I know several of you are home owners at 7S, HV, Canaan area, Wisp, etc .... Is it remotely possible for any of these places to make enough snow to open for Christmas week? Most of these places slopes are as green as my back yard. Literally ZERO snow.
If the weather forecasts are accurate, it appears there will only be a 3 day window to make snow on Fri, Sat and Sun then things warm back up above freezing all the way to Christmas.
I'm told that if the forecast holds true at Snowshoe, they plan to make snow non stop from early Friday thru Sunday. That would allow them on Monday 12/21 to open more runs in the basin, open a few runs on Silver Creek and open Cupp. Not ideal but at least some slope variety.
I also wonder how the resorts (and private owners) handle lodging cancellations? I could not justify taking someone's money this week to ski 4 green trails at Snowshoe. I had a family of 4 scheduled to arrive tonight for 3 nights. I suggested he should cancel and I gave him a full refund.
Things are going to be interesting this weekend.
And as I hit submit, I just got an email that Snowshoe is shutting down until next Sat ....
Holy Smokes .....
These parts are looking towards mid week to bring back snow making temps through the weekend, then possibly warming back up. I feel really sorry for the people whose annual livelihood depends on earning money working at these resorts over the holidays. They had some business through Thanskgiving Saturday but it was pretty thin by then and now gone of course..
This warm weather could put a serious hurt on mid-atlantic ski area budgets I'm afraid. I hope they can all get through a bad early season.
Blue Don 1982 wrote:
And as I hit submit, I just got an email that Snowshoe is shutting down until next Sat ....
Holy Smokes .....
At least temps are looking like they will plummet Thursday night. I am hoping to come out for Saturday.
Also does their Snow Guarantee kick in on Friday? Have they ever even had to think about how to apply this (in terms of comparing open terrain to other mountains)?
That puts the nail in Kens beard! He said he'd shave it if cupp wasn't open by tomorrow.
hoyadrew wrote:
Also does their Snow Guarantee kick in on Friday? Have they ever even had to think about how to apply this (in terms of comparing open terrain to other mountains)?
Good point. Do they define open terrain by trails or acreage? What do THEY consider Mid Atlantic?
The determination of competitors’ skiable acreage open is based on daily snow reports published on onthesnow.com and recorded each day at 9am EST. Some limitations apply. Please note that this is an available terrain guarantee only. No vouchers will be given for weather or lift related conditions. No cash refunds will be granted. Vouchers are not transferable and not for re-sale.
Interesting, I wonder how onthesnow.com calculates acreage.
I say Ken can keep his beard! SS had skiing this weekend, better than any body else! Ken and SS will have more open after this weekend if forecast holds ( maybe even Cupp?!). Cupp would have definitely been open had the temps been normal!
I vote: "KEEP IT, KEN!!!"
The Colonel
We have a house in Yoakum Run at Timberline and have rentals coming in Christmas week through the first full week of January. I'm getting a bit nervous if neither Canaan or TLine are going to be ope or even if open marginally. I won't go broke but Christmes week is the big one for ski areas to pay the start up costs and for those renting houses to make costs. Most of the workers will get laid off and there will be other issues to deal with at a later date. It'll be a domino effect for seasonal workers. Once you lose them you cannot repalce them especially for low paying jobs.
On another note, the week leading into New Years and beyond now looks to be more seasonable with temps predicted to be in the 30s and lows in the teens.
Response to hoyadrew and thoughts for others:
on DCKiers, let's not pile on the hurting ($) Mid-A ski areas during this natural weather disaster!!!
Shame if anyone tries to pull this ("% open") stunt on SS! Let's hope that those responsible for ski area overnight bookings during this difficult time are as fair and honest as BlueDon!
The Colonel
Oh I have a season pass. I was more just curious if there was a precedent for people actually being able to claim against the guarantee.
