What’s New for the 2023-24 Season—Southeastern Edition
For those who live in the Southeast, the many close-to-home ski/snowboard destinations offer affordable and convenient getaways for a day, weekend or longer. The resorts here have been busy upgrading terrain, lifts, snowmaking and other amenities for the 2023/24 season.
Here’s an update of what to expect, by state.
Virginia
Massanutten
Following up last winter’s major slope expansion at the Shenandoah Valley resort, Massanutten again leads the region’s resorts in the “new terrain” category.
Last year’s three new slopes, including a third long drop from the summit, are capped off this winter with easier, faster access on the Peak Express, a new, four-person high-speed detachable that replaces the old conventional quad. The run under the quad becomes a new expert slope, “No Hesitation,” the resort’s only double black run. It’s covered by automated snowmaking and LED lights.
Another of the existing summit slopes, Paradice, has received a makeover and snowmaking upgrade, and there’s new expanded seating and menu options at the Mid-Mountain Grill.
Massanutten also leans into the region’s improving access to online slope information with a new interactive website trail map.It’s also increasingly easy to track southern ski conditions with a growing list of webcams on the slopes and in neighboring resort areas. This year Massanutten adds The Peak webcam on the summit.
Wintergreen
Wintergreen, Virginia, quite literally “perched on the crest of the Blue Ridge.”
Perched on the crest of the Blue Ridge near Charlottesville, Wintergreen has rebuilt its entire complement of fan snow guns to “like new,” condition, and the Blue Ridge Express, one of the South’s first detachables, has a new haul rope. Group lessons will again be available this year seven days a week from the ski school (and Friday-Sunday for snowboarders). Also Friday-Sunday, the Mountain Explorers program returns for skiers ages 7-14.
West Virginia
Snowshoe Mountain Resort
The big news is a new replacement for the Powder Monkey lift. The almost 30-year old fixed grip triple chair, one the mountain’s original rides, will be replaced by a new fixed grip quad with a conveyor loading system. The new lift should significantly reduce congestion on the Basin Slope side of the mountain, making it quicker and easier to reach the crest of the mountain. This is where the entrance the Western Territory trail system opens the resort’s 1,500-foot maximum vertical drop on slopes like Cupp Run.
Timberline Mountain
One of two alpine resorts in West Virginia’s Canaan Valley, Timberline was purchased by Indiana’s Perfect North Slopes in 2019. Major lift changes came first—a six-person fixed grip summit lift and a fixed grip quad to mid-mountain. This season the improvements are more subtle but still substantive, with thirty new snowguns, many of them tower mounted. A New water pump, and 8000 feet of additional snowmaking pipe have gone in, and a new Pisten Bully 600 joins the grooming fleet.
At mid-mountain, an unloading deck that was challenging for some skiers and riders is easier this winter. New lights on the green Winterset slope expand night skiing on the lower mountain and make skiing after dark accessible from that slope’s ski-in, ski-out rental cabins (available through valley rental agencies).
Winterplace
New terrain features and events have been added on last season’s new Heaven Holler Terrain Park located on the Highland slope. There also is a new look and offerings to the popular Snowdrift Lounge, including retro-themed snow parties, live entertainment, local microbrews, winter-inspired cocktails and tap takeovers. Guests at slopeside Mountain Mama’s Café have new menu items and improved flow to quickly get skiers back on the slopes.
Additionally, Winterplace also has a new Pisten Bully in its grooming fleet.
North Carolina
Appalachian Ski Mountain
The first (1962) of the now three ski areas in northeastern North Carolina’s High Country ski region, Appalachian was an early adopter of RFID lift ticketing. This season Appalachian says it will be the first resort in the nation to have daily lockers available to reserve online. Its 650 lockers of various sizes have been outfitted with RFID access technology to make locker rental easier. All skiers on a single order will be able to open the same locker with their RFID card.
The resort also added seven stationary guns to its snowmaking arsenal.
Beech Mountain Resort
The mountain’s one-time terrain park has become a beginner slope named Carolina Caribbean, after the company which developed the ski area in the late 1960s. Nicely separated from the flow of the main trail system, the green run has a new conveyor lift this year. Beech Mountain Brewery is celebrating its ten-year anniversary with an array of concerts and other events.
