I drove over the top of the Knob (past the BK ski lodge) about an hour ago and the place was completely deserted! When I returned home, I called BK's ski report and they said that, due to the thunder storms and high winds, the ski area was closed today. NONE of this makes any sense! First of all, there are (and were) NO high winds; in fact there's hardly a breeze. Second, one thunder storm passed through LAST NIGHT. And, by about 1:00 AM the thunder had stopped and the area received only about 1/3 of and inch of rain. So, the reasons given for the closure don't hold water (no pun intended). I believe that perhaps the REAL reason for the closure is that large ditches and gaps might have washed across some of the ski slopes, particularly near the bottom of the mountain. Because many ski slope areas have no grass with water-bars to channel the melt-off away, erosion continues to take place. When I hiked some of the lower ski slope areas last Fall, I noticed lots of eroded areas that I figured would cause major problems in maintaining the snow base during late season.

Yep, it sure could be that BK is getting their comeuppance today for all their environmentally destructive, irresponsible, dolphin and puppy - killing land management practices.


Or, it could just be economics. Midweek days in March aren't usually profitable for ski areas in the mid-Atlantic, unless it snowed the night before. Maybe they just found an excuse to save some $$$.

Don't think so! BK WAS scheduled to be OPEN today! It's better for business to maintain credibility than save a few dollars. Furthermore, yesterday BK was running just one chairlift with a skeleton crew, so it can't cost very much to stay open. If BK had wanted to save some money they would have reported in advance that they weren't going to be open today, so your theory (as to why they're closed) is just plan wrong.

I think one thing that most of us can agree on is that given the fluctuating weather here in the MidA, local slope designers really need to think about things like runoff and erosion. Even in the absence of any longer term environmental concerns it just seems to make sense to do those few simple things up front that would help maintain base in the face of warm weather.

Here we go again...

It must be Global Warming?????

OH MY GOSH A SKI RESORT IN THE MID ATLANTIC CLOSED IN MARCH!!!!!!

And once again we see why newspapers are falling by the wayside. Did you find such earth shattering news on the front page of the New York Times? No, of course not. It was broken to the world- with approximately 800,000 exclamation points- by way of a ski website online. Another victory for the blogosphere.

But hey, get this, I have even bigger news than a ski resort in the Mid-Atlantic closing in March:

THE TULIPS ARE COMING UP IN MY YARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See my news has even more exclamation points so clearly it is even more amazing. Probably this whole thread will get linked to the Drudge Report soon.

It's hard to handle this much shock. If someone says there's college kids wearing bathing suits in Florida right now, I might grow dizzy and faint.

What a LAME cheap-shot in response to a legitimate news item.

They are scheduled to reopen on the weekend. Its pretty typical for ski areas to close during exceptionally warm spring week days. They are trying to conserve the snow for the weekend and save some operating expenses. I plan on skiing blueknob again in march (spring bumps on extrovert) so I will certainly take a few more pictures to see if the news of erosion is true.

But, it's NOT the least bit warm at BK today and the closure was not planned in advance.