By Nathan Ham
A blast of cold air and some snow in the High Country on Thursday has set up the area ski resorts with some good conditions and good snowmaking weather for the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
“Everything is fantastic, we’ve got a huge base and 100 percent of our terrain is open so we’re definitely looking forward to the weekend,” said Drew Stanley, the Marketing Director for Appalachian Ski Mountain. “It looks like some cold weather coming in Sunday so we’ll be making snow as temperatures permit. Conditions should be mid peak season this weekend.”
All of the terrain parks at App Ski Mountain are open as well.
“We’ll have a variety of features out there, we try to put something out for all ability levels especially on these busier weekends,” Stanley said.
As a special offering on Sunday, Appalachian Ski Mountain will be doing their midnight blast session where skiers can stay on the slopes until midnight.
“We extend those hours to give people a little more flexibility with their vacation plans,” Stanley added.
At Sugar Mountain, the ski conditions are terrific and they are expecting a big weekend of skiers showing up.
“I like to call it ‘hero snow.’ You make a turn and you feel like you’re a hero. You can’t make a mistake, you’re carving your turns, you’re not sliding around and ice isn’t causing you to twist in uncomfortable, painful positions,” said Kim Jochl, Vice President and Director of Marketing at Sugar Mountain Resort. “As soon as it gets colder, we’ll start making snow again.
Snowtubing, snowshoeing and ice skating are all up and running at Sugar ready for the holiday weekend.
The snow and cold weather has helped Beech Mountain Resort a lot this week with their snowmaking sessions.
“We were able to make a lot of snow this week so that put us in good shape. It looks like Sunday night hopefully we should be able to open up more terrain,” said Talia Freeman, the Director of Marketing at Beech Mountain. “I think the word rain has scared some people but the conditions are good right now and we’re excited for a good weekend.”
Tubing and ice skating are in full swing and there will be special musical performances on Friday night from The Harris Brothers at 7 p.m. and again on Saturday night with Downtown Abby and The Echoes at 7 p.m.
Friday’s Current Conditions at the Ski Resorts
Appalachian Ski Mountain
12 Trails, 5 lifts with 68-94 inch base
All trails open: Appaltizer, Avery’s Appal, Candied Appal, Strudel, Orchard Run, Lower Big Appal, Upper Big Appal, Hard Core, Thin Slice, Appaljack, Appal Jam and Appal Top.
Beech Mountain Resort
11 trails, 5 lifts with 36-58 inch base
Trails open are: Upper Shawneehaw, Lower Shawneehaw, Crossway, Upper Robbin’s Run, Lower Robbin’s Run, Crossover, Upper Powder Bowl, Lower Powder Bowl, Freestyle, Play Yard an The Park.
Sugar Mountain Resort
14 trails, 5 lifts with 38-72 inch base
Trails open are: Tom Terrific, Gunther’s Way, Northridge, Switchback, Upper Flying Mile, Load Off, Big Birch, Oma’s Meadow, Lower Flying Mile, Easy Street, Little Nell, Tiny Tim, Magic Carpet and Ski School Yard.
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