I just moved to South Carolina.  I lived in PA and visited PA,MD and WV for skiing. How does Sugar and Beech compare to the Mid-Atlantic areas? Sugar reminds me of the terrain at Timberline. Beech looks to have a vibe like Laurel and Canaan except better run. What is Beech's terrain similar too?

Any feedback would be great. 

 Wow, interesting about Beech comparison to JF. Luckily I skied there and enjoyed. Is Beech as wide as JF or more compact. I haven't skied Camelback, but it sounds similar to the long run outs on the front side of Snowshoe. 

The19thHole wrote:

Beech is probably most like Jack Frost. Sugar might be similar to Camelback in that it has a short & steep top section followed by long run outs. 

I haven't skied Beech for 15+ years.  Don't remember it feeling "wide."  Unlike some of the MidA resorts, the trails at Beech are not spread out along a ridge.  Feels more like a vertical hill than a horizontal one.  Note that the quad that serves West Bowl rarely runs.

Note that to get to Beech, have to drive up a narrow 2-lane road to the tiny town of Beech Mountain first.  Then down from there before driving back up to the entrance to the parking lots.  AWD is a good idea when there is snow/ice on the road.  Of course, the people who drive north from GA or FL rarely have much snow driving sense.  Beech has a traditional base with building at the bottom of the trails.  Pays to arrive early in order to park in the highest lot.  Still a bit of a walk uphill from there.  Remember that clearly since the last time I went with my daughter and her friend when they were tweens.

Beech has fixed grip lifts.  Even though they aren't that old, for some reason there have been issues in recent years.

padjaski68 wrote:

I just moved to South Carolina.  I lived in PA and visited PA,MD and WV for skiing. How does Sugar and Beech compare to the Mid-Atlantic areas? Sugar reminds me of the terrain at Timberline. Beech looks to have a vibe like Laurel and Canaan except better run. What is Beech's terrain similar too?

Any feedback would be great. 

 Will you be skiing on weekends or midweek?

Beech has a more laid back vibe than Sugar.  Partially because Sugar is so much easier to reach for people who drive to the NC mountains for a ski weekend.

Have you looked at Beech and Sugar on SteepSeeker?

I mentioned JF because the runs at Beech are fairly short but with a good pitch most of the way down, so it reminded me of JF.

The layout of Camelback is way different than Sugar, but the Short 'n Steep top of the runs followed by a long runout seems similar.

I skied a bunch in NC back in the 80s when I lived in South Carolina. Our favorite place was the now-defunct Hawks Nest ski area, or the snowfields at Cataloochee back when they were a thing and were open.

Cataloochee has one of the best snowmaking systems in the regions. Or anywhere for a small hill.  It typically opens easy and ends the season late.  It was a founding member of the Indy Pass.  They just installed a new quad lift to replace the double that went to the summit.

As for the snowfield, that hasn't open much in the last decade. There are guys on the SkiSoutheast Discord who have skied it.  It was a bit of a surprise when it was included in the new trail map.

Here are some stats for the southeast.  I left out Bryce, App, and Ober, which are under 40 acres.  SkiSoutheast .com is the place to look for info about skiing in NC.

Cataloochee: 50 acres, 740' vert

Beech: 95 acres, 830' vert

Sugar: 125 acres, 1200' vert (4100’-5300’)

Snowshoe: 244 acres, 1480' vert Western, 800' vert Basin, 650' vert Silver Creek

Timberline: 91 acres, 1000' vert

Canaan Valley: 90 acres, 850' vert

Winterplace: 125 acres, 580' vert

Massanutten: 83 acres (after new trails added), 1110' vert, 850' vert for upper mountain

Wintergreen: 129 acres, 1003' vert

  Highland Express 3612 ft, 991 vert

  Acorn lift 1672 ft, 530 vert

  Blue Ridge Express 2371 ft, 402 vert

Is Appalachian worth either a day or night to visit? Their terrain parks looks fun. I found JF and Snowshoe's parks having more offerings for a park rats because they were wider and offer more features. 7S 's The Alley felt too cramped and narrow.  The last few years I start venture in the parks more to mix things up. 

I was wondering why Snow Road was removed from the maps at Beech. Are there terrain the isn't on the map at either Sugar or Beech that can be skied inbounds?

As for lodging,  I saw the comment about the access to Beech, sounds similar to the back side entrance at Snowshoe coming up from Cass. Are there more options at over the other or be centralized in Banner Elk the best option?

padjaski68 wrote:

Is Appalachian worth either a day or night to visit? Their terrain parks looks fun. I found JF and Snowshoe's parks having more offerings for a park rats because they were wider and offer more features. 7S 's The Alley felt too cramped and narrow.  The last few years I start venture in the parks more to mix things up. 

I was wondering why Snow Road was removed from the maps at Beech. Are there terrain the isn't on the map at either Sugar or Beech that can be skied inbounds?

As for lodging,  I saw the comment about the access to Beech, sounds similar to the back side entrance at Snowshoe coming up from Cass. Are there more options at over the other or be centralized in Banner Elk the best option?

 App is tiny, 27 acres with 365 ft vert.  Great snowmaking.  No idea about park in general.  At night is when the App State students will be around since App is very close to campus.  I've driven to the base for a quick look, but had no reason to buy a ticket even when my daughter was only skiing blues at Massanutten.

Skiing off trail . . . umm . . . is not done at all at Sugar.  Remember reading about some exploits at Beech after big snowstorms but not sure what's been happening in recent years.  Best to ask in the SkiSoutheast Discord.

The road up, down, and up again to Beech is didn't feel as long as driving through Cass.  Although I was only on that road once.  Thought I'd give it a try leaving Snowshoe the very first trip.  Learned that it was not a good idea for getting back to Raleigh, even on dry road.  Per usual, the issue when it's snowing isn't the road.  It's the people who don't know how to drive on snow/ice.  Especially the folks who ignore warning signs.  There used to be a shuttle bus from a parking lot at the start of the mountain road.  I have no idea if that still exists.

For Beech, I chose to stay near the town of Beech Mountain for a couple nights when taking tween kids for a weekend.  We stayed at the Pinnacle Inn, which is in a good location.  Across the road from the town's free sledding hill, which has snowmaking.

Back in the 1980s, stayed in a motel in Boone a few times because that was the least expensive approach.

Plenty of options for lodging near Beech/Sugar.  Just depends on your budget and how far you're willing to drive to get to the slopes.  Sugar has slopeside lodging owned by the resort.  There are houses slopeside at Beech but they are privately owned so look for VRBO/AirBnB listings.