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Height of adventure
With no slopes to call our own, South Carolinians turn to the hills and mountains of Western North Carolina when it’s time to ski, snowboard or snow-tube. With an elevation of 5,506 feet, Beech Mountain enjoys an average snowfall of 90 inches a year and status as a top regional ski destination. Other popular ski towns, resorts and tubing hills are also high enough that they can reliably make artificial snow throughout the November-to-March ski season.
Courtesy of Beech Mountain Tourism
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Family adventure
Like many South Carolinians, York Electric Cooperative members John Matherly (left), daughter Lauren (center) and wife Wendy are regular ski-season visitors to Beech Mountain. Lauren was a member of the Beech Mountain Resort race team for 13 years.
Photo courtesy of John Matherly
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On a slippery slope
Snow-tubing offers fun for the whole family and an exciting way to spend a winter day.
Photo courtesy of Watauga County-Boone Tourism Development Authority
Every winter weekend, John Matherly sets out from his Fort Mill home for his own personal nirvana.
He’s found it less than three hours away, a scenic drive on winding mountain roads in western North Carolina. His love for Beech Mountain, he says, is akin to an addiction.
“Beech is my escape from reality,” Matherly says.
For South Carolina residents like Matherly who love winter sports, western North Carolina offers something unique: a chance to ski, snowboard and snow tube relatively close to home. Matherly, a York Electric Cooperative member, bought a vacation home in Beech Mountain in 2000, mostly for a cool respite from the summer heat. But, after a couple of winter weekends, he was hooked.
“I can’t stay off the slopes,” he says, laughing. His daughter was only a year old, but almost as soon as she could walk, Lauren was on skis. She was a member of the Beech Mountain Resort’s race team for 13 years, which brought the family to the mountain every winter weekend.
Ski season in western North Carolina typically runs from the third week in November to late March. A handful of resorts are a short drive from the Upstate—quicker and less expensive than flying out to Colorado or Utah.
The easy accessibility brings Jake Mendenhall and his family to Beech Mountain from Greenville several times a year. Mendenhall stands by his black Yukon as his sons Bode and Everett clamber out of the vehicle, giggling and excited, clutching orange sleds. It’s Bode’s birthday, and he’s starting the first day of his fifth year with a few trips down the Sledding Hill.
Mendenhall has been coming to Beech Mountain and other resorts in the area since he was a kid. He couldn’t wait, he says, to introduce his sons to skiing. Even at 5 and 4, the boys are comfortable on skis. A ski trip was Bode’s first choice for a birthday event. After a little fun on sleds, the Mendenhalls are headed for a day on the slopes.
The Sledding Hill is right on the main drag in Beech Mountain, just beside the Visitors Center. Open from early December to late March, the hill is something of a gathering place for youngsters 12 and under. Music blares from loudspeakers, competing with squeals and screams from the kids as they sail down the hill on plastic sleds. Parents line the fence surrounding the sledding area, waving and shooting video.
Beech enjoys an average snowfall of 90 inches. Elevation makes the difference. At 5,506 feet, Beech Mountain is the highest-elevation town east of the Rocky Mountains. But when nature doesn’t cooperate, the snow gun springs into action at the Sledding Hill and on the slopes at the resort, so there’s always plenty of powder.
Beech Mountain tourism director Kate Gavenus can look out her office window and watch the sledding action.
“The Sledding Hill is the gate-way drug to Beech Mountain,” she says, adding that, for many families, like the Mendenhalls, a trip down the snowy hill is the first stop in town. The tourism center—and its bathrooms—are open 24 hours a day, which is helpful to those young sledders.
Often, after some energetic sledding, families end up across the parkway at Famous Brick Oven Pizzeria, a Beech Mountain staple for more than 25 years and a hub of town activity. In addition to pizza, a full bar and fresh-baked cookies, the restaurant offers a Cinema Under the Stars outdoor movie on Saturday nights.
But for most visitors to Beech Mountain, life revolves around the 95-acre ski resort. With a choice of trails—the resort labels them “easiest” (three trails), “more difficult” (seven trails) and “most difficult” (four trails)—there’s opportunity for every level of skier. Rounding out the choices is the Park, where skiers can jib and do other tricks that aren’t allowed on alpine trails. Beech also has an outdoor ice-skating rink in the middle of its Alpine Village and a snow-tubing area, which is popular with all ages. Even on a winter weekday, the parking lot fills up early and there’s a line for snow tubing.
