Skiing’s Perfect World

By Tom McAuliffe

As the golf course greens crews pull out the flagsticks for the final time at the end of each October, the conversation duly turns to the upcoming winter and the ski season that drives the mountain economy for the next five months. Following a stellar autumn turn of the leaves a common question among visiting golfers during October’s waning days of Indian Summer is “why so soon?”

For the skiers and snowboarders of the High Country, the answer is simple. Come November winter is likely to arrive. The average opening day at Sugar Mountain Ski Resort over the past 20 years is November 15. The latest opening day at the south’s flagship resort over the last decade was November 21. Ten years ago, fueled by Hurricane Sandy’s two-foot snow dump, Sugar opened on Halloween sporting an average base of 40 inches of snow from the top of its Flying Mile. There was little reason to doubt that the 2022-2023 ski season kickoff would vary much from recent years.

As the November 8, 2022, midterm election results dragged into the November 11 Veterans’ Day celebrations, all eyes were on Sugar Mountain. And in spite of several days of torrential rains sending the creeks over their banks, the forecast for an early Arctic Clipper sent word from the top to get all hands on deck, as an armada of snowguns were poised to let loose as the rains were replaced by cold, dry air.

Beech Mountain, implementing a cutting edge All Weather Snow Making unit, had scheduled a Rail Jam event for Saturday, November 12. Even as inches of rain soaked the mountains, the new contraption continued to produce snow in 58-degree temperatures, maintaining a pile of the white stuff. And although the event was ultimately postponed, it certainly made a statement to anyone watching that skiing is serious business south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Sugar began snowmaking in earnest two days later, and the southern ski season officially opened November 14 from the top of the mountain’s 5,300-ft. peak. Favored with a week of cold temperatures, Beech and App Ski Mtn. opened to great fanfare four days later. It was, as they say, business as usual in the North Carolina High Country.

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In Search of the Competitive Edge

Who knew 15 years ago a young Ryan Costin would be handed the keys to the family business that is the Beech Mountain Resort, restoring eastern America’s highest ski town to the giddy heights not seen in half a century. “What we’ve accomplished is just a reflection of the North Carolina Ski Industry as a whole,” Costin said. “All the investment is the direct result of the success of southern skiing. It shows how much it means to skiers here.”

Of course, Costin is in fast company as neighboring resorts Appalachian Ski Mountain and Sugar Mountain Resort hold nothing back in refining their respective snowmaking capacities and dueling annual upgrades to lift operations. But from day one Costin jumped into the fray feet first and acquitted himself quite nicely.

His primary point of attack as he launched his twenty-year plan, (which began as his one-year plan), was to improve snowmaking and with it grooming. He had a ways to go to catch up with his uber aggressive counterparts, and along the way he revitalized the Bavarian Village that was the hallmark of the late Grover Robbin’s four-season vision. The ancient ice rink is gone, but in its place flagstone and firepits, a brewery, and an entertainment schedule that leads the league in hits and runs batted in. This season, the last of the original ski lifts from the late sixties was replaced with a fixed-grip Quad Chairlift joining the recent replacement of two summit lifts that has doubled skier capacity to the top of the mountain. The 5506 Bar, with a stunning panoramic view, sits atop the slopes, and for winter sports enthusiasts, or summertime mountain bikers, has proven an overwhelming success in Costin’s revitalization of the resort.

The strategy appealed to all ages, especially the younger set. This season the resort opens more terrain park features than ever before, offering a ground lift and increased snowmaking over the original tube run acreage, upping his game at the Meadows and re-dedicating Powder Bowl to the Big Air crowd, both areas serviced by the new fixed quad lift delivering riders to the top of Lower Shawneehaw.

Consistent with his youth movement, Costin, a Resort Management graduate of Western Colorado University, has teamed up with Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk implementing a new minor at the school housed in the

BEECH BEECH

redone ViewHaus, rechristened “The Lodge,” the resort’s primary food and beverage venue.

