CATALOOCHEE SKI AREA TO OPEN THIS WEEKEND
November 7, 2006
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Got this press release today:
Quote:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tammy Brown
November 2, 2006 Phone: 828.926.0285, ext. 302
CATALOOCHEE SKI AREA TO OPEN THIS WEEKEND
FIRST IN THE EASTERN REGION
Maggie Valley, NC - This year's bragging rights for the first ski resort in the east to open for the season goes to Cataloochee Ski Area, located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. The southeast resort will be providing the first skiing and riding of the 2006/2007 season for winter snowsports enthusiasts beginning this Saturday, November 4, when the slope ropes drop at 8:30 am This will be Cataloochee's earliest opening ever in its 46-year history, 15 days ahead of the 2005/2006 season opening.
The oldest winter area in North Carolina continues to make significant improvements to its snowmaking capabilities allowing the resort's operational staff to be aggressive in helping skiers and snowboarders with their first tracks of the season. "Our automatic snowmaking system enables us to make snow more effectively with the early season temperatures, allowing us to open earlier and earlier each year that the weather cooperates", says Chris Bates, Cataloochee's General Manager. "We expect the temperatures to drop into the teens Thursday and Friday nights and we are expecting our snowmakers to convert over one-million gallons of water into snow, just in time for this weekend." Two slopes are expected to be available for skiers and snowboarders for the first day of the season, on a 6 - 14 inch base. Weekday rates will be in effect.
Cataloochee plans to be open for the season's first eastern tracks Saturday and Sunday. Additional snowmaking will occur whenever temperatures permit. Nightly cold temperatures in the 20's are in the forecast next week, allowing snowmakers to continue slope coverage.
For an up-to-date snow report and more information about the 2006/2007 season go to www.cataloochee.com
.. six to fourteen inches base? just two slopes? hmm
http://www.cataloochee.com/webcam.htmlUnless they are only making at the high elevations, this webcam pic or their press release isn't being truthful. I still green grass and bare ground in that pic.
They havn't started yet...Ck out the web cam tommorow & it will be a Different Pic! Those guns are getting ready to BLAST off all thru tonite -tommorow-Fri nite-& then on into Sunday ..if they Choose. They just want to get the bragging rights this weekend & probably will not waste any money after sat nite. Even Sat Nite I bet won't be a lot...just enough to put a little icing on the cake for the sunday Photo Ops....The wave of the future means we won't be needing much time..JUST WATER!
Damn, that is tempting. A 7.5 hour drive though, to ski a white ribbon of death on marginal snow. I must be crazy to even consider it!
I checked it just before midnight and it looked like a blizzard. I'm impressed.
Just Cked some 1 am temps...12 at Mount Mitchell(nearly 6700') & 23 at a nearby location at 4100'. With The ski areas base elevation of 4600' & a top of 5400'...they are blasting off! I only have a 5.5 hour dr & would consider driving up there ..but its fall & the fishing is too good! I bet there are some awesome views up there though, with the ski area surrounded by 5500' to many 6000'+ mtns topping off with nearly 6700' Mt Mitchell!
I must admit that I know very little about this resort, but it seems like it has decent infrastructure for a Mid-Atlantic mountain (740 foot vertical and a good array of lifts).
I've been past there many times but never bothered to stop. Now, with them becoming a major player in the first to open race, my curosity is aroused and a visit sometime soon is in order!
I did that once a long time ago when I was living in Alabama. A friend and I took the long drive for a weekend of skiing. Both of us had grown up skiing in the northeast and hadn't been for several years. It was going to be fun no matter what. We arrived to pouring rain and 45 deg. temp. Fortunately it was late Feb. and there was a base. The liftie kept telling us to go home and we would give him a big SEG and say, "We're from Alabama." In mid afternoon there was a power failure, the chair stopped and a thunderstorm broke over our heads. Our hair stood up and for the only time in my life, I thought I was going to die on a chairlift. The power came back, we got in our car and drove on another 100 miles to Beech. The cold side of the front brought some new snow and we had a pretty good day. Still, the day at Cataloochee will remain in memory forever.
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I've been past there many times but never bothered to stop. Now, with them becoming a major player in the first to open race, my curosity is aroused and a visit sometime soon is in order!
You could be the poster boy (girl?) for their marketing department. 
But seriously, they had been a distant third best resort in North Carolina but they have been catching up quickly with Beech and Sugar. They've been upgrading their snowmaking and I think they added a new lift and a couple of trails. I might have to try them out myself one day.
ps. It's almost 10am, the trail in the webcam looks good and they're still blowing. I wonder what it'll look like at 5pm after a day of above freezing temps and full sun.
small hill, big attitude - you really gotta love it. and every couple of years there are is big snow (+12") to open the meadows - twice last year. you
really have to see the pictures in this thread from skinc last year
Catalochee big mountain skiing with several pics like this one:
If you could have panned to the right you would have seen this 30 by 30 foot Rebel Flag waving proudly...like the one we fly down here near carolina beach Inlet! The south Just might have to rise again if you Yankees Can't get your act Together!
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small hill, big attitude - you really gotta love it. and every couple of years there are is big snow (+12") to open the meadows - twice last year. you really have to see the pictures in this thread from skinc last year
Catalochee big mountain skiing
with several pics like this one:
Beautiful.
Cool pic Mr. Makers..Where did you find a pic of 1st tracks that far south in Dixie land? I'm sure you know that the ski area blasting snow before the ground had a chance to freeze up was just a good chance to advertize!They got braggin rights & a few skiers actually had some early season fun...But it will melt real fast! Looks like we will be in a more zonal (mild)flow for the next 10 days..a posible good setup for T-Giving..Keep Fingers X-ed
I don't have official dates but they did the same thing last year (maybe not quite as early). Open for the weekend, close for a couple of weeks of warm weather, open up again.
It's all about some sort of bragging rights.
Did y'all see the article in Ski Magazine about the "duel" between A-Basin and Loveland every year? Apparently being first open gets national news, so the two ski areas duke it out. Plus, said one of them, it's a chance to show that the "little guy" can win a few of the battles in the ski business against the Intrawests, ASCs, etc.
Cataloochee is probably trying to do the east coast version of that. Does anyone remember that Killington used to routinely open in mid to late October? It ain't the change in weather that shut that tradition down. Skiing is more and more being defined by the mom and pop places around the country, while the resorts look at skiing as just one other activity in the bag.
Killington has seemed to get a little less aggressive each year since they got into the ASC family........
The strategy worked. I heard the weather channel did a special on them and they made some ski magazine/web page. I saw some pics, they had pretty good looking conditions (relatively speaking
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