Ski slopes having a good year

Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock.

Ski slope operators say the winter has been a blessing, with plenty of snow and cold temperatures.

North Carolina's ski slopes are benefitting from this winter weather.

By Tim Bullard

Special to the Salisbury Post

BLOWING ROCK — This ski season has been a very good one, according to one North Carolina ski resort owner.

Grady Moretz, owner of Appalachian Ski Mountain, is ready for the business and said it has taken many years of building to get to the point the resort can handle the load.

"We are having a good year, an unusual year due to this ice storm that came in," he said.

The storm damaged trees and knocked out power for a few days, Moretz said.

"But we are surviving. We just have to move on. We are having good turnout, good crowds and reservations with people coming to ski."

The company opened in 1962 as Blowing Rock Ski Lodge, which eventually went into bankruptcy, he said — not an uncommon occurrence for the state's early ski slopes. The Moretz family kept pushing to make the company successful. They renamed it Appalachian Ski Mountain.

"It took a long time to build the equipment up to where it needs to be," Moretz said. "We're there now. Last year when we closed, at the top of the mountain we had 12 feet of snow. That's hard to believe, isn't it? You could barely get off the chairlift. It didn't happen overnight. It took the ski industry a long time to develop enough equipment to do that, to get enough water."

Appalachian Ski Mountain has three, 400-horsepower pumps.

"That kind of equipment will make a lot of snow if it gets cold enough," he said. "That's the if. If it gets cold enough. Now it's been getting cold enough. So we've been successful in building the snow. We've got a big base buildup now and a lot of people coming."

The French-Swiss Ski College started many years ago, teaching young skiers and old to learn the sport.

Call toll-free at 800-322-2373 for more information or visit www.appskimtn.com.

What about the forecasts before a big storm?

"When they go on these wild forecasts, that hurts us, too," Moretz said, "especially when it doesn't happen.

"The worse thing is to be an ice storm. Snow we can handle. It's on the timber and the streets. It makes driving hazardous and dangerous, bad. The road here is scraped and salted and sanded. The state spends a lot of money maintaining the road. They do a good job of it."

Snowboarding is the next big thing for younger skiers. The popularity of the extreme sports was evident in the Winter X Games held last weekend. Appalachian Ski issues helmets to snowboarders.

One thing new at Appalachian Ski Mountain is the Terrain Park. "You jump up on the rail and ride it down to the end and jump off," said Moretz. "That's gotten to be big, real big. We've got three parks now. Each one of them has a box where they can do different things."

The ski industry brought $120 million to the state in total economic impact in 2002-03, according to two Appalachian State University professors who surveyed skiers at five of the state's seven resorts.

The season typically runs 100 days from Thanksgiving to mid-March. The year of the survey there were 544,219 skier visits with the resorts employing 1,759 employees, 800 being part-time. Each skier, the professors gauged, spent an average of $124.48 with 94.3 percent spent within 25 miles of the ski resort.

Lodging was reported at 21 percent, restaurants at 11 percent and 35 percent as spending at the ski resorts. The survey was prepared for the N.C. Ski Areas Association.

The seven ski areas included were Appalachian Ski Mountain, Ski Beech, Sapphire Valley Ski Area, Hawk's Nest Golf & Ski Area at Seven Devils, Wolf Laurel, Sugar Mountain Resort and the Cataloochee Ski area in Maggie Valley.

Sugar Mountain is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and the other resorts plan special discounts for tourists. For more information go to www.goskinc.com.