We're making lots of snow, lots of it," Sugar Mountain Ski Resort in North Carolina boasted on Sunday, after a storm delivered 8-10 inches of natural snow to the slopes over the weekend.
The bounty of the early snowstorm, paired with ideal temperatures for snowmaking, afforded the resort a head-start into the 2014-2015 winter season, beating the opening days of many competitors farther north.
Sugar Mountain officially opened on Nov. 2, the second earliest opening on record, just behind the Oct. 31 record set two years ago.
"It's exciting to get the winter season started early," Owner and President Gunther Jochl said.
The storm delivered more than a foot of snow to parts of the southern Appalachians, setting a new date for the earliest snowfall in recorded history for Columbia, South Carolina.