Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of how Snowshoe is doing snowmaking wise? Just planned a trip up there Dec.2-5th and the crappy weather is starting to make me anxious. They say they're still "planning" on opening Nov.23rd, but I don't see it.

Any help would be great!

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao.sprd2.gif

When you see the red dip below the 0 line on the upper graph is when we can see colder weather & potential snows for us in the east.(It is signaling a pattern change towards the end of this month)

I am always looking for weather updates & I'm not seeing anything exciting till the end of Nov/beginning of Dec...Going to be right down to the Wire for ya Lloyd...Hope for a snowstorm!

PS..I posted after the 1st Early snows...That they were TOO EARLY

http://www.snowshoemtn.com/mountain/win-mountain/snowreport.htm

According to their report they started blowing @ 3am today. Opening Day decision coming in a day or two...

Lloyd, I hate to be one of those jerks who answers any online question with the following statement "Why would you want to do that?", but sorry, I can's resist.

Scheduling a ski weekend before Dec 15th or after March 15th in the Mid-A (sometimes even out West), is an iffy proposition, at best.

I hope that Mom Nature is kind to you (cold and snow) between now and Dec 2nd.

I was there working on my condo until Tuesday. On Friday and Saturday, it looked like Winter Wonderland. And as well, they had huge whales on top. Tuesday AM, it was iffy, with a lot of the snow gone in large patches. Still, given that they have a good base for most of the bunny slopes and a couple of the major runs, if they indeed blast the snow guns and aim towards the empty patches, they may just do it. I hope they do. I took Tango out and he had a ball (pun intended) on the desolate snow. Knee-deep snow almost everywhere...

On the Apres Ski circuit, The Mountain Adventure Center underneath Allegheny Springs seems totally transitioned to Winter. And as well, the new Columbia store directly across The Junction seems like it is ready to open. The Junction, Starbucks and Cheat Mountain Pizza are ready. On the other hand, the old Bistro seems to need a lot of inside work still. I'd like to see how they transform that into a TexMex place...

As the entire place was locked up tighter than Fort Knox, I tried eating a couple of times at the largest Subway in the country, where the old Market at Big Springs used to be down by the base, across the Inn at Snowshoe. It looks more like a theater than a Subway joint it's so large... Glad they got one "rapid food" store open, and I hope it's the last.

I've attached the URL from my pix from Picassa. The DCSki interface isn't user friendly whatsoever, so I've pretty much given up putting pictures in here... :-(


https://picasaweb.google.com/109511275268061592574/Snowshoe201114Nov?authkey=Gv1sRgCLudh6KKnt-dDA

Completely agree about the dates Mid-A-wise, but disagree with the West statement.

Some of the best skiing out west is in March and April, an excellent base, warming temperatures and killer storms. With all that said I still plan my annual trips to Utah in January or February...

Lou,
Thanks for the on-the-scene report. Wonderful pictures.
The Colonel

Sun thru Wed..
http://images.quickblogcast.com/0/4/8/0/3/139967-130840/GFS455.png?a=9
lotta Dough to make that Snow to put on a show..

Thanks a lot, Lou! Great pictures. And I'm stoked for that storm to go through Sun/Wed. Hopefully it dumps a good amount so they can open a respectable run or two.

And the trip is free on my grandparents, my cousin has finals, and I'm already doing Colorado and utah before a knee surgery on december 28th TKO's me for the rest of the season. It's refundable anyways.

Sometimes you gotta risk it to get the biscuit.

sorry bud...thats rain not snow. I'm trying to figure out why they are investing all that mulla for with the weather outlook. I think I have the weather figured out but I know i'm just an uneducated rookie..We will see!

If you take the latest long range Forecasts there seems to be a trend to bringing the sustained cold/snow in even later than the late nov thinking That I + Everything I saw & read said.
I Look at all the temps around the world & especially around Alaska/Canada & I am seeing a very good cold source building which I still think will eventually find a way down to us by the end of the month....The conservative thinking would be an opening fri the 9th of dec & maybe the next weekend for real skiing....all the snow they have made will not last thru the extended weather I can see...but then again I'm just an amature.

Train snowmaking crew?

Get peeps excited to buy buy buy season passes before Thanksygive?

Build up a stable snowpack well-bonded by a bit of melt and refreeze to the grass under it?

Depending on what exactly happens there next Wednesday, they might just have a WROD for Thanksygive.

Snowshoe's Facebook is saying they're opening with 4 slopes on Thursday. They'll have 1 top to bottom run.

But a weather site says 50's by day and 40's by nite and rain rain rain all week!!! We need a first-hand report. Didn't Lbotta "retire" there?

= "consolidated" snow pack.

At this time of year, that's a good thing.

I did retire... semi at Snowshoe. Will be there after opening day... Was there last week and it seemed to be a recreation of the movie "The Shining"... Everything was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

Snowshoe just announced on their Facebook that they aren't going to be able to open on Thursday as planned. They're saying they got over 2.5" of rain over the last 2-3 days. I believe it. Things have been bad here too.

No great surprise. Even Huntah Mtn in the Catskills of NY is closed this weekend (they're fairly reliable for early season skiing.)



Looks like Stowe and other parts of Vermont got 8-10 of heavy wet snow, with more (possibly mixed) to come. Good base builder.