Fall Weather 2022

Ripitz · Nov 15, 2022

MarzNC said:
Sugar Mountain in NC opened up at 9:00 this morning with top-to-bottom coverage that was deeper than usual

FKNA. Score one for the little guys. It’s amazing how many ski areas there are down south. We’ve got all this firepower up north and this southern Belle steals the show.

MarzNC · Nov 15, 2022

Ripitz said:
FKNA. Score one for the little guys. It’s amazing how many ski areas there are down south. We’ve got all this firepower up north and this southern Belle steals the show.

On a per acre basis, my guess is that the southeastern ski areas have more snowmaking power than most mountains north of Albany. For example, Massanutten has about 75 acres and at least 300 snowguns, including quite a few tower mounted fan guns as well as several big portable fan guns bought in the last 5-6 years. All the trails have fixed snowguns of some type and many are now automated. That's how Massanutten has managed to not only stay in the ski business for 50 years, but had expanded terrain more than once as snowmaking technology improved.

Sugar has spent $20 million on new lifts and other major infrastructure projects in the last seven years. They have added a few trails too. Sugar is another southern ski resort that's been around over 50 years. What's amazing is that the same family has been running the place for almost the entire time.