Do you love the slippery fun of sliding down a snowy steep slope on a pair of skis? Or a snowboard? Or how about trying out the jibs and jumps in a mountain terrain park? Sliding down a sleek sheet of snow and ice crystals on a snow tubing run? Well, grab your winter gear, fill up your gas tank, and head for the high ground in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains of North Carolina or Tennessee before it's too late! Winter in the Deep South, even on its mountaintops, isn't going to last much longer.
Several of the ski slopes closest to Atlanta offer exhilarating winter sports activities and also introduce some new improvements for this season that make them even better than ever. Here are three good bets, all less than five hours away. Check online for current conditions.
Peak elevation here is 5,506 feet, making it the highest ski area in Eastern America. The vertical rise is 830 feet. There are 16 trails (though weather dictates how many are open, of course) including three easy, seven more difficult, four black diamond and two freestyle slopes -- not to mention four restaurants, two sport shops, a full rental facility, and 5506', the very popular peak-top hangout featuring a 2,800-foot deck and a glass roundhouse with a bar. The view from up there, inside or outside, is breathtaking.
Beech Mountain Resort, located about five miles from Banner Elk, added a new snow tubing park a couple of years ago and revamped its terrain park last year. Other recent enhancements include the addition of five more high-tech SMI snow guns and of pumps and additional water storage capacity.
The very first time I ever tried snowboarding was at Beech Mountain a few years back. A very patient instructor with the Burton Learn to Ride Center there showed me and a handful of other snowboarding neophytes the basics of balancing on the board, doing toe and heel turns, and had us imagining ourselves "shreddin' the gnar" in no time.
Beech Mountain Resort, 1007 Beech Mountain Parkway, Beech Mountain, 800-438-2093, www.beechmountainresort.com
Another close-to-Atlanta North Carolina ski resort is Wolf Ridge Ski Resort in Mars Hill, about 20 miles north of Asheville. The site has 15 ski trails, a terrain park, four ski lifts and the Wolf Ridge Tube Run. Wolf Ridge's trail system has four easy trails, nine more difficult runs and two black diamonds.
Brand new this year, Wolf Ridge has begun offering very reasonably priced weekly drop-in race training classes taught by experienced racing coaches. The classes are offered on a specially created slalom-style course and are tailored to the skill level of the student. So if you're feeling a real need for speed, you can certainly satisfy it at Wolf Ridge.
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort, 578 Valley View Circle, Mars Hill, 800-817-4111, skiwolfridgenc.com
Ober Gatlinburg is the closest of these three to Atlanta, and it's also the resort with a 3,300-foot summit overlooking its namesake town in Tennessee and the surrounding gorgeous Smoky Mountain terrain. Ober Gatlinburg has 10 ski trails – two easy, six more difficult, two black diamond – with a 600-foot vertical drop, serviced by four ski lifts. There's also a terrain park and visitors can take the aerial tramway up to the slopes from the center of Gatlinburg.
Ober Gatlinburg has had some exciting additions recently. The Ski Mountain Coaster opened about a year and a half ago. A new Magic Carpet surface conveyor system with an overhead canopy has made it much easier to ride up the edge of the ski school slope. Ober Gatlinburg also installed new water pipes that substantially increased the water flow to its primary snowmaking equipment. Lastly, the snow park began offering 24-hour advance snow tubing ticket purchase, particularly good for holidays and weekends.
Ober Gatlinburg, 1339 Ski Mountain Road (or, for the aerial tramway – 1001 Parkway), Gatlinburg, 865-436-5423, obergatlinburg.com
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