3 Days at Sugar 1 Day at Beech with Pictures

[jamsandwich]

TR: Beech January 5th 2009



This was my first time to Beech Mountain, the 19 dollar all day lift tickets were calling my name. My review of the slopes probably won't go into detail about the terrain, I barely saw it the whole time i was out there. The wind was gusting all day, I'm not sure how fast but it was whipping up the hills. The roads were decent, 4x4 blazer got me there without issue. I am a little disappointed that Beech decided to run snow guns even though only half the mountain was open.



The Oz Run did not open all day. The only picture I've got is with my cellphone in the car, 4 degrees, wind chill probably made it ... well, let's not go there.



We hit up downtown boone with my app buddies for a good time that night, salvaged the day.







TR: Sugar January 6th 2009



The weather began to clear up today, and the roads were totally clear coming from the Smoketree to Sugar. I hit up the twilight ticket due to the night in Boone and it was kinda crowded early but everything was open save the second lift that reaches the top. It was still pretty cool out so we ended up in the lodge a few times, but overall it was great. No snow guns on until the night session.



It wasn't icy too bad except on parts of the blacks, I skiied all three and they were in really good shape. Nightime was cold but way less crowded, some ice but still a good slope condition imo. I was glad that I passed the parking attendant on the way in because I found a great spot and I needed the short walk after riding all day.



















TR: Sugar January 7th 2009



It was amazing out on Thursday. Compared to the two previous days, it was perfect out. The wind had really died down, the visibility was up a ton, and the moutains were absolutely photogenic. We rode all day 9am-4:30pm and I made a ton of tracks. I fell on whoopdedoo and had a ski end up 100ft downhill, but it was so nice out I wasn't too bummed. Shook it off and barely spent any time inside/in the car.



The natural stuff was falling in flurries and they had a couple of snow guns on, but it was all avoidable and not right in your face like beech tuesday. If you could handle waiting in a 5 minute lift line, sugar was delivering very well that day.















Here's a pic of me (gray jacket):





And one of a random squirrel:







TR: Sugar January 8th 2009



Friday was cold, again, but entirely manageable. The clouds came and went all day, so some runs I made were blue sky and most were gray but we had fun. The slope conditions were probably the best that day, most of the ice was taken care of and they were working on the iciest parts - upper flying mile and sugar slalom - near the end of the day session. I didn't get as many pictures because of the wind and cold but it was a great way to end my mini vacation.















Here's some other pics I took:



View of Grandfather Mtn from SmokeTree Lodge:





Braving the Chili Cheese Lunch at Sugar:





Parking Lot at SmokeTree Lodge:





Overnight Snow Accumulation on Friday Morning:





And night skiing videos from sugar coming in a sec...

[Freeheel Tarheel]

killer pictures!

[sirtalkmuch]

Did they say why Oz Run was closed?

[skiatlanta]

^lift broke down. Dont expect it to be open for about 3 weeks.

[skipink]

Oz was open yesterday (Saturday).

[Ski Bunny]

Great TR and pics! Thanks!

[Superorb]

Nice pics, great TR.

[jamsandwich]

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