By Jesse Wood
Nov. 3, 2014. Along with a several resorts in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, Sugar Mountain Resort in the High Country is among the first ski/snowboard resorts to open in the country for the 2014-15 winter season.
Sugar Mountain Resort opened to what would become blue skies on Sunday, following the snowstorm that covered the High Country with a substantial amount of snowfall. The base at Sugar Mountain is 10 to 32 inches on Monday morning, which also features nice blues skies and sunshine.
“Yesterday was excellent. We had a great turnout, and today? It’s even better than yesterday,” Kim Jochl of Sugar Mountain Resort said on Monday.
Mike Seidel and his crew with The Weather Channel was on hand on Sunday for the opening that marks Sugar’s second earliest opening on record. The previous record was Halloween two years ago. Jochl said that The Weather Channel fed its report to affiliates all over the country such as Hawaii, Iowa, Oregon, Washington and California.
“It’s incredible exposure,” Jochl said. “It definitely creates awareness for North Carolina skiing. We are definitely excited and proud of that.”
In addition to the eight to 10 inches of snowfall, the resort dropped plenty of manmade snow on the slopes of Sugar Mountain since Friday evening. It even tested out the snow guns on the new slope called Gunther’s Way. Named after Gunther Jochl, Sugar Mountain Resort’s owner and president, Gunther’s Way is 150-feet wide and 2,900-feet long with an impressive 700-foot vertical drop that is situated on nine acres.
“It’s all working good,” Jochl said of the new machinery on Gunther’s Way.
According to the trail map on Sugar Mountain’s website, three lifts on Summit 1 are open and two slopes – Lower Flying Mile and Upper Flying Mile – are open, too.
Full day session runs from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The half-day session begins at 12:30 p.m. and ends at 4:30 pm. For a real time look at the slopes through the live, streaming web cam visit www.skisugar.com/cams.
The Sugar Mountain Ski and Snowboard School and the Equipment Rental Shop are both fully operational. Sugar Mountain Sports Shop, located in the Base Lodge is open for the season. It features the finest in winter apparel and footwear, quality gift items, and souvenirs; a great place to begin your holiday shopping. Plus, new winter items are arriving daily. If you have a group please contact the Group Sales Department. They will be happy to accommodate you.
Sugar’s 10,000 square foot outdoor ice rink and tubing park are scheduled to open as soon as weather permits. Visit www.skisugar.com/cams to see both activities opening progress.
For more information please call 800-SUGAR-MT or view www.skisugar.com for the latest slope and weather conditions. Historical opening and closing dates as well as recorded annual natural snowfall measurements can be found at www.skisugar.com/sugar-mountain-stats.
See The Weather Channel live from Sugar Mountain in this video.
See photos from the first two days of Sugar Mountain’s opening:
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