Ski Sapphire 1/02/11

[Bronco]

So with all of the crowds leaving after the BUSY holiday week, my son and I decided to hit the last place on our list for North Carolina Ski Areas for a few hours. Ski Sapphire in Sapphire Valley is really small, but extremely affordable and family friendly. For those skiers and snowboarders that are new to the sport, this really is the place to improve your skills on the slopes. To give an example, it would be the comparison between a full regulation golf course and a par 3 golf course. All of the fun without all of the hassles of a big ski area. They have a Large learning area with a fairly new Magic Carpet to transport you to the top of the run, which is completely seperate from the main run. There is the Frozen Falls Tubing area for those that don't want to or like to ski/snowboard. And the main run is roughly 1600 feet-long serviced by a quad chairlift. If I had to equate it to another run, I would compare it to about 3/4 length of Rabbit Hill/Easy way at Cataloochee, just not as wide.



My son and I arrived a little after 9:00, got dressed, and proceeded into the rental building to purchase our lift tickets. This is the only place I've heard of or encountered that requires you to fill out a form to purchase a lift ticket. We spent about 15 minutes inside in line(waiting for the cashier to come out from the back) to get our tickets and then it was time to get in line for the lift. I guess they were a bit tired because of all the holiday crowds. The few employees I talked to stated that Tuesday and Wednesday there was a 2-3 hour wait for lift tickets and rentals. They didn't start spinning the lifts until around 9:30 so we were able to grab 2nd chair, which my son thought was pretty cool. He's never encountered slopes with no tracks or very little tracks before and is now a fan of the corduroy. He learned what "First Tracks" are all about.



The snow was wet and extremely soft, what I would compare to late spring skiing. Overall, it was a lot better surface than I had anticipated considering the warm temps and rain the mountains had experienced the last couple of days. They roughly had a 20"-48" base with full side-to-side coverage. Down at the last quarter of the run, they had two small beginner-sized jumps that most people were enjoying quite frequently. It was fun until the first jump got bombed out(a crater was created) in the landing point and I ended up tweaking my knee. Decided we had gotten enough laps in, and my son finally got the hang of making big S-turns(Heel edge-Toe edge-Heel edge) on his snowboard and we called it a day.



It was a another great day on the slopes with my son and I'm looking forward to our next adventure! If your in the area, and you have a few hours, Ski Sapphire is a fun little hill to get your ski fix on.

Now, on to the pictures. Thanks for looking and Enjoy!



Ski Lodge and Community Center





Creek out in front of the Resort



Something smells good at the restaurant



Frozen Falls Tubing Area









Learning Area







Sequence of 3 pic's of the Learning Area



Learning Area's Magic Carpet



Ski School Building



Groomer........Check



Gearing up.......Check



Corduroy..........Check (Main run)



Let's get it on!!



Lift shots and 2nd Chair!!!





My son in Deep Thought



The two of us having fun!



From the Top and our first run





Soft snow and Bluebird skies!





A couple shots looking back up the hill

[Bronco]

Continued





The two jumps











My son about to drop in with some last minute speed checks





Me hitting the first jump



Teaching my son on park etiquette and proper placement



He's getting better on the jumps





A video down the run using Swampy's ghetto mount(in the goggle strap)(Not very good) with me and my son hitting the jump.



A leisurely stroll down the hill





Fin

[jamsandwich]

awesome! first tr of the year from sapphire. i might actually try it out now, just to say i did!

[Bronco]

It's good for a couple hours to mess around, but fun nonetheless. Part of why we did it as well was just say we've done it. That, and I never pass up a day on the snow with my son.

[jamsandwich]

i'm with you 100% i had a picture in my head of something much more scaled back. sapphire is included with the gold card but its a bit of a drive for me. that said, it's a goal of mine to hit all 6 in NC on a single weekend.

[Bronco]

And I thought I was ambitious for hitting Cat and Sugar on Opening day this year.

Btw, Thanks for the compliment. I'm just trying to follow your lead since your the Top Dog for the month.

[BaZinGa]

you inspire me

[bmwloco]

I am from Brevard, and Sapphire was the closest ski slope. School called off? We would pile into an old Buick Wildcat and race up the hill.



My first skiing experience was there; I was also a Jr. Ski Patroller in my teens and finally got my full fledged Ski Patrol ticket punched there. It was brutal hard, but I learned a lot.



No, it's not the biggest, but Sapphire is a good little hill.

[Superorb]

Bronco, is your son wearing mechanics gloves?

[Bronco]

@Superorb 232701 wrote:Bronco, is your son wearing mechanics gloves?



No, they are park/pipe gloves.