“I hope it builds a group of college graduates and cultivates opportunities to pursue a career in recreation,” Costin said. “They could stay here or go out into the world. They’ll see all the parts of the industry here and then explore year-round opportunities and not just seasonal work.”

For all the improvements which have served to elevate Beech Mountain in the eyes of consumers, it still boils down to the weather and snowmaking and Ryan Costin viewed that as “Job One” from day one. And it has paid off.

“We’ve seen consistent growth over the last three seasons,” Costin said, “and we’ve been able to handle it, but when the Robbins opened the resort no one could have foreseen cars parking all over the mountain to ski.”

Anticipating a return to normalcy after the crush of visitors during the peak of the pandemic, Costin added, “if you can find a parking space we’ll have a lift ticket for you.”

Not to mention, a destination resort that has resurrected the alpine spirit intended by its founders fifty years ago.

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APP SKI

The Quest for Perfection

It was the first ski area in the neighborhood, land-wise the smallest, and sometimes viewed by the unindoctrinated as something of an afterthought in a region which as a whole was often dismissed by western aficionados. Look hard enough, and you can find flaws or shortcomings in any enterprise, but Appalachian Ski Mountain may be the closest to perfection of any ski area in the world. Opened in 1962 by impresario Bill Thalheimer, a wideeyed southern population flocked to the novel winter attraction with bemusement and wonder. But in spite of Thalheimer’s best efforts the Blowing Rock Ski Lodge fell into receivership in 1968 and into the hands of Grady and Reba Moretz, who knew just enough to know ‘just how little they knew” about running a ski resort. They named local ski pioneer Jim Cottrell to handle instruction, an enterprise within an enterprise later known as the French-Swiss Ski College, and applied practical business sense to an impractical business model so dependent on the whim of the weather. Cottrell attracted the curious youth from dozens of colleges he convinced to provide Physical Education course credits for taking part in his “Learn to Ski” weekends. Grady ran the ship, and Reba, an elementary school educator, kept the ledger.

Grady’s gone now, and Reba retired, but the resort remains in the hands of the Moretz family. With the same attention to detail taught him by his father, Brad Moretz has taken innovation and snowmaking obsession to a new level. Daughter Brenda brings the same merchandising acumen learned from her mother in the ski and snowboard shop and gift store. Cottrell’s retired as well, with the iconic French-Swiss Ski College in the capable hands of French national Benjamin Marcellin.

AppSkiMtn. was late to the snowboard and terrain park party, but after Grady lifted the resort’s snowboarder prohibition in 1998, one of the last in North America to do so, Brad Moretz tabbed local rider Drew Stanley to move the mountain into the

next century. Stanley, who’s father Steve is the chief snowmaker there, was given carte blanche to manage terrain park development. A group of his peers were fabricating features while his dad piled on the snow. It created a new culture at the Blowing Rock resort.

Yet snowmaking prowess aside, where it is said the snowmaking complex can bury the tightly groomed terrain in three feet of snow in a 24-hour time frame, it’s the Flex Ticket offering that sets them apart.

On-line registration is not just recommended, but is required. The standard 8-hour ski session has gone the way of the dinosaur with the flex ticket. Your session begins when you hit the snow. To remove bottlenecks at peak arrival times, you can book your arrivals in five-minute intervals. On-line reservations’ kiosks are in the lodge as well. And this winter, Moretz and Company have taken innovation a step further. Radio Frequency Identification Cards (RFID) are the rule of the day.

Riders are issued a card at check-in that contains all their session time, rental specs, and terrain park certification results (on line exam required for Appalachian Terrain Park access). Tuck the card anywhere, in your boot, in your jacket, and the card is read as you prepare to load on the lift or in the terrain park. Gone is the manual ticket reader and with it the wire, sticky wicket and delays from the fun.

