Sugar Mountain: Google Earth

And now we get to our assessment of the largest ski resort in North Carolina, Sugar Mountain. What is interesting about Sugar Mountain that makes it stand out from the other resorts is the sheer length of the ski runs. One would have to travel to Snowshoe, WV to find a comparable ski run length. This is from the design of the resort, where instead of 10-12 separate trail, you have 3-5 trails with different sections and ratings. This can be (and will be shown below) a double edge sword for Sugar Mountain.

Advantages:

While Sugar boasts the longest continuous vertical and the longest runs in North Carolina, one inevitably has to go all the way down to the bottom of the mountain to board the lifts. Beginner skiers without question have the most favorable area for them across the Southeast. At no other resort across the Southeast (the closest would be Winterplace, WV) do beginners have a separate area isolated from the rest of the mountain. At all other resorts, intermediate and advance skiers heading down the mountain inevitably have to ski through the majority of the beginner slopes and the beginner terrain is just as much delegated to funnel skiers back to the main lifts as it is to give beginners a comfort zone. The most crowded slopes at any resort not named Snowshoe are at the base where skiers are slowing down and converge, both due to the increase of skier density and due to inevitable choke points from other ski runs merging with the main run. Snowshoe, with it's inverted setup and unusually large number of separate trails, does not see this to the extent of regular ski resorts.

Sugar Mountain has the main run carry the intermediate/advanced skiers to the base, but has a number of separate (and difficult to access from upper areas of the mountain) beginner ski runs, with its own lift. This is very wise. I have noticed a large number of collisions on beginner and lower intermediate trails from a wide gradient of speed between beginners and advanced skiers. Where you have a large gradient in skier speed you have accidents. Strudel and Orchard Run at Appalachian Ski Mountain have both the largest gradient of skier speed, and the largest number of ski accidents.

While I have never gone on the beginner ski lift at Sugar Mountain, it sits very close to the ground. Someone deserves a gold medal for designing a beginner lift that sits low to the ground. Often when I would teach skiers and take them on the chairlift for the first time, they would have a fear of the chair height.

Sugar Mountain also boasts a secondary peak in which intermediate skiers have their own terrain to ski on. The size of Big Red is enormous and eats up the skier traffic.

Disadvantages:

Sugar Mountain's double edge sword is with its layout. With a resort with such a great length but such a narrow horizontal width, you will inevitably have all of your skiers be funneled into a small area. And this is exactly what happens. If traversing from the top, there is no conceivable method of getting around the Flying Mile trail.  The yellow lift has a "loading" station about halfway up the mountain, which is nearly useless on even a semi-crowded day.  Big Red is underused as a trail; since it is difficult to access this trail from the top of the mountain, this trail doesn't quite see the traffic that it can handle. A big drawback are the lifts, mainly the two main lifts. The lifts aren't slow; for fixed grip lifts they are peaking at the skier capacity. Any faster and unprepared beginners will get swept off the lift, leading to it stopping. The length of the lifts, and how these two lifts run from bottom to top are the big drawback. Is it necessary to have THREE unloading points on a single lift?

Current ski traffic setup at Sugar Mountain

If Sugar Mountain required a skier to take two separate lifts instead of one, then intermediate/advance skiers can circulate on the upper half of the mountain and beginners/lower intermediate skiers can focus on the lower part of the mountain. Remember the problem of "long lift times?" Beech Mountain knows about it already; this is why they have a billboard advertising "Fastest lifts in the Southeast" right next to the Sugar Mountain entrance! So if we go for a two-lift design, make the lower lift a fixed grip quad and make the upper lift a....detachable quad! With minor cosmetic changes to some trails (slight widening of the middle part of Flying Mile, a more useful connector to Big Red from Flying Mile, a *possible* advanced intermediate trail next to Tom Terrific, we suddenly have a Sugar Mountain with a very efficient traffic flow.

Two separate lift design

And the final version of the mountain: red lines = fixed grip lifts, pink lines = detachable quad lifts, purple polygons = new terrain.

Meteorological Assessment:

Sitting at a base elevation of 4000' and a peak elevation just under 5200', Sugar Mountain's elevation  passes my GIS test of both being on a peak above 5000' and having a resort base above 3500'. The peak elevation minimum of 5000' ensures that there is sufficient orographic uplift for a Northwest Flow Snowfall. Now, this peak elevation is not an essential. Poga Mountain barely tops out at 4300' yet still racks in heavy upslope snowfall. A big part of this is having nearby peaks that are above 5000' (Snake Mountain, Roan Mountain, Sugar Mountain, Beech Mountain). 

Since orographic snowfall can constitute up to 50% of a season's snow content, every tangible factor which increases this snowfall total is critical. Since Sugar Mountain is *near* the western periphery of the Appalachian Mountains, the moisture content is mostly undiluted and thus maximizes in orographic snowfall. Areas east of here receive far less snowfall, with Deep Gap (just 20 miles away) receives far less snow from an upslope flow. This is because upslope events have little moisture to work with and with this being a stable air mass, vertical uplift is unlikely to occur past the initial windward slopes. For a perspective, there is often a capping inversion between the 725mb and 750mb levels. Above this layer the relative humidity sharply decreases. That is shallow my friends. And that's during peak conditions. I have seen a moisture layer as shallow as the 850mb level (4700') that STILL produced measurable snow. Northwest Flow Snowfall however does not have a very high liquid to water content, so this snow compacts and melts faster than a southerly tracking system. We have had Northwest Flow Snow events range from a 10:1 snow ratio to an outrageous 70:1 ratio (70" of snow to 1" of rain water). I can sweep that off my deck!

With a low density like that, this snow type is likely to have snow drifts associated with it if there is any significant wind. This is a disadvantage for Beech Mountain, as some of the snow is simply blown off the slopes. This disadvantage is somewhat negated at Sugar Mountain due to the slopes facing northeast. Instead, the snow is maintained because of the wind blowing perpendicular to the slopes.
 
Sugar Mountain has does not quite have the weather advantages as Beech Mountain but is still in a very favorable location. Higher elevation = cooler and enhanced Northwest Flow Snowfall = more snow. The enhanced sun exposure on Sugar Mountain (due to the runs either facing northeast or east-northeast) is a downside, even though the runs are sheltered from the wind. These runs will have more sun exposure and will melt more snow on warmer days. In fact, only the Big Red run faces north. Perhaps an advantage to the northeast slopes is that since the sun is hitting these slopes much earlier in the day, then it may reduce the chance of icy slopes.  Unless you are a ski racer, one will appreciate softer snow more than bulletproof ice any day.