AREA SKIING OPTIONS
Distances from downtown Chattanooga› Cloudmont Resort, Mentone, Ala.: 52 minutes away› Ober Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg, Tenn.: 2 hours and 50 minutes away› Cataloochee Ski Area, Maggie Valley, N.C.: 3 hours and 24 minutes away› Wolf Ridge Ski Resort, Mars Hill, N.C.: 3 hours and 55 minutes away› Sugar Mountain, Sugar Mountain, N.C.: 4 hours and 14 minutes away› Beech Mountain, Beech Mountain, N.C.: 4 hours and 18 minutes away
DID YOU KNOW
There is a documentary film on the Cloudmont Ski Resort called “Cloudmont.” The film, made by Tin Boat Productions, goes inside the operation of the southernmost ski slopes in the eastern U.S., in Mentone, Ala. The film will be shown at the Lookout Wild Film Festival Jan. 28-31 in Chattanooga.
The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway may be the closest thing the Scenic City has to a ski lift.
But there will still be hundreds of locals hitting snowy slopes this winter, even as the closest skiing destinations grapple with weather challenges.
Ober Gatlinburg in Sevier County, Tenn., opened to skiers Monday, nearly a month after its usual open date, and Cloudmont Ski Resort atop Lookout Mountain in Mentone, Ala., made snow for the first time Tuesday night.
"God has got to cooperate," said Steve Gilbert, owner of the Dodge City Ski Shop on East Brainerd Road. "All of the slopes around here have opened later than usual."
Gatlinburg and Mentone are the nearest day-trip skiing destinations, among several other Southern slopes like Beech Mountain Resort and Cataloochee Ski Resort in North Carolina that are weekend skiing destinations within a three- to five-hour drive.
Gilbert said he has had fewer customers than usual this winter because of the warm weather that has affected slopes in the region.
But he estimated that 45 percent of his business comes from skiers headed to destinations unaffected by the whims of southern winds.
Many local skiing enthusiasts maintain that, for both beginners and veterans, it is worth the price of a plane ticket to trek west and ski in the Rocky Mountains, where the hills are taller and the snow is deeper.
"Even if you've never skied before, the resorts out there, they have programs set up for people who are from Miami who have never even seen snow," said Ashley Ownby, president of the Chattanooga Ski Club.
The ski club dots the globe with organized ski trips every year. A club group is flying to Telluride, Colo., today for a week in the Rocky Mountains. In March, a ski club trip will head to Ireland and Austria for 12 days.
Members range from non-skiers, who just want friends to travel with, to competitive skiers. The group trips are cheaper than paying to go the same locations individually.
"It's a community, and I think that's why people stick with it," Ownby said.
The club has monthly meetings at Finley Stadium and there are between 250 and 300 members, Ownby said.
The Chattanooga Ski Club represents some of the most passionate among the 3,000-5,000 regular skiers that Gilbert estimates are within a 50-mile radius of Chattanooga.
Between the regulars and the one-timers, there is enough interest in the sport for the Dodge City Ski Shop to stay open September through April.
And to say that there is no skiing at all available in Chattanooga would be doing Gilbert a disservice.
He has a $30,000 skiing simulator in the front of his store that essentially functions like a skiing treadmill, allowing new skiers to get a feel for what the slopes are like.
"I had one lady ask how realistic it is," Gilbert said. "So I made it as realistic as possible. When her daughter came, I went to Sonic and got some crushed ice and threw some of it up there to make it realistic. We're all about a practical joke."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.