A FREE Daily Visitor Guide for the North Carolina Mountains and 50+ NC Mountain Cities: Four NC Ski Resorts and Areas are Open for the 2011-2012 Season

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Four NC Ski Resorts and Areas are Open for the 2011-2012 Season

This weekend four of the six NC Ski Areas and Resorts are open for the 2011-2012 season. After several false starts and the best efforts of the snow making machines, Mother Nature finally brought the requisite consistent cold temperatures this week.

Skiing in North Carolina has always required man-made snow. Each year the Ski Areas add to or upgrade their snowmaking capabilities. But even state-of-the-art snow machines can't do it all. A minimum of 36 to 48 hours of below freezing temperatures are need to properly prepare the slopes to begin building a usable snow surface. The last two years in NC have seen record early cold weather allowing longer ski seasons than usual with earlier starts and skiing well into March.

This weekend Cataloochee Ski Area, Sugar Mountain Resort, Beech Mountain Ski Resort and Appalachian Ski Mountain are all open for day time skiing on 40-60% of their slopes and bases of 6 inches to 45 inches. Sugar Mountain is host to the annual SugarFest and Appalachian is celebrating its official 50th season opening. Sapphire Valley Ski Area is hoping to open on December 17 and Wolf Ridge Ski Resort has not yet announced an opening date.

Get links for all NC Ski Areas and Resorts and

information about NC Skiing and winter sports HERE

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