Beech also joins the growing trend to RFID ticketing. Purchase online, redeem at a pick-up box, reload from home. No more waiting at crowded ticket booths.
Sugar Mountain
Sugar’s formidable snowmaking system has added a fifth air compressor and six new fully automated SMI snowmaking machines. The resort has finished another round of refurbishments to its venerable, vintage lodge, including a rebuilt slopeside deck. A new online ski rental system is being instituted that, along with onsite touch screen kiosks, is expected to significantly streamline the process.
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort
The former Wolf Ridge ski area is under new ownership and being rebranded as Hatley Point, a “boutique ski area,” say the new owners, with the emphasis on an upscale experience. The change has sparked high hopes for the resort a half hour north of Asheville on I-26, a short distance from the highest Interstate elevation in Eastern America.
The resort’s rustic original ski lodge is still being massively expanded, so due to delays, the resort will not open until later this winter. Among many upgrades and changes, including snowmaking improvements, the mountain’s former cafeteria is being relocated to the lodge’s upper level and upgraded to a dine-in experience.
Maryland
Wisp Resort
Overlooking scenic Deep Creek Lake in Maryland’s westernmost Garrett County, Wisp Resort focuses on snowmaking improvements this winter.
Twenty-two new TechnoAlpin TL8 tower snowmaking guns will be aimed at covering Wisp’s base area and the popular expert run above it, The Face. The long green Possum also benefits. More than 2,800 feet of new snowmaking pipe feed these improvements across the front side of the mountain. All the new snowmaking equipment is automated for self-adjusting snow quality, fast start-up and quicker shut down. New energy efficient lighting in the same area enlightens The Face and Squirrel Cage, both blacks. The resort’s rental inventory includes Rossignol ski and snowboard equipment.
Indy and IKON Pass Update
The Indy Pass has spread to six participating ski resorts in the South, including –
- Bryce Resort and Massanutten Resort in Virginia,
- Canaan Valley Resort and Winterplace Resort in West Virginia
- Cataloochee Ski Area in North Carolina
- Ober Mountain in Tennessee.
Alterra Mountain Company’s Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia, the region’s biggest ski area, is part of the IKON Pass network.
See you on the slopes!
ICYMI for December 2023
In case you missed it, here are bits and pieces from here and there about several of our favorite winter resorts, to help you plan your downhill or XC time and your down time before or after. See you on the slopes – or before or after!
Mountain Collective New Passes
New this season is a physical pass to put in your jacket or pants pocket. The RFID card replaces the need to get a daily pass from the resort ticket window each day you want to ski. This season the new plastic pass is for use only at North American member resorts in the US and Canada, including Grand Targhee, Snowbird, Taos, Revelstoke and Sun Peaks.
Fingers crossed that Mountain Collective resorts overseas, including The Remarkables (New Zealand), Chamonix (France) and Niseko (Japan), join the list next season. https://mountaincollective.com/pass/
Vermont Holiday Festival at Killington
This annual event is Fri./Sat.,December 8/9 this year in the Killington Grand Hotel, featuring handmade gifts by local artisans, entertainment, and a forest of more than 70 decorated trees. It’s a great opportunity to get into the holiday spirit before or after a day on the slopes. There’s also a raffle with the chance to win one of the decorated trees.
AVSC’s Audi AJAX Cup on Aspen Mountain
The Audi Ajax Cup is a dual giant slalom right on Aspen Mountain and the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club’s largest annual fundraiser. On Sat., Dec. 30, Sixteen teams will race head-to-head until one is named the winner and awarded the famed Gorsuch Cup as a fundraiser for Aspen Valley Ski Club.
Each team has a pro-racer, which in previous years has included Chris Davenport, Casey Puckett, Daron Rahlves, and AJ Kitt. The “Race Day” takes place at the base of Aspen Mountain and culminates in a traditional European style après ski celebration.
