Image Credit: Beech Mountain Resort, Link to Image
When I tell people I take frequent day trips to go skiing in the South, many of them don’t even believe skiing is possible down in North Carolina. However, these mountains are home to me and the only reasonable access to skiing growing up. In fact, it acts as a first experience for many people in the South. It serves as a great source of income for Boone, NC and allows tourism to flourish in this area. With Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain merely 15 minutes away from each other, skiers can pick and choose freely which mountain to enjoy (or even both!). How can skiing even be possible at such a southern geographic? How can an area that only received 56.7’’ of snow this season have enough snow to ski on? These mountains sit on the Appalachian Mountains and boast the highest elevation mountains on the East Coast. Both mountains are equipped with high-tech snowmaking machines that are blowing snow every chance possible. This allows the ski resorts to have a relatively strong base even with streaks of unseasonably warm weather. This video will look into the history, the good, and the bad of Sugar and Beech Mountain.
Image Credit: Alex Grichenko, CC0 Public Domain, Link to Image
Special thanks to Skimap.org, Beech Mountain Resort, Derek DiLuzio, and r/Referee27 for allowing me to use their images in this project!
Bibliography
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