Live in Charlotte looking for the better expert experience and the least chance of getting into a collision...

oh yeah, I intend to go tomorrow.

Collision in a vehicle or into another skier?

B/w the two i'd vote for Beech (having skied both). But why not Sugar?

I have been told that sugar is extremely crowded and the lifts are slow making the lines that much longer

Lifts old and slow, yes. Crowded is unavoidable in January at any of the places you are considering.

WP is the better choice... much better mountain.

completely unbiased, right?

I guess i will just figure this one out based on the snow reports tomorrow.

Has nothing to do with Bias --

I don't make any extra $$$ if a customer shows up or not. That's my honest opinion.

Alright, if I go i will goto winterplace. How much snow are you guys expecting?

Sugar is the best mtn but the price is $59 for w-end adult day ticket.TOOOOOOO Much!! I would go to beech, its to far to winterplace from charlotte. You myswell go to Snowshoe if you go to WP.

Just got 4" yesterday -- all blowers were on the past 2 days... conditions are awesome. Just got done riding this morn myself... very nice.

Been to both, Beech is a better overall experience. If they have OZ Run open, which they should, forget about it. Beech hands down. Both are good and should be crowded. By the way, if you are looking to avoid crowds and a solid mountain. Go to Hawksnest. They are the most under rated MTN in the southeast when 100 percent open, IMHO. By the way, they are 100 percent open.

Went to Beech on Wednesday afternoon and night. Once again, it was a disappointing experience...the snow was chunky with slick icy spots. The line for the quad was huge before 4:30 and the snowblowers were miserable during the night. The lift line for the quad consisted of foot high sloping bumps of ice. I almost skiied into a 3 foot hole filled with water on top of Southern Star. Everything there is dingy, dirty and old. But for 17 dollars...I guess it was all right. I don't know if it really beats Winterplace but I would suggest Sugar. Went there last night and the conditions were great and its also not falling apart like Beech. Seems like they actually invest some of their revenues into capital improvements or at least basic maintenance, unlike Beech. Also, I didn't find the lift to be terribly slow, in fact I thought it was moving along nicely. My only complaint was that here and there were some serious death cookies. The 1200 foot vertical is really noticeable and is such a great improvement over the typical 600 ft of vertical elsewhere in NC. The night ticket and rental only set me back 34 dollars for 4 hrs, and I think it was worth it.

[This message has been edited by Kahuna613 (edited 01-09-2004).]

I'd go to Winterplace, Beech really has nothing in regards to terrain, heck Drop Off at WP is steeper than anything Beech has. That's normally where I will head if I have a day trip. If not there why not sugar, they have the only double diamond within 5 hours of CLT.

vehicles I can handle...its the skiers I am concerned about

I agree with Charlotte9er. I went to school at App State and skied almost exclusively at Hawksnest. It is mainly no frills place and the vertical is smaller. But most of the time the crowds are smaller and the trails are more fun than Sugar or Beech.

Bonus Point question: Do you know why Beech has a run called Oz?

I know the answer Roy but I'll leave it for someone else. I don't understand why Hawksnest doesn't get the pub but in someways that is a good thing. I guess it is small but not that small. Around 700 vertical drop and a decent number of trails. If someone put a little more money into that place it could be sweet. Never waited in a lift line over 5 minutes at the Hawk.

I got to chime in and agree on Hawksnest. My college race team trained at the Hawk and we loved it -- good pitch on the trails, enough vertical to be interesting and NO crowds. Lack of reputation probably due in part to the long-running hostility between resort ownership and Seven Devils town, which led to all sorts of hassles and inconveniences for guests. Didn't Hawksnest even try converting to a tubing-only resort a couple years back? That doesn't help the ski reputation. Anyway, for now its a great place for those who know about it.

Does Hawksnest have a website and where is it
located in NC? Never heard of it before.

yes...skihawk.com and I have to add that their lift tickets are very affordable
also, try skinc.com theyre a sort of clearinghouse for all of the ski areas of NC

"try skinc.com theyre a sort of clearinghouse for all of the ski areas of NC"

Not exactly. They promote all ski areas in NC except sugar. Sugar didn't want have an affiliaton to skinc.com. I haven't been to Beech yet, but its old lifts and everything else would be good for the price compared to sgar which DOES have the slowest lift(20 minutes to the top). For charging $53 a day sugar should bring in a lot of money, but do they use it for anything else but required maintenance...No.

The Southeastern Ski Areas Association has a web site at:

http://www.southeastski.com/

It provides links to all the southeast resorts, as well as a table of current conditions.

As best I can tell, skinc.com doesn't cover Sugar Mountain because Sugar Mountain won't pay for coverage. If you submit a trip report to skinc.com for Sugar Mountain, they refuse to run it because they're trying to "get back" at Sugar Mountain. This seems like a real disservice to their readers as Sugar Mountain is a popular NC resort, and it doesn't make skinc.com look like an unbiased source of information. I'm not real impressed by the self-promotional tone that skinc.com seems to have (tell us again how wonderful your site is, please?? We missed it the first thousand times..), but there can be good discussions about deep south resorts on the message forums there.

Yeah, I can see how they are a little self-absorbed, but just because they don't offer anything about Sugar doesn't mean their other information isn't helpful. I agree that the weekend day rate for Sugar is exorbitant. That's why I went on a weekday night and had a great time.

I agree with the thoughts on skinc.com. I was in Boone a couple of weeks ago and a buddy of mine kept looking at it for his info. I felt like I was watching bloomberg for skiing with all the ads and stuff that was forced upon you.

Hawksnest did go all tubing 2 years ago. In a fight with the Seven Devils police, the owner's of Hawksnest went to tubing to cut down on skier visits, thereby eliminating the money revenue for the police department that was writing speeding tickets. Of course, Hawksnest said it was losing business because of the police writing those tickets.

To get to Hawksnest, take Hwy 105 our of Boone toward Banner Elk. About halfway inbetween, you'll make a right on a road that is nothing but switchbacks. Seven Devils is a town on this road (consists of about 2 switchbacks).