Thank Gawd I SOLD at the right time!. 50 cents on the doller beats 25! LOL
Thank Gawd I BOUGHT at the right time!
hoyadrew wrote:
The determination of competitors’ skiable acreage open is based on daily snow reports published on onthesnow.com and recorded each day at 9am EST. Some limitations apply. Please note that this is an available terrain guarantee only. No vouchers will be given for weather or lift related conditions. No cash refunds will be granted. Vouchers are not transferable and not for re-sale.
Interesting, I wonder how onthesnow.com calculates acreage.
Not sure how much actual calculation OnTheSnow does. For example, the Sun Valley Terrain info shows a lot of trails open, a lot of lifts open, but 0 acres open. I think OTS pulls from ski area websites, so if those are marketing numbers then that's what OTS reports.
OTS has pretty good info for essentially every ski area in N. America. I've been using it more often this year. Although if you use the pull down for Snow Reports or Resorts it looks like the SE and MidA don't exist. What OTS does have that can be useful are lists of the resorts in the multi-destination passes like the MCP or Epic Pass. So can easily check snow conditions for those places all on one webpage.
CV is opening Saturday at noon, and Timberline has just announced opening on Monday.
It's supposed to warm back up here Monday. Gonna be tough to hold the base past Christmas Day and blow more snow unless that forecast turns out to be wrong..
50s and rain Tues, Wed, and Thurs of next week???
Sunday or BUST :-(
Doesn't look good for any skiing in the mid Alantic anytime soon. Weather.com is calling it a "Blowtorch" weather pattern bringing likely the warmest Christmas week in history. DC forecast for Christmas Eve: 70 degrees. Bah Humbug
http://www.weather.com/forecast/national/news/christmas-week-forecast-warm-east
Considering the warm weather I think it will be awesome for them to open this weekend. We're looking forward to going up tomorrow. The conidtions should be pretty good by Sunday esspecailly if they can open Silver Creek.
jimw wrote:
The conidtions should be pretty good by Sunday esspecailly if they can open Silver Creek.
I think the best anyone can hope for Sunday is "skiable". "Pretty good" isn't even on the map with only two days to blow snow over that many acres..
Snowshoe from what I saw last weekend had >>>ZERO<<< snow anywhere else other than one run that splits at the bottom on the front, the beginner area, and cupp run which appeared about 40% covered. When they closed on Sunday, it was looking pretty rough as the snow on the edges continued to pull back inward.
I doubt it looks any better right now.. Maybe they can get something else opened in time for xmas breakers but this weekend is going to be a repeat of last week which is a sliver of a trail open for 9000 people which by mid-day, with bodies laying around injured from running into each other, will resemble a zombie apocolypse more than a ski trail.
Sincraft wrote:
Maybe they can get something else opened in time for xmas breakers but this weekend is going to be a repeat of last week which is a sliver of a trail open for 9000 people which by mid-day, with bodies laying around injured from running into each other, will resemble a zombie apocolypse more than a ski trail.
My Plan:
The ONLY reason I'm going is bc I built a new ski rack that needs installed and I assumes I would be skiing for real this weekend.
Hey, it beats helping my wife wrap Christmas gifts this weekend.
Snowing at Snowshoe...cannot tell if natural or manmade or both, but web cams show a blizzard!
The Colonel
who knows how accurate, but forecasted snow totals on Friday for snowshoe are up - showing 4-7 inches per weather underground. cold enough for lots of snowmaking over next 24 hrs too.
That's great news. There should be skiiing up there next week. Still nothing down here this morning. I had hoped to see snow blown last night and this morning here. Perhaps the temps will drop enough today, but now Sunday is looking bleak. Good news is that now it appears I am off Mon-Thurs so if they do get open I can sneak in some runs prior to the holiday madness :-)
Update, Beech just cranked up their guns!
crgildart wrote:
That's great news. There should be skiiing up there next week. Still nothing down here this morning. I had hoped to see snow blown last night and this morning here. Perhaps the temps will drop enough today, but now Sunday is looking bleak. Good news is that now it appears I am off Mon-Thurs so if they do get open I can sneak in some runs prior to the holiday madness :-)
Update, Beech just cranked up their guns!