The program is one of six in North America, but the only one in the U.S. that integrates equipment rental data.

“We’re maximizing your time on the slopes,” Moretz said. “Like at the golf course you arrive at the appointed time. But if you need rentals, a snack, or to use the restroom, your session begins when you step on the snow. And that’s what we all want.”

Nothing’s perfect in this world, but sometimes we get close.

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SUGAR

Can You ‘Outdo’ Sugar Mountain?

That’s a question often up for debate in Avery and Watauga Counties. But even as AppSkiMtn and Beech continue to reach new heights each season, owner Gunther Jochl and his family-driven crew at Sugar Mountain hold a trump card or two. First is the mountain’s 1,200 ft of vertical drop over 125-acres of wildly diverse terrain. Second is the resort’s heralded “first to the guns” mentality and perhaps thirdly is the hands-on hard driving approach to each day’s slope conditions. For years Jochl has been on local radio early each morning during the ski season providing a first-hand account of the day ahead from the cabin of a Model 600 Pisten Bully grooming machine.

“You know, sometimes conditions are great and sometimes not so great,” Jochl noted in the past, “but we try to deliver the best conditions possible on any given day with what the weather gives us.”

After the pre-dawn grooming detail, Jochl, usually accompanied by his wife of 25 years, takes in a few runs for a first hand look. A former U.S. Women’s Alpine Ski Team member and the face and voice of the mountain, Kim Jochl, joined on occasion by her twin sister, two-time Olympian Krista, have shaped a winning culture in a region some once called unlikely for Alpine sports. “We share the same latitude on Sugar as the Sahara Desert,” Gunther once marveled. “But the way the weather forms up on the mountain, it will be cold.”

New this year on Sugar is a four-seat detachable chairlift at Oma’s Meadow, or Big Red as the run was called in another lifetime. Oma’s Run is popular with intermediate to expert riders and the site for NASTAR racing each weekend and the venue for Monday Night’s Racing League. The loading area has been widened for a smoother merge with skiers coming up from the base lodge on Big Birch connecting with Oma’s Run creating a fun run top to bottom. Big Birch’s old triple chair was replaced three years ago, outfitted with its own fixed grip Quad. The latest edition is the third detachable lift at Sugar since the six-seat Summit Express debuted in 2016. Ride time has been reduced from 9 minutes to just under three making the transfer from Big Birch to the top of Oma’s a winning combination. The terrain has been refined for better space for loading and ten new mobile snowmaking fan guns have been added to Oma’s Meadow. “What good does a new lift do you without adding more snowmaking, Jochl said “Convenience, safety and ease was our plan.”

Yards of dirt taken from the reconfiguration of Oma’s Meadow were carried to top of the mountain to cap the terrain of the intermediate North Ridge slope, the gateway to the Flying Mile, where erosion had exposed unwanted rocky terrain. Riders will feel the difference.

Two years ago, another detachable four-seater made its debut on Easy Street, arguably the best beginner/intermediate terrain in the neighborhood. A much needed grading project at the unloading station on Easy Street eliminated the infamous ‘Fannie Hill”, and resulted in a half-mile run embraced by skiers just moving up from the Sugar Bear Ski School, enhanced this season by a plexiglass tube-like cover the length of the 400 foot magic carpet conveyor.

Over the summer a major dredging project increased water supply for snowmaking and the massive equipment rental area improved its floorplan and added locker space. “It’s always out with the old and in with the new,” Jochl said of the revamped rental department that features Head skis and snowboards. All things considered it was a very productive summer.

While the completion of the new lift came three weeks later than hoped, the official grand opening celebration occurs December 10, during the annual Sugarfest Weekend. “We’ve had to work extra hard,” Jochl said of the summer expansion which experienced everything Murphy’s Law could through at him and his crew. “Everybody is tired, but everyone is in good spirits.”

That good spirit will play well for visitors to the mountain in the winter of 2023.

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