Ski Southeast Messageboard

I'm thinking about driving up to WG from Chapel Hill (3.25 hrs) for a day of ski and/or ride on Sunday 1/10. Can someone tell me honestly what conditions are like, especially in the highlands? I'm not really interested in doing the drive unless the conditions warrant it.



I was there 1/1/10 - through 1/3/10 and it was iceeeeyyy. It was really bad on 1/1 but got better by 1/3/10 because of the snow making in cold temps. However, the high winds blew the new snow around quite a bit so there were still a lot of ice patches. In some cases, like at the bottom of Tyro - after the blowers in the middle of the trail, it was just a long sheet of ice in to the lift.



I'm hoping that because temps haven't gotten above freezing for a week that they've been able to cover the mountain in snow and that the conditions are fantastic. All reports would be greatly appreciated. I'll be checking for comments up until Saturday evening on 1/9/10 and using the feedback to drive my decision on whether or not it's worth the trip.



-- Brent

Not at WTG, but at Mnut, which has similar weather. Only a trace of snow last night. The roads were fine.



Tonight the slopes were what I think is could be called hard pack. Some packed powder in spots. I could hear my edges a lot but not exactly icy. Mnut chose to stop snowmaking while the slopes were open. Started blowing on a number of runs as soon as the lifts shut down for the night.



I would not expect "fantastic" conditions at WTG this weekend.

I skied there on Thursday 1/7 and thought the conditions were good, but not great. No complaints out of me. Upper Cliffhanger was as good as I've seen it. Lower Cliffhanger and the bottom of Devils Elbow had some ice patches. I don't remember much ice on Outer Limits and almost none on Wild Turkey. The Turkey Chute wasn't very good - hardpack.



Lower Tyro was great so they must have fixed that. Big Acorn and Sunrise were good. The snow was soft enough at the top of Sunrise there was a couple of moguls on the left.



They were making snow on Eagle Swoope and at the bottom of Sunrise in the evening.



It was good enough that I wore myself out and thinking of going back on Sunday, but it's only 1 hr 45 mins for me.



This was Upper Cliffhanger:

The conditions in the Highlands definitely degraded since Thursday. Upper Cliffhanger didn't have much man made powder and some icy patches. The bottom of the Outer Limits and Lower Cliffhanger were scraped off too. Wild Turkey stayed pretty good.



Oh, and the parking was disappointing.

Mnut was great. Packed powder all around. DJ closed until 1pm for a junior race, but lapping ParaDice was more than enough fun for me. The public parking lots never got more than half full.