Cold weather is forecast for this week, with nighttime temperatures forecast to drop below freezing at the higher elevations. This will allow the ski resorts to pump out tons of additional man-made snow each night, so skiers and snowboarders can anticipate great conditions through this weekend. If you have been hoping to hit the slopes one last time before the end of this ski and snowboard season, you still have great snow conditions on which to do so.

With the colder temperatures, Ski Beech and Sugar Mountain are both reporting manmade powder and up to five inches of natural powder snow. With the new snowfall, Sugar Mountain is currently reporting 36 - 75 inches of snow, with 20 trails and 8 lifts open. Appalachian Ski Mountain is reporting 49 - 134 inch base, with all lifts and slopes open.

Sugar Mountain Resort is a full service ski area, offering a terrific ski school for beginners or those who want to improve their skiing or snowboarding ability. Children as young as 5 years can participate in the program, and rates for the ski school range from $17 (for skiers or boarders 8 years and up) for group lessons, $42 for a private one-hour ski or board lesson, and $70 to $120 for all-day (10AM-3PM) ski school for children. Registration is required at the Ski School for all programs. Additional information is also available online at www.skisugar.com.

Ski Beech also offers a great ski school, and has several interesting mid-week promotional packages. One-hour group lessons are $17 each; one-hour private lessons are $42 each. Kids under 4 always ski free at Ski Beech, as does anyone over 70 (rentals are not included for kids or seniors, however!). For additional information online, check out www.skibeech.com.

Full day lift tickets at Sugar Mountain are $35 Monday � Friday, $53 on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Full day lift tickets at Ski Beech are $28 Monday � Friday, $48 on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Both of these resorts also offer night skiing.

For those who don't care to go flying down a mountainside on skis or a snowboard, most area resorts now have tubing facilities available (see third photo above). The tubing facilities include lifts for getting back up the slopes, tube rentals and long tubing runs, complete with bumps if you care to get a little "air" on the way down the tubing run. Sugar Mountain's tubing park offers 700-foot long tubing runs serviced by 2 lifts, snowmaking and lights for night tubing.

If tubing, skiing and snowboarding don't meet your fancy, perhaps ice skating might tempt you to bear the cold elements. Ski Beech and Appalachian Ski Mountain both have ice skating rinks (see photo below). Ice skate rentals are available, and both rinks are located at the foot of the ski slopes, so you can watch the skiers and snow boarders coming down the slopes while you are skating.

Below, please find a listing of the area's ski resorts:

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