NC beats most of NE again

[legalskier]

North Carolina Ski Resorts Open
Maggie Valley, NC - Cold temperatures overnight allowed a pair of North Carolina ski resorts to launch their winter season Saturday morning. Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley was the first to flip the switch at 8:30 a.m., followed closely by Sugar Mountain Ski Resort near Banner Elk. Snowmaking efforts at Cataloochee began Thursday afternoon. This morning, ski resort officials opened three trails and two lifts for day skiing only from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ....Cataloochee will also operate on Sunday with the same hours, and operating hours for the upcoming week will be determined on Sunday. Snowmaking also began at Sugar on Thursday. This morning, as temperatures hover in the low 20s, manmade snow covers the Upper and Lower Flying Mile slopes with the Summit Lift #1 in operation to the three-quarter station. Sugar Mountain's debut was three weeks earlier than last season's and just one day shy of the mountain's earliest recorded opening on November 5th back in 1976.
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2010/11/6/North-Carolina-Ski-Resort-Opens/

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

Anybody know what the skier visits are like for the mid atlantic resorts? I would imagine some must be quite high with the large population and limited competition.

 

[Geoff]

Anybody know what the skier visits are like for the mid atlantic resorts? I would imagine some must be quite high with the large population and limited competition.

Where's DeadHeadSkier? He's up on places like Snowshoe. I recall they do a ton of skier visits.

 

[legalskier]

Anybody know what the skier visits are like for the mid atlantic resorts?

That's a large area over a number of states with dozens of areas. However, as far as NC goes:

For [last] season, total skier visits in North Carolina were 671,554, total revenue was $32,526,608, year-round employment was 96, seasonal employment was 1,557, total payroll was $8,700,000, and capital expenditures for the North Carolina ski industry as a whole were $3,341,237. A complete report for the NCSAA economic value analysis can be found at www.goskinc.com/economics.

http://www2.mountaintimes.com/watauga_weekly/N.C._Ski_Areas_contributed_$146_million_in_2009-2010_id_002438

 

[tarponhead]

What is the base elevation (general) in NC/WV area etc. ?

 

[AdironRider]

In a previous thread DHS said something along the lines of 500k for the Shoe.

I was impressed.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

In a previous thread DHS said something along the lines of 500k for the Shoe.

I was impressed.

Yup, sounds about right. Snowshoe, which opened in 1973 and became part of the Intrawest group in 1995 has averaged 400,000 skier visits per year since it opened. It's the largest ski resort in the midatlantic and southeastern regions of the United States. One of my Intrawest links show 473,000 in 2001 so 500,000 sounds right on. Lots of folks don't know that the tallest peak in the east is in NC. I think several of the ski hills down there have a pretty high base elevation.

 

[Kerovick]

My home resort (ski liberty) here in Southern PA does MAD business cause it is the closest resort to the Baltimore/DC area. Weekends are a madhouse up here.

 

[drjeff]

What is the base elevation (general) in NC/WV area etc. ?

Many of the NC areas have base elevations that are above 4000 - you know higher up than the summits of a good chunk of the ski areas in New England

 

[deadheadskier]

To elevation at the Shoe is 4848. Though lift serviced is probably 75ish feet lower. Basin side starts at about 3900. The backside for Cupp and Shays drops down to about 3300, it's a legit 1500 vert pod.

Snowshoe has a much more western feel than Northern resorts in that it's much busier midweek than NE areas. Place gets packed with church groups from Georgia and Alabama.

The 500K skier visits is pretty intense in that the vast majority of people ski in the 120ish acre Basin side.

 

[witch hobble]

Many of the NC areas have base elevations that are above 4000 - you know higher up than the summits of a good chunk of the ski areas in New England

City of Boone, NC is 3300 feet. Banner Elk (where Sugar Mountain is) is even higher.

I only did one day at Snowshoe. It would be hard to daytrip that place from anywhere, so I believe that about midweek skiing there.