Curious to know which places are taking advantage of the cold temps to make more snow even though it's late Feb. Anyone?
Massanutten fired up the guns all over the place last night. Still going this morning. There are SARA races and Adaptive races this weekend so the place will be busy. Glad they are having a chance to add snow after the warm temps and rain starting a week ago.
All 3 Snowtime hills have been talking on their feeds and daily updates abt making as soon as it drops below freezing- especially tonight (Fri). Lib & RT blew last night for sure. They are desperate to keep things covered!
I heard this weekend snowshoe will make snow until at least 3/15. That being said they were making snow 3/28 last season
I see ma nature chipped in 13.5 inches yesterday at the shoe. And I'm sitting here in my home office :(
Snowshoe got a big boost the last 24 hours. 13 inches and still snowing this morning. According to the SkiSE forecaster, could be another wraparound snow event in about a week. With cold weather for snowmaking too, sounds like first weekend of March will be good in NC/WV/MD/VA and western PA.
They are blowing snow right now at Silver Creek. That should be a blast when they open at noon today.
Blue Don 1982 wrote:
They are blowing snow right now at Silver Creek. That should be a blast when they open at noon today.
Seem to remember reading that Silver Creek was staying open until March 27 this season. Does that sound right?
The SkiSE Summit March 4-6 is going to be pretty sweet in terms of snow conditions. Haven't been for a while but the times I went it was more for the people than for the skiing.
marzNC wrote:
Seem to remember reading that Silver Creek was staying open until March 27 this season. Does that sound right?
You are correct
Does anyone know if Canaan will be making snow tonight before it gets warm again Sunday? They only have 23 trails open today. Was at Timberline today and much of the mountain was nice power from the storm yesterday (and snowed all day today), but those sections that were exposed to the NW wind where the snow blew off were hard packed ice. Looks to have been 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow, but hard to tell as the winds were howling all day.
MarzNC,
Where is the SESki Summit?
The Colonel
The Colonel wrote:
Where is the SESki Summit?
Snowshoe March 4 - 6.
PS - Many village area snow guns were firing away around 6 PM
No snowmaking at Wisp last night, it would appear. Wintergreen did make snow.
Ballhooter area snow guns full throttle at 5:45 PM on Saturday evening.
Massanutten made snow all Friday night. Heard that guns were still on at 8:30am. They added fairly wet snow to Upper Showtime, Upper MakAttack, and Paradice. Presumably to rebuild the base so that the coverage will last a bit longer during the next few warm days. Made for variable conditions on Paradice (sugar, new somewhat sticky snow, a few ice patches) today.
MakAttack bumps were fun after mid-afternoon when temps got into the 40s. DJ was fun after the racing was over.
Amazingly it appears that both Timberline and Canaan Valley made their last snow for the winter in mid-February while places like Whitetail close to DC are trying to do all they can to stay open. Conditions at Canaan were really good yesterday, but with less than half of their terrain open the trails were very crowded. One of the ski patrol told me their last day is going to be March 13th which seems really early (especially with more cold weather and snow late next week into the weekend). Timberline is only open a week later. It's a shame that there is not more investement in these two resorts (though I know that is a whole nother topic) with such easy access now with Corridor H open pretty much all the way to Davis and such great terrain across two mountains just a 10 minute drive from each other (over 80 trails) and so much natural snow normally.
Hoping the Massanutten will make snow again when it's cold enough later in the week. Might even get a few snow showers on Friday. Have one more Gold Clinic session on Sunday morning, March 6.
I was told at Cataloochee that they intend to continue making snow into the beginning of march
I was glad to see Snowshoe making snow all around the mountian even after 15 inches of snow. Coinditions were great. Saturday crowds were like a holiday though. Busiest I've ever seen it on a nonholiday weekend. They are comiitted to staying open through March. Silvercreek is supposed to stay open also until the end of March.
That's good to hear, Jim. We're heading up Thursday night for a 3 night stay with my wife's family. I was a little bummed I missed this past weekend (epic weather after a big dump), but maybe crowds will be a little less next weekend. Also hoping we get some natural snow midweek!
I asked Wisp about their snowmaking plans this week. Here is the response:
Hi Bill, no official word yet but normally this time of year snowmaking efforts do decrease and are mainly used in spots to dress up the mountain and make everything look white and or cover thining spots rather than full coverage. Hope this helps, please let us know if you havea ny other questions or concerns. Thank You
RT possible Thurs, fri, sat, Sun | looked good today on cams | Good run I would get it now, the following week 70's do not make
60's sunday and NOTWAX was barely helping mid day. fun riding before 11am or after 6 pm. Then last 15 days more normal could be open on weekends. Gotta get out and participate.
Sounds like Massanutten will do a little more snowmaking before the final regular rate season. Temps got down into the high 20's Tue night after the rain went by.
3/2/16 at 7:40 am - Partly sunny with highs in the mid 30's. Snowmaking temps return tonight, light snow possible tomorrow night. The weekend is shaping up nicely. Scout Day Special on Sunday, $55 includes Slope-Use Ticket, Rentals, and Free Beginner Lesson.
