Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:33 pm
Date: 12/20/09
Conditions: Powder
Got up this morning and left the house at 445am to get an early start. It started to snow outside Hendersonville and once into Asheville it was really coming down. This prompted me to head to Wolf instead of Cat due to the ease of climbing the mountain in my FWD car.
Outside Asheville the highway was a real mess, little to no plowing at near 7am. At the bottom of the mountain the road up to the lodge was really inpassible. I had to back down the road and waited under the overpass for about 45mins waiting for a plow. A guy stopped and let me know he had just followed a FWD car up to the top and I should be ok, so I headed on up.
The road was really bad, but mightily my little hatch climbed and dodged fallen trees all the way to the top. There were about 6 cars there by 8am, obviously people having a really difficult time making it up. I was the first chair (paying customer) and made fresh tracks on numerous runs for the first hour with little company.
Thankfully Wolf did little to no grooming on any of its runs allowing for shin deep powder on nearly every run. The conditions were absolutely bomber! My biggest gripe was the fact they had numerous guns blowing snow (still actually snowing all morning) making visibilty near zero at the summit unloading area and causing goggles to really freeze up quickly. Also making the areas around the guns crusty and icy, then POOF you were back in soft velvety powder again.
Powder Run was the best overall in my opinion (no guns at all) and soft fluffy powder and spots for fresh tracks for most of the morning. I must admit Wolf is one of my favorite places (when completely open and when conditions are good)...and today was didn't disappoint. If anyone was able to get out this weekend and enjoy these amazing powdery conditions, I believe this was the best storm to pass through here in a very long time.
Pics to follow...having some issues loading them right now.
Conditions: Powder
Got up this morning and left the house at 445am to get an early start. It started to snow outside Hendersonville and once into Asheville it was really coming down. This prompted me to head to Wolf instead of Cat due to the ease of climbing the mountain in my FWD car.
Outside Asheville the highway was a real mess, little to no plowing at near 7am. At the bottom of the mountain the road up to the lodge was really inpassible. I had to back down the road and waited under the overpass for about 45mins waiting for a plow. A guy stopped and let me know he had just followed a FWD car up to the top and I should be ok, so I headed on up.
The road was really bad, but mightily my little hatch climbed and dodged fallen trees all the way to the top. There were about 6 cars there by 8am, obviously people having a really difficult time making it up. I was the first chair (paying customer) and made fresh tracks on numerous runs for the first hour with little company.
Thankfully Wolf did little to no grooming on any of its runs allowing for shin deep powder on nearly every run. The conditions were absolutely bomber! My biggest gripe was the fact they had numerous guns blowing snow (still actually snowing all morning) making visibilty near zero at the summit unloading area and causing goggles to really freeze up quickly. Also making the areas around the guns crusty and icy, then POOF you were back in soft velvety powder again.
Powder Run was the best overall in my opinion (no guns at all) and soft fluffy powder and spots for fresh tracks for most of the morning. I must admit Wolf is one of my favorite places (when completely open and when conditions are good)...and today was didn't disappoint. If anyone was able to get out this weekend and enjoy these amazing powdery conditions, I believe this was the best storm to pass through here in a very long time.
Pics to follow...having some issues loading them right now.
