Opening Day at Eaglecrest!

Today was opening day! It felt soooo so so so good to ride groomed runs and making lift laps. Although only a small section of the mountain was open, we still had a blast. We had training pretty much all day but it was good to brush up on some stuff and get some riding in with other instructors. There were two rails set up and it was dumping snow the whole time.We even did a little rail clinic to end the day. Hopefully the whole mountain will be open soon. Lots of snow is in the forecast, so if mother nature cooperates, we'll be getting more pow turns in again very soon!

Awesome first official day of the season!

This isn't relevant to opening day, but below is a video that we saw at the avalanche workshop we attended a few weeks ago. This morning I saw where my friend Lisa posted a link on Facebook and I was super excited to be able to watch it again since I didn't realize it was available online. It talks mainly about avalanche awareness and safety but also has many great shots of the terrain available at Eaglecrest! Even if you have no interest in anything to do with avalanches, watch it anyways to get a glimpse of what our season is going to be like :)

The Other Side of the Signs: Decision Making in the Eaglecrest Backcountry from Southeast AK Avalanche Center on Vimeo.

Opening Day @ Sugar

Saturday Sugar Mtn Resort opened up with one whole run, and guess who was there to shred it all day! :)

Here's a vid of the action.

RACE TO OPEN

Well Sugar Mountain Resort, Cataloochee Ski Area, and App Ski Mountain are all making snow... but who will be the first to really open? Cat has announced they are opening tomorrow at 8:30am... and Sugar will also be opening tomorrow as well, although they haven't stated a specific opening time yet. I'm sure at 8am tomorrow morning Sugar will announce they are open and win the 'race to open' bragging rights. Yeah, the resorts like to play dirty too. Haven't heard anything about App yet... I don't think they really plan on opening this weekend, just maybe work on building a base for their opening date next weekend.

Anyways, I'm freaking STOKED to get to ride tomorrow! I've been waiting for this day since our spring park melted in April!

I plan on taking the GoPro, so get ready for a video of our first day of the season! :)

HAPPY SHREDDING! <3

Epic Opening Weekend!

So this weekend was the best opening weekend ever for Beech Mountain Resort. Seriously. We opened to the top with great snow conditions, fresh pow, fast quad, cheap lift tickets, and lots of business! Mother nature just keeps dumping the snow on us... 16 inches and counting. This season is definitely going to be the most epic season ever, hopefully for everybody! Thanks to La Nina :)

I'm saving up for either a Flip or a GoPro so my buds and I can have some sweet shots this season. Video quality on the digital camera isn't cutting it, to my liking anyways.

For those shredding in NC, I hope all of you had as good of a weekend as I did!

Cataloochee first to open in NC

Cataloochee Ski Area took the cake this year opening 30 minutes before Sugar Mountain Resort. It's always a battle and it's fun to see who tries to out-do each other. Since Cat is so far away, we rode Sugar opening day, which was Saturday, and Sunday. Surprisingly their lift tickets were cheap... $20 half day, $25 full day. Not bad. Props to Sugar for that.

I got interviewed by a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal Sunday... click HERE to read the article.

Saturday the conditions were ok, especially to be early November. There were a few thin spots but overall the snow conditions were good, thanks to the literally 3o snow guns on the one run they had open that was blowing in my face all day :)

Sunday was much better. The sun came out which made visibility much better, even with all the guns on.

Going riding again today since it's supposed to be nice and warm.

Here's a few pics from our Sunday session.

sunny day and snowmaking at Sugar

Harper and Dustin

doing the kick but the camera man couldn't

seem to take the shot at the right time lol

Ski Beech Opening Day!

So I haven't had much time to update the blog lately, so here's how opening day went...

Ski Beech opened on Saturday, Dec 5th with 3 slopes: Lower Shawneehaw, Freestyle, and the Play Yard.

The weather was pretty crappy. Although it was snowing, it was really windy, and ALL the snow guns were on so it made it extremely difficult to see or hear anything other than the guns. It was also extremely foggy. Towards the end of the day, you could barely see your hand infront of your face. Snow conditions were ok... since there was a very thin base, they didn't groom, making it choppy and not very easy on the knees, but the natural snowfall left a couple inches of fluffiness on top to make it a little better :)

Even though the weather sucked, I was still very happy to finally get back on my board.

Teaching lessons in those conditions were pretty much impossible, but I had 2 that day.

Not a very good day to start things off, but at least things have finally started!!

Here are some photos of opening day:

Alex and I


myself on the lift


press to impress



So that pretty much sums up opening day!