2024 Avalanche Dog Calendar
Decorate your walls year round with pix of four-legged Ski Patrollers. Produced in coordination with Ski Utah, this 8.5″x11″ wall calendar features the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue search and rescue dogs photographed at their workplace, the Wasatch Mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah. Proceeds from the sale of the $25 calendar benefit Wasatch Backcountry Rescue (WBR). It’s a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working in the Wasatch Mountains with the primary purpose of rapid response for avalanche rescue, winter related mountain rescue, and medical evacuation incidents using trained professionals and search and rescue dogs. https://www.yearbox.com/calendarsforgood/ski-utah-wbr-2024-calendar/
Each avalanche dog-of-the-month features its name and information about it, including some photos of avi dogs decked out in goggles and other human gear. Besides being beyond cute, one of these trained four-footed professionals could save your life or that of a buddy.
Ski With Santa and Mrs. Claus at Whistler Blackcomb
Santa Claus is hitting the slopes! On December 15, 2023 it’s time to hit the slopes, with 100’s of other Mr and Misses Clauses for the annual Ski With Santa Day, also known as Dress Like Santa Day. The first 100 people to arrive in traditional red Santa or Mrs. Claus costumes get free lift tickets. https://gibbonswhistler.com/christmas-holidays-in-whistler/
How Much Snow does a Mountain Need to Open its Pistes?
[Publisher Note: Friend and Colleague, The-Ski-Guru publishes a terrific site for snow sports enthusiasts and paints some of my favorite mountain art. With her permission, we are reprinting an article that is always of great interest this time of year.]
How much snow does a mountain need to open its pistes? It is not a straightforward answer!
It depends on several factors:
*Altitude
*Mountain Orientation
*Depth of Snow before Snowfall
*Has the mountain grassy fields or rocky soil
*Temperatures
*Availability of Snowmaking (man-made snow)
Let me delve a bit more on each subject!
Altitude:
The higher the mountain is, the biggest the chance to keep the snow. There is an estimate that every 100 meters in vertical drop, the temperature drops by 1 Celsius.
By having a colder temperature, it is easier that if it precipitates, it will be snow. Plus, being colder helps keeping the snow longer. Nowadays, with climate change, you see crazy freezing levels.
Freezing temperatures used to be at pretty low altitudes. Nowadays, there are more and more record temperatures recorded super high up in the mountains. This contributes to the permafrost starting to melt, with the subsequent risks of avalanches and rockfalls.
Credit:saje
Mountain Orientation:
In the Northern hemisphere, the northern exposed pistes and fields tend to last the most.
In the Southern hemisphere is the other way around. The southern exposed slopes last longer, and the northern exposed slopes tend to melt faster.
Depth of Snow before snowfall:
Having snow in the ground before a snowstorm, will help to keep the ground cold, and allows the new snow to stick and stay longer.
In the beginning of the season, when there is no snow, many resorts start producing man-made snow, if the temperatures allow. This is to help the first natural snowfalls stick to the ground.
Other resorts are ‘snow-farming’ their snow. That is keeping the snow under a thick blanket that will keep it from melting during the summer. Then you have already a base when new snowstorms come in. With a bad start of last season in Europe, expect to see much more snow-farming soon.
Is the mountain grassy or rocky:
This is very important. The mountains which slopes are grassy, need much less snow coverage to operate. This compared to rocky mountains. For example, Courmayeur, that is by the Monte Bianco, needs a much deeper base than its neighbour Pila that is 30′ away. Pila is a grassy mountain (you can see it in the summer). With a very thin coverage of snow, it can open its pistes. Courmayeur needs a deeper base to cover its rocks.
We went on a lovely walk in Pila, with great views of the mountains. Pila is a good example of grassy fields. In the winter, it does not need a big snow coverage to be operating.
Temperatures:
For it to snow, it has to be a temperature near 0 Celsius. Too high and it rains, and too low and it might rain too- as it is too cold for snowing! Depending where in the world is the mountain, it will be more or less feasible for having snow.
Availability of Snowmaking:
This is depending how much money the resort has. Many resorts have some snowmaking, some have pretty much full coverage (as the Sella Ronda) and some have none! Smaller ski resorts that tend to be in lower altitudes, usually don’t! They do not produce enough money as to buy snow cannons. These are not cheap!
Some bigger resorts also have state-of-the-art snowmaking, and they can produce snow in higher temperatures. Here the richer the resort, the most snowmaking you will see.
Be thankful that you can be outdoors and slide. Our future generations might not be as lucky!
See the original article here: https://www.the-ski-guru.com/2023/01/16/how-much-snow-mountain-need-open-its-pistes/
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