When we stopped for gas at 7:30, Warren called Cat to see if they had made an update. I was inside paying, so I didn't hear their excitement, but their phone report had updated the snow total to 22"! To make things even better, they would still open at 8:30. Needlessly to say we were all very excited.
As we drove through Franklin, NC, we began to see a dusting of snow on the ground. The further North we got, the more it began to pile up. The roads were remarkably clear until we got to within 5-10 miles of Waynesville. While the roads were clear, I could still see carnage from the night before. Cars were all over the place in the ditches and some were just sitting in the middle of the road, surrounded by snow that the plows couldn't move off of it. The road became snow covered once we turned off the highway, but the Subaru handled it very well and once we got to the road up the mountain, it was absolutely clear all the way up. The dirt road had packed snow, but other than that it was fine. We arrived at around 9:30 to rockstar parking and almost no one on the slopes.
We strapped up as quickly as possible and slid down to the double. On the way we asked a patroller if the meadows were open. He said that because of the girl who was paralyzed there in '06, the insurance company will not let the meadows or roger's run be opened anymore. This is a sad day for the Cat and the end of an era of southeast bowl skiing. I only wish that I had been able to experience this.
Pics(What you really wanted after all
The road heading into Maggie Valley
Heading through Cataloochee Ranch
Ben at the merge after Alley Cat. Notice all the snow in the trees.
This is me coming off the hill next to Lower Omigosh. You could ski above every lift tower and if you hopped a little you could make it to the top where there was a really narrow little trail that went down and dropped off the top. One of the most fun things all day.
This is me coming down Rock Island, which was groomed, but still had a lot of nice soft snow to be found.
This is at the bottom of Upper Omigosh, which was not groomed and developed some really nice moguls throughout the day. Alley Cat was not groomed either and it had the best moguls.
On skiier's right of Short and Sweet/Turkey Trot, they have cleared the brush and thinned a big section of woods which has made a really nice glade that I skiied a lot throughout the day. In the morning it was deep powder and you just had to straight line it, but by the end of the day it had become nicely packed and you could make some great turns through it.
They also had some terrain features in the usual location on the green slope, a box, rail, and jump. It looks like they are now employing someone to keep it all nicely groomed, because there was a kid working on them all day. This is Warren coming off the end of the box.
All photos taken by Warren and Ben. I was having too much fun skiing to stop and take pictures
Yesterday was the best day I had ever skiied. The ski patrol was great and let us get away with a lot of crazy stuff throughout the day. We talked to one of the patrollers and he said that because of the weather none of the bus groups were able to come and that those that had come were very good skiiers and were skiing hard but well. They didn't do a single on-mountain rescue all day. When I was there on Thursday, I saw at least ten. There was never a lift line more than 20-30 seconds. And no trail ever was overwhelmingly crowded. Another great day at the Cat, not that I expected anything less