Saturday, March 5th will be the last night session for the 2015-16 season. The Ski Slopes will be open on a 9 am - 5 pm daily schedule starting Sunday, March 6th. Late season rates begin Monday, March 7th.
Whitetail made snow last night. Kudo's to them!
Wintergreen and Massanutten as well. But not Wisp.
Massanutten snowguns were all on by 11pm last night. Temps never made it to 30 yesterday after the cold front moved in. I'll be skiing all day Sat and Sun morning. Sun is the last session of the Gold Clinic, which has been great fun all season. Not many multi-week lesson opportunities for advanced skiers in the southeast/Mid-Atlantic.
Massanutten Report 3/3/16 at 7:15 am - Partly sunny with highs in the mid 30's. Our snowmaking team resurfaced most of the hill last night. With 1-3" snow in the forecast tonight this weekend should be fantastic. Scout Day Special on Sunday, $55 includes Slope-Use Ticket, Rentals, and Free Beginner Lesson.
Ironic, isn't it, that the two ski areas with perhaps the best winter location are perhaps the first to close. I feel like I remember skiing at Tline in April, but am I just hallucinating ? This kind of sort of maybe makes me appreciate Snowshoe - where I have had good days in April. There I said it.
mdr227 wrote:
Amazingly it appears that both Timberline and Canaan Valley made their last snow for the winter in mid-February while places like Whitetail close to DC are trying to do all they can to stay open. Conditions at Canaan were really good yesterday, but with less than half of their terrain open the trails were very crowded. One of the ski patrol told me their last day is going to be March 13th which seems really early (especially with more cold weather and snow late next week into the weekend). Timberline is only open a week later. It's a shame that there is not more investement in these two resorts (though I know that is a whole nother topic) with such easy access now with Corridor H open pretty much all the way to Davis and such great terrain across two mountains just a 10 minute drive from each other (over 80 trails) and so much natural snow normally.
I admire the efforts, but NWS says highs will be in the 50s and 60s as far as the eye can see at all the resorts after this weekend. Lotsa rain too. Whitetail may touch 70F next week. There is a limit to how much of that any resort can take and still remain open.
I'm just glad the VA ski areas took advantage of the cold weather in the last few weeks. Late season rates start on March 7 at Massanutten, so any ski days after that are gravy.
I think most of the local resorts would like to say good bye to this winter. Look at the web cams during the day. Employees far outnumber the skiers. With exception of 7Springs and Snowshoe, and perhaps M'nut, I don't think we're going to have much snow making and I am expecting an early end to the season. Which is one reason I booked a Copper Mtn trip for 3/19 - 3/26.
Hopefully, we'll have a better weather pattern next year.
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Whitetail made snow last night. Kudo's to them!
Conditions were great at Whitetail this afternoon. (Hardly anyone was there. At times, I was the only person other than lift operators at the expert terrain.) Everything was open. They're planning on making snow again tonight.
itdoesntmatter- PM me and we can share contact information. Perhaps we can ski some runs or have a few drinks. The place I am staying is near the Super Bee lift.
Scott - it is a shame that this time of year, mid-Atlantic'ers loose interest in skiing. I think the local resorts need to have more of a unified marketing effort this time of year to let disinterested skiers (unlike ski obsessed skiers on this blog) that they have some good skiing available. I will be skiing the Laurels this weekend and I hope our season lasts as long as possible.
Marketing skiing in the spring has been a major topic for every ski area since the 10th mountain came home.
the only thing that works is a big snowfall in the cities.
we thought the webcams would show that snow was still there but that hasn't helped.
NSAA has tried about every marketing ploy on the books (most tries just a repeat of a failed Idea billed as new),
the cost of a ticket today at HV or 7springs $81 just ends the casual skiers and they are what is needed.
imp
Massanutten is done with snowmaking. All the hoses have been collected.
Skiing today was quite good in the morning. Still decent in the afternoon on the less busy trails. Not many places got sticky.
went to liberty last night and most of all trails felt like granular but for some strange reason uper hevenly and whitneys way felt like packed powder. on the down side the base are on the front side needs snow the y have a large patch of brown where they put down a pathway if you will of snow to get people from the east side terrrain park to the main descent. I think they can make it to next weekend and maybe one more but its iffy.
Scott wrote:
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Whitetail made snow last night. Kudo's to them!
Conditions were great at Whitetail this afternoon. (Hardly anyone was there. At times, I was the only person other than lift operators at the expert terrain.) Everything was open. They're planning on making snow again tonight.
I wonder if we crossed paths at all of this was Friday, I was there from 3:30-9ish and was quite impressed with conditions. Did a few runs on expert quad but mainly took advantage of the express lift
I also saw a sign about a 31k square foot lodge expansion. From what I could tell the main lodge will have the left side (parking lot view) expanded to where the welcome booth currently is and I think was also going to connect the lodge to the rental building. Looked like a pizza place, larger Starbucks, resturaunt, and more seating...all by next fall.
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