Ski Southeast Messageboard

The day started at 6am when my friends Ben and Warren and I woke up to see what had happened at the Cat over night. We flipped on the computer to see beautiful powder on the webcam and 12" on the ski report. Unfortunately, the ski report said they were going to wait until 7:30 to decide if they would open on time. We decided to hit the road, only hoping that they would open.



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

I'll add a few pix to this thread instead of starting a new one...



We made it to Cat about 9:30 Saturday morning. We were delayed because the power went out just as we were about to leave and I took time to build a fire so the wife and critters could stay warm while we were gone.



4WD or at least high clearance was required on the state road near my house:





US 19/23 through Clyde:





Fie Top Road was in great shape (this was taken on the way down, but it was the same when we went up):





The Meadows looking nice but with a few taller weeds poking through and not open:





Looking up Upper O:





From the top:





Upper O from the chair:







Looking down Rock Island:





One more shot up Upper O from the Rock Island merge:





I learned that neither my staminia nor my technique are ideally suited to powder skiing but we had a great time. The snow was getting pushed into some pretty big and heavy piles by the time we quit at mid-day.



dj

Jealous of you both....shame the meadows wasnt open

I know this is a little late, but kudos to both of you for such a good TR. Gave me a fairly good idea of what I missed out on last weekend at the Cat. Going up there tomorrow (Tues) from ATL and hope some of the "packed powder/groomed powder" conditions can still be enjoyed. From what I saw on the webcam today, looks like crowds and lines will be there.

The roads have been cleared, so the bus groups and families will be rolling up in full force. Hopefully, there will still be some mogul fun on upper o and alley cat for your enjoyment and maybe some tree skiing will still have enough snow.

We skied night session last night. I was far different conditions than Saturday morning! Temps must have warmed enough yesterday for just a little melting because it froze up solid after the sun went down. Not icey really, just very firm hard pack that made for fast skiing. There was still an inch or two of loose stuff on the edges. Only a couple of icy spots where traffic had worn things down - Lower O / Easy Way merge was the most noticable . Upper O and Alley Cat were both bumped up pretty good and the bumps were very firm. Not my favorite kind of skiing because I have to slow down and work on technique, but Rock Island was smooth and fast. Looked like most folks were staying on Snowbird. No crowd AT ALLL. We skied right on the lift every time. Great night. No pictures 'cause I forgot the camera at home.

What a day for me to forget my digital. I went into the ski shop and bought a disposable and it shows in quality or lack of.

Those pictures are pretty decent. Interesting to see how the Cat looked last Friday vs. today (Tues 12-22). Just got back from a day trip from ATL for twilight skiing. Beautiful blue skies and sunshine (my favorite kind of skiing weather). Fairly decent amount of loose powder and minimal ice on most of the slopes (good for my nephew, this is only his 4th or 5th time skiing).



Most important, the crowds were not as bad as I feared. During busiest part of the afternoon, we waited 5-10 mins. for the double and 2-3 mins. for the quad. The Easy Way triple chairlift had the worst lines.

Cat has so many beginners that the triple is usually the worst line. That's the way it was on Saturday.