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Steady, early snow makes for crowded NC slopes

MGNS photo

Hawksnest at Seven Devils, N.C., no longer offers skiing. Instead, this attraction has re-christened itself the largest snow-tubing operation on the East Coast. It now offers more than 20 lanes for tubing.

By Joe Tennis

Media General News Service

Published: February 5, 2009

Even before Thanksgiving, operators of North Carolina's High Country ski slopes were wearing smiles.

"I think it is safe to say the ski areas in North Carolina are not going through a recession," said Kim Jochl, the director of marketing and merchandising at Sugar Mountain Ski Resort in Banner Elk.

For one, it had snowed early in the season, Jochl said. "We had great snow in November."

And then?

"It snowed all across the state of North Carolina," said Gil Adams, the marketing director for nearby Ski Beech on Beech Mountain. "And that was great. It gets people in the spirit for skiing and snowboards."

In 2009, business has simply boomed for ski operations, Adams said. "The biggest thing is, the weather has helped us out. With ski conditions, of course, that's all weather dependent."

About 30 inches of natural snow fell at Beech Mountain in January, Adams said.

"And avid skiiers love to ski in untracked, natural snow," Adams added.

Temperatures, too, have been cold enough for ideal snowmaking, Adams said.

"We are dependent on the weather – just like agriculture," Adams said. "We are farming snow, essentially."

'GOOD YEARS'
From Veteran's Day in November until St. Patrick's Day in March, North Carolina's ski operations stay busy – "farming snow" – to cover slopes at Blowing Rock, Mars Hill, Beech Mountain and Banner Elk.

Jochl, for one, considers it an art – "and extremely hard work" – to blanket Sugar Mountain with manmade snow.

But now, with all slopes covered, Sugar Mountain could possibly post one of its best seasons on record.

"We are doing very, very well. The past five years here at Sugar have been good years," Jochl said.
Sugar Mountain boasts the largest ski area in North Carolina – with challenges including the double black-diamond Whoopdedoo, ranked among the most difficult ski runs in the Tarheel State.

Just off I-26, the ski resort at Wolf Ridge, near Mars Hill, N.C., features its own challenges, as skiers and snowboarders slide down a mountain with an ear-popping elevation of 4,700 feet.

Open since 1968, Wolf Ridge boasts a ski tunnel, a terrain park and a tubing area.

This destination – once called "Wolf Laurel Slopes" – has taken on a new look in recent years, as luxury log cabins are built near ski runs as part of the ever-growing Scenic Wolf Resort.

Now, co-owner Rick Bussey said, plans call for a private airport at Wolf Ridge, plus retail shops, an ice-skating rink, a water park and dozens of additional cabins.

"It's changed from being a day-ski area to an overnight destination," said Dick Wolfe, the manager of the Scenic Wolf Resort's cabin rentals. "It was once just a mom-and-pop ski area."

'FUN THING'

Still, this year, Hawksnest at Seven Devils has posted the biggest change among all of North Carolina's ski slopes: It no longer offers any skiing.

Instead, this longtime attraction has re-christened itself the largest snow-tubing operation on the East Coast. It now offers more than 20 lanes for tubing and attracts hundreds to its two-hour-long sessions on Saturday afternoons and still more on weekdays.

"This is a whole lot easier," Hawksnest general manager Lenny Cottom said during a brief break.
After years of covering slopes with snow and operating a ski lift, Cottom decided to make the change late last year.

"And we have more than doubled what we did last year in tubing," Cottom said. "It has definitely worked out."

Nearby, Sugar Mountain Ski Resort offers seven lanes of tubing on a 700-foot-long area.

Ski Beech, meanwhile, has added two tubing lanes for this season.

The Ski Beech run is small compared to other resorts. But, for Michelle Beck, a frequent visitor to Ski Beech, finding that tubing run was a welcome surprise on a sunny Saturday morning.

"We love it," said Beck, an interior decorator from Concord, N.C. "It's just a fun thing to do."

ON THE SLOPES
Want to know ski and tubing conditions? Check out the following:

Appalachian Ski Mountain: Blowing Rock, (828) 295-7828.
Hawksnest: Seven Devils, (828) 963-6561.
Ober Gatlinburg: Gatlinburg, Tenn., (865) 436-5423.
Ski Beech: Beech Mountain, (828) 387-2011.
Sugar Mountain: Banner Elk, (828) 898-4521.
Winterplace: Flat Top, W.Va., (800) 607-7669.
Wolf Ridge: Mars Hill, (800) 817-4111.