Snowshoe is blasting their guns right now on the webcams, at the Shavers Center and Silver Creek too.
Sschneid wrote:
who knows how accurate, but forecasted snow totals on Friday for snowshoe are up - showing 4-7 inches per weather underground. cold enough for lots of snowmaking over next 24 hrs too.
Dont believe the hype...if that was the case the dog would be howling over at the snow hound thread....(Dkhdfunnyface)
I got in around 10 AM. They are blowing snow like crazy on the basin side. It's very cold and windy.
The only negative I see ...... they abandoned any plans to open Cupp. No snowmaking going on over there when I arrived and no evidence that they did anything there last night.
The more you drink, the better the snow gets!
Shaking and shivering me timbers with those pics...i can feel it!...that last pic is what concludes a "Ski Package"...
Hey Sschneid...that (DkHdfunnyface) was meant for me not directed at you...gotta be careful when we blog...sometimes folks think ur busting on them when u r busting on urself!
OK was planning on taking the kids up to the mountains Sunday if anything can open some terrain by then. Guns are blassting full power and should be all day tomorrow as well. But, it just got better because my boss instructed me to take off for Christmas Break starting NOW instead of next Friday. So, if they can open Sunday or Monday I'll likely tell the kids to pack a change of clothes and swim suit and make this a TWO day trip Sunday-Monday or Monday-Tuesday. Hotels are still CHEAP too! WOOT WOOT! Ordinarily I'd not bother to go to that trouble or espense for WROD, but the kids are still very new to this, boy can power plow most things including NASTAR, but girl is still very green. Two days right before the Christmas rush with lessons will be worth it to help her catch up to big brother. That will make things a whole lot easier for after Christmas when it's a ZOO everywhere... day trips for that LOL
Finishing up the day at Snowshoe. Cold, windy, and snow guns in our face, but I'm glad to get out on the slopes finally. Wonder if any additional terrain will open tomorrow.
hoyadrew wrote:
Cold, windy, and snow guns in our face,
I shamefully admit that I took 3 runs and called it a day. The guns in the face was a deal breaker for me. I'm old and turning into a prima donna. I putzed around the villlage, did some easy condo work, watchied Duke lose and watched (ing) the noobs fall when unloading Ballhooter.
. Wonder if any additional terrain will open tomorrow.
I walked a few slopes yesterday and they were really doing a number on Spruce and continued to do so today. I hope they open that one.
I'm going to start a new Snowshoe thread based on a few conversations and observations ..... incredible stuff.
From their web cam, looks like Canaan Valley did open today. Looked like decent coverage.
With cold temps. but warm enough for no snow guns on, tomorrow should be decent there. I'd do the day trip, but my knee is barking at me for over-extending myself this early in the season. (Ducks.)
Yeah Ballhooter was a hot mess today. In fact it felt like everyone was just falling left and right everywhere.
I made it home to downtown DC in less than 4 hours; I think that's a record for me. Left last night so I could stay in a cheap hotel in Staunton. I now remember why I have consistently avoided US 250. It wasn't plowed, in addition to just being a terrible road to begin with...
Plowed???!!
Yeah it was mostly covered in snow for the second half from Staunton to Green Bank. Not much, but enough to be problematic.
I had other obligations keeping me in town today instead of heading towards the mountains. I'm also no longer "gun ho" to ski in a manmade blizzard given the choice to wait a day. My younger daughter is really just starting to learn and enjoy the sport at age 12. Her first try at age 6 was TOO cold and it took her YEARS to warm back up to skiing even though she loved plalying in the snow all along. I know that getting shelacked in the well covered face and goggles with frozen fire hoses will result in her not wanting to ski and her lesson would be sitting in the lodge drinking hot chocolate again. I'll ski in any skiable conditions, but not taking the kids to adverse environment when we can wait a day to have bluebird low 30s to learn in. That's my excuse hahahaha