Activity stretches into the night at Beech Mountain Resort, with night skiing attracting many to the slopes. The trails are brightly lit, so much that you can easily see them from the parkway that cuts through the middle of town. On Friday and Saturday nights, Beech is packed with skiers on the trails. Afterward, many of them gravitate to the Beech Mountain Brewery, the resort’s onsite craft brewery.
At the top of the mountain, Beech boasts 5506', which they claim is the highest indoor/outdoor sky bar and restaurant east of the Mississippi. Accessible only by chair lift, 5506' provides spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and, perhaps as important to a tired skier, heated bathrooms.
Wendy Snider, who lived in Beaufort for eight years before moving to the Beech Mountain area, is a ski instructor who has whizzed down the slopes all over the country. Skiers who eschew the resorts in North Carolina for resorts out West are missing something special, she says.
“If you can ski in the Southeast, you can ski anywhere,” Snider says, as she relaxes over a glass of wine at nearby Banner Elk Winery. “We have all conditions right here. Sometimes the slopes are like mashed potatoes—soft and lumpy. And other times, it’s just smooth powder. I always say, don’t go out West without getting your ski legs here.”
Like other western North Carolina ski towns, Beech Mountain sees its population nearly quadruple during ski season, as winter-sports enthusiasts from neighboring states head north for the terrain and climate they just can’t find at home, says Talia Freeman, Beech Mountain Resort’s director of marketing.
“Check the license plates in the parking lot,” she says. “You see a lot from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.”
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Fun in the snow
North Carolina’s ski season typically runs from late November to late March. Contact individual resorts for specific opening and closing dates and the latest snow reports.
Appalachian Ski Mtn.
940 Ski Mountain Road, Blowing Rock
(828) 295-7828 | appskimtn.com
The operation offers skiing and snowboarding on 12 trails and three terrain parks.
Beech Mountain Resort
1007 Beech Mountain Parkway, Beech Mountain
(800) 438-2093 | beechmountainresort.com
With 17 trails, the resort offers skiing, snowboarding, night skiing, snow tubing, ice skating and a terrain park. There is a 42-inch height requirement for tubing, but no age or weight requirement.
Black Bear Snow Tubing
373 Kerr Road, Hendersonville
(828) 685-1155 | blackbearsnowtubing.com
Offers rides for ages 4 and up. Tubes have a 300-pound weight limit.
Cataloochee Ski Area
1080 Ski Lodge Road, Maggie Valley
(828) 926-0285 | cataloochee.com
Offers 18 trails, skiing, night skiing and one terrain park. Cataloochee also runs Tube World, located at 4821 Soco Road, Maggie Valley, about four miles from the resort. There is a 42-inch height requirement for tubing, but no age or weight requirement.
Hawksnest Snow Tubing Resort
2058 Skyland Drive, Seven Devils
(828) 963-6561 | hawksnesttubing.com
Offers 30 snow-tubing and zip-lining runs. For snow tubing, children must be 3 years old with a maximum weight of 300 pounds. Ages 5 and up for zip-lining with a maximum weight of 250 pounds.
Moonshine Mountain
5865 Willow Road, Hendersonville
(828) 696-0333 | moonshinemountain.com
Snow tubing only. The 500-foot run at Moonshine Mountain allows tubers to link together to form “trains” for a faster run to the bottom. Riders must meet a 36-inch height requirement and 300-pound weight limit.
Sapphire Valley Ski Resort
U.S. 64, Sapphire
(828) 743-7663 | skisapphirevalley.com
Offers two trails for skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing. No age, weight or height requirements.
Scaly Mountain Outdoor Center
7420 Dillard Road, Scaly Mountain
(828) 526-3737 | scalymountain.com
Offers snow tubing and ice skating in winter and “summer tubing” in the warmer months. Must be 4 years old and at least 42 inches tall for tubing. Younger kids can ride on a kiddie slope.
Sugar Mountain Ski Resort
1009 Sugar Mountain Drive, Sugar Mountain
(828) 898-4521 | skisugar.com
Offers 21 trails. Skiing, snowboarding, night skiing, snowshoe trails, snow tubing and a terrain park. Guests must be at least 3 years old for tubing; no height or weight requirement.
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort
578 Valley View Circle, Mars Hill
(800) 817-4111 | skiwolfridgenc.com
Offers 15 trails for skiing and night skiing, plus a terrain park