4 of 9 slopes open for day sessions PLUS tubing today!
-1° Timberline Mountain – 100% Open with all 20 slopes and trails. 1.6″ of snow over the last 24 hours, 41.4″ on the season.
From Timberline, “We’ve had an incredible run of snowmaking over the past few days! We had a stretch of 46 uninterrupted snowmaking on the majority of the mountain from Wednesday to Thursday morning. Snowmaking resumed Thursday and continued over Friday and into Saturday morning.”
12° Wintergreen Resort – 15 of 27 slopes and trails open for day and night sessions! Tubing open as well! Conditions are awesome!
9° Winterplace Resort – 22 of 29 slopes open as well as tubing. Conditions look fanastic today!
9° Wisp Resort – 20 of 34 slopes and trails open til 9pm. Snow tubing open as well.
Stay tuned and THINK SNOW. THINK COLD!
Check the SNOW REPORT this morning for full details.
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