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Sugar Mountain Resort Gets the Ski Season Officially Started By Opening Sunday Morning From Top to Bottom with Five Slopes Open

Lili Bauer was first on the chair lift. She got an early morning call from her father who is Ski School Director at Sugar with the good news.

Sugar Mountain Resort got the ski season officially off to great start Sunday morning when their lifts opened to the public at 9:00 a.m. for their 49th season. Lili Bauer was first on the chair lift. She got an early morning call from her father who is Ski School Director at Sugar with the good news. She is a snowboarded and was all smiles as she took a seat on the lift. Jeff Johnson, owner of Edge of the World Snowboard Shop in Banner Elk was close behind Lili for his first ride up of the season. Jeff was looking to be first on the lift, but got held up in the ticket line when he forgot to bring his season pass. Jeff says his was super stoked to be out on the mountain. His advice for the early ski season, “Just get out here! Find a buddy, get your boards , and head for the slopes and have fun. I love snowboarding! I love the sport, it’s what makes me feel great.” Back at his shop Jeff is excited about the new gear coming in for this year’s season. “We’re looking forward to having folks in the shop and getting them on some new gear. I’ve got the new Burton step-ins with me today. We’re super stoke about this product for snowboarders this year.”

Kim Jochl, Vice President at Sugar Mountain Resort was all smiles as well in her office this morning as she was getting ready for her first runs of the season. “We have five trails open and two lifts running and open from top to bottom. We have the magic carpet open on our beginners slope, and a 6 to 30 inch base,” said Kim. She says weather looks good through the week for building up the base and getting more terrain open. Kim went on to said. “It’s beautiful out here today and we’ve had great snow making weather. We started making snow Friday night and here it is Sunday morning and we’re open. We added four new snow guns this year adding to our incredible arsenal of snow guns we already have and expanded our snowmaking pond for more water capacity for this season. Getting open in two days is a testament to our snow making capabilities.” Last year Sugar opened on November 20th and had 127 skier days with a total of 75 inches of natural snowfall.

Appalachian Ski Mtn. and Beech Mountain Resort are also busy making snow. Appalachian will be open this Friday, their scheduled opening date. Beech Mountain will be announcing their opening date soon.

Picture from Sugar Mountain Resort as the slopes opened at 9:00 a.m.

Jeff Johnson of Edge of the World Snowboard Shop was second in line for the first day of the season.

More skiers and snowboarders followed for their first day on the slopes.

The Ski Patrol was on hand getting the slopes ready for this year’s first skiers and snowboarders.

Jeff Johnson cutting it up on his first trip down the slopes.

Kim and Guther Jochl were happy to be out on the slopes on the first day of the season at their resort.

The parking lot was filling up as news got out that Sugar had